IRANIAN EFL LEARNERS' INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE: EFL TEACHERS' ATTITUDES EXPLORED

Recently the role of culture in ELT pedagogy has gained increasing momentum. Though language teachers' beliefs have long been explored, research on teacher attitudes still appears to be in a sprouting state (Pajares, 1992). Intended to address this underresearched domain with a focus on intercultural concerns, therefore, the current paper was after I) surveying Iranian EFL teachers' attitudes toward intercultural competence (IC) in their language teaching career, and II) investigating which factors (gender, age and years of English teaching experience) would correlate with teachers' attitudes concerning IC. The participants of the study were some 40 Iranian EFL teachers, 22 females and 18 males, whose age ranged from 22 to 41 (mean= 28). The data needed for this study were collected using the teacher questionnaire developed by Sercu et al. (2009). This questionnaire explored the teachers' attitudes towards IC on a five-point scale ranging from ‘agree completely’ to ‘disagree completely’ and consisted of two parts totalling 24 items. The first part dealt with statements regarding IC and the second part with practical statements regarding how, when, with whom, etc. that IC should be practiced. The data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively using SPSS 20. The results of Pearson Correlation analysis indicated that a) teachers' age correlated negatively with IC in 20 items out of the total 24 items of the questionnaire; age also correlated significantly with items 8, the effect of IC on students' attitudes (.33, p < .05) and 14, promoting the acquisition of intercultural skills through every subject, not just foreign language teaching (.48, p< .01); b) unlike age, teachers' teaching experience did not correlate significantly with any of the questionnaire items; it also correlated negatively with the responses in 8 items. Moreover, multiple regression analysis demonstrated that both teaching experience and age of the EFL teachers were predictors of intercultural competence, the former in a negative way and the latter in a positive way. The findings further showed that compared to older teachers, younger, less experienced teachers tended more often to stress the notion of IC in the language classroom. The results revealed that since IC is not a high priority for Iranian EFL teachers, there is the serious possibility that Iranian EFL learners will experience breakdowns in intercultural communication. Therefore, it is thought, the importance of IC and its practice and application is required to be highlighted for the language teachers.

کلیدواژه ها:

EFL Learners ، EFL Teachers ، Intercultural Competence (IC) ، Target Language Culture ، Teaching experience