Intercultural communicative competence and English-mediated local cultural expression among Chinese vocational college students: a mixed-methods study

Innovation in Chinese vocational English education increasingly depends on how teaching addresses students’ evolving workplace, intercultural, and digital communication needs, including culturally situated professional expression. This explanatory sequential mixed-methods study examined vocational college students’ intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and the potential of English-mediated local cultural expression for workplace-relevant English learning at a manufacturing-oriented college in Jiangxi, China. Questionnaire data from 1,566 students were followed by semi-structured interviews with 15 students across years and majors. Survey results showed a differentiated ICC profile. Students reported comparatively strong native-culture knowledge, positive attitudes, and intercultural awareness, but weaker knowledge of unfamiliar cultural practices, intercultural strategies, cognitive skills, and foreign-language communicative ability. Differences across year groups were statistically significant but small. Interview participants associated ICC with future work in cross-border e-commerce, aviation service, international trade, software, digital media, and related fields. Although willing to introduce Chinese and Jiangxi culture in English, they reported difficulties with vocabulary, oral fluency, culturally loaded expressions, audience awareness, and authentic interaction. They frequently used digital resources and mobile translation tools, mainly as fragmented or compensatory support. The findings suggest that vocational English innovation should go beyond adding cultural content to existing courses. Local culture can instead provide familiar content for workplace-relevant intercultural tasks, supported by plural intercultural input, staged language support, production-oriented assessment, and guided use of digital tools. By linking students’ multidimensional ICC profiles with their perceived opportunities, constraints, and support needs, the study offers a context-responsive basis for learner-centred pedagogical design in vocational English education.