Integration of digital tools into intercultural communication to improve English language teaching
DOI: 10.23951/2307-6127-2026-1-68-80
In connection with globalization, the role of English has been raised to a key position on the scale of education and the professional spheres, requiring not only linguistic skills but intercultural communicative competence for proficient international cooperation. This implies that digital tools became essential to the learning of the language, providing an interactive and immerse environment that can gather the cultural gap. Despite that, digital access disparities, the lack of culturally relevant content and lack of preparedness of teachers stand in the way of integration of these technologies. This research investigates the current digital tools that are effective in enhancing cross cultural communication for English language learning, addressing their implementation barriers along with parameters deciding the various digital tools selection for the attainment of pedagogical objectives and maintaining cultural sensibility. A quantitative, cross sectional survey approach has been used in the study with the help of stratified random sampling of Sri Lankan G.C.E school students. This is to (A/L) students to bring in diverse representation. The Relative Importance Index is applied to an Analysis of Data to prioritize factors as perceived by the shareholders. They find the results show that task-based learning environments and computer assisted language learning provide the best support for promoting collaborative problem solving and intercultural awareness, while gamified apps and social media are best considered motivational and supplemental support. However, there are still challenges: digital literacy gaps, limited teacher training, and inequality in access. A list of key factors of selection of digital tools are pedagogical alignment, scalability, accessibility, cultural relevance. Consequently, the research not only theories and practice by offering a foundation for blending the digital innovations of linguistically and culturally engaged global communicators and also guides policy and educational practices for more culturally and linguistically inclusive and efficient environments of learning languages
Keywords: Accessibility, Cross-cultural communication, Digital tools, English language learning, Pedagogical alignment
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Issue: 1, 2026
Series of issue: Issue 1
Rubric: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF TEACHING AND EDUCATION
Pages: 68 — 80
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