Exploring Thai EFL Teachers' Perceptions of How Intercultural Communicative Competence Is Important for Their Students

Abstract

In recognition of the growing volume of communication between people from different cultural backgrounds around the globe presently, this study was conducted to investigate Thai EFL teachers' perceptions toward intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in three dimensions: (i) their understanding of ICC; (ii) their views on how to integrate ICC into English language teaching; and (iii) their perceptions of ICC's contributions to learners' English communicative competence. Data were collected from sixteen Thai EFL teachers at a private university in Thailand via questionnaires and interviews. Quantitative data from the questionnaires were analyzed through descriptive statistics while the qualitative data from both the questionnaires and interviews were analyzed with a constant comparative method. The findings revealed that the participants had a general, not a firm, grasp of ICC. They also perceived that ICC can be integrated into their teaching by presenting more cultural content to learners. Nevertheless, according to the ICC theoretical explication, this way of integration is not sufficient, nor is it effective in helping learners acquire ICC. Finally, the participants perceived that ICC was an important element in English language teaching today, but it did not considerably help learners to better communicate in English. An important implication from this study was that ELT teacher educators include ICC in teacher education programs to ensure a successful integration of ICC into English language teaching.

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