WEBSITE FOR ASSESSING INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN ORAL PRESENTATIONS OF ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS

Resumen

Introduction: Modern society which is characterized by globalization, mobility and cooperation, demands the use of English for professionals to communicate in different contexts. At Central University Marta Abreu de Las Villas, students of Architecture are involved in international collaboration projects where English is spoken as lingua franca for intercultural communication. In addition, it is evidenced that they have difficulties in oral communication when presenting their project designs in this context due to intercultural differences. Objective: the overall aim of this research is to provide Architecture students with a website to assess intercultural communication in oral presentations of their project designs in English.

Methodology: This research is supported by the dialectical-materialistic method in its chiefly qualitative approach. Thus, the research methods used were:  from the theoretical level, the Historical-Logical, Induction-Deduction; Analysis-Synthesis and Abstraction. From the empirical level, Participant observation, Document analysis; Individual In-depth interviews, Group interview to students, Surveys to students and Statistical and mathematical methods like percentages and frequency analysis. Results: The web site comprises didactic materials, methodological orientations and the criteria to assess intercultural communication to develop effective oral presentations about Architecture project designs.