Collaborative Pathways for Ideological and Political Education in Curriculum and Intercultural Communication Competence in Vocational Colleges: A Case Study of “Practical Foreign Trade English”

Abstract

This study addresses the challenge of cultivating globally competent vocational talent by proposing and validating a Collaborative Cultivation Model (CCM) that integrates Ideological and Political Education in the Curriculum (IPEC) with Intercultural Communication Competence (ICC). Using the “Practical Foreign Trade English” course as a representative case study, this research employs a mixed-methods approach combining bibliometric analysis of 636 publications (2010-2024) from CNKI and Web of Science databases with a quasi-experimental pedagogical study involving 120 vocational students. The bibliometric analysis, conducted using CiteSpace, maps the intellectual structure and evolutionary trends of the field, identifying task-driven learning, situational simulations, and case analysis as the most effective instructional methods. The pedagogical experiment demonstrates the CCM's significant efficacy: the experimental group showed a 35% improvement in ICC scores, substantially and statistically significantly higher than the control group's 8% improvement (p < 0.001). Furthermore, 81.25% of experimental group students reported increased confidence in cross-cultural interactions. These findings confirm that a synergistic approach, which leverages IPEC to foster cultural confidence and applies ICC to practical, value-driven scenarios, provides a robust and replicable framework for reforming vocational education and cultivating talent equipped for the demands of a globalized economy.