Experienced and Novice EFL Teachers’ Cognition and Practices on Intercultural Communicative Competence: A Mixed-Methods Study in Iranian Context

Abstract

Teachers as the backbone of education need to commit themselves to expanding their perception, sensitivity, and awareness toward intercultural communicative competence (ICC). By taking full advantages of mixed methods, this research examines if novice and experienced EFL teachers’ cognitions differ in ICC teaching. Using purposive sampling, a group of 153 EFL teachers of both genders were chosen to take part in the quantitative phase containing a Likert scale questionnaire developed by Gong (2018). Among them, 15 teachers consented to be part of the qualitative stage of the study comprising an indepth interview. The quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed using statistical and thematic methods, respectively. The results indicated that the cognition of ICC among Iranian EFL teachers, whether experienced or novice, did not differ significantly. It was also revealed that both experienced and novice teachers had relatively high perception of ICC which impacted their practices. Possible implications are discussed in the final section

Keywords

• cognition
• experienced teachers
• intercultural communicative competence
• novice teachers