Against the backdrop of the deep integration of globalization and educational digitalization, intercultural communication courses in higher education have become a core vehicle for cultivating applied foreign language talents. As a local application-oriented undergraduate institution, Handan University faces a threefold training objective for its English majors in the teacher education track: “solidifying linguistic foundations” “integrating local culture”, and enhancing intercultural teaching practice capabilities. Leveraging the university’s distinctive features in AI-enabled educational transformation and its advantages in local cultural resources, this study takes 2023-grade English majors in the teacher education track as research subjects to explore the application pathways of multimedia technology, online interactive platforms, virtual simulations, and AI teaching tools in intercultural communication courses. The effectiveness of technology empowerment was verified through a one-semester quasi-experimental study. The findings indicate that this model effectively stimulates students’ learning interest, significantly enhances their intercultural teaching competence and local cultural communication practice, providing valuable references for similar institutions in cultivating English education professionals with both international vision and local commitment.
Han et al. (Thu,) studied this question.