| Over the last two decades, the discussion carried on in FLT (Foreign Language Teaching) has been concentrated on the dichotomy between grammatical competence vs. communicative competence. However, as the communicative approach in FLT is increasingly gaining popularity and researches on language and culture have been done pervasively, more and more researchers and scholars begin to concern themselves with learners' ICC (Intercultural Communicative Competence) rather than the two mentioned above. Even American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language has added the socio-cultural competence to communicative competence. To sum up, the development of the learners' ICC has become the ultimate goal of FLT.However, for a long time in China, the grammar-oriented perspective has led to the emphasis on the learners' grammatical competence, which results in the inefficiency of FLT in China. On the other hand, even though it is now commonly accepted that language teaching should focus not only on the forms of language, but also on its social rules and pragmatic rules, the fact is, however, in the process of FLT, little emphasis has been placed on the development of learners' intercultural awareness and ICC. As a result, although the students have received several years of formal English education, and have good grades in school, they frequently remain deficient in the ability to actually use English, and to understand its appropriate use in normal intercultural communication. In most cases, misunderstandings caused by cultural differences have involved them frequently in intercultural miscommunication. Since the goal of FLT is to enable learners to communicate appropriately and effectively in the target language, improving learners' intercultural awareness and developing their ICC become essential.Enlightened by the above-mentioned belief that the ultimate goal of FLT is to develop the learners' ICC, the present thesis endeavors to explore the problemsthat exist in China's current foreign language teaching and learning through a socio-cultural test and a structured interview, make systematic data analysis, interpret the results and finally provide practical suggestions for cultivating ICC in FLT.Including Introduction and Conclusion, this thesis is organized into six parts:Introduction gives a general account of the importance of cultivation ICC, reviews the theoretical development on the cultivation of ICC, states the problem and introduces methodology and organization of the thesis.To give theoretical support to the thesis, Chapter Two makes an exploration to the definition and characteristics of communication and culture respectively, elaborating the inseparable relationship between language and communication, culture and communication, language and culture. At the end of this chapter, the definition of intercultural communication is introduced with the importance of ICC being mentioned again.Chapter Three first makes a review of linguistic competence and communicative competence, analyzes their deficiencies respectively and then focuses on defining ICC and its components. Based on the previous study of ICC, the present thesis suggests that ICC be a multi-dimensional concept, which consists of the learner's language competence, cognitive competence, affective competence, relational competence, strategic competence, operational competence and episodic competence.In order to find out the achievements and problems in China's current foreign language teaching and learning, Chapter Four carries out a socio-cultural test and a structured interview. The subjects of socio-cultural test are 135 English majors randomly chosen from three universities in Shan Dong Province and 15 of them are interviewed.The data of the results of socio-cultural test are collected in tables and analyzed systematically. Through data analysis, the following conclusions are drawn: (1) The subjects' socio-cultural competence is much weaker than theirlanguage competence. (2) The subjects' socio-cultural competence developed uneven...
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