Pre-Service Language Teachers’ Knowledge and Practices of Intercultural Communicative Competence

Abstract

This paper reports a descriptive case study developed in an English language teaching program at a public university in Colombia. The purpose of this study was to disclose what knowledge a group of pre-service teachers had about intercultural communicative competence and how they considered their approach to this competence in the English classes they had planned during their final pedagogical practicum. The instruments used to collect data were documents, interviews, and a survey. The outcomes were meaningful for the participants as well as for the researcher since it was possible to identify that pre-service teachers understand this competence as a visible concept to be approached in the classes, mainly to refer to and learn about other cultures different from the Colombian and Boyacense ones. It was also identified that the intercultural communicative competence was considered, by these pre-service teachers, as the “dressing” to change the taste of the class.

Keywords

• culture
• intercultural communicative competence
• knowledge
• practices
• pre-service teachers