Pre-service Teachers’ Perceived Understandings and Practices of Intercultural Communicative Competence in EFL Teaching

Abstract

English teaching in the 21st century needs to also address learners’ successful engagement with a global milieu in intercultural settings, which remains challenging for many EFL teachers worldwide. It was evidenced by a number of studies showing that EFL teachers are not well-prepared to integrate intercultural teaching in EFL classrooms. It becomes crucial to find out the possible causes of their unpreparedness to integrate intercultural teaching in EFL lessons. This study was carried out to record Indonesian EFL pre-service teachers’ perceived understandings of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and their practice implementing the ICC elements during their teaching practicum program. It employed a survey using an electronic questionnaire consisting of 31 items. The study involved 106 participants consisting of both the alumni and the undergraduate students of ELT program from six different universities in Indonesia. The results from the questionnaire were then complemented with the results of the interview obtained from selected participants. The findings showed that the participants demonstrated excellent understanding of ICC elements; yet, they did not frequently implement ICC-related teaching activities in EFL teaching. The minimal integration of intercultural teaching was possibly due to some external factors such as restricted time, curriculum, and students’ different proficiency.