The Relationship between Iranian EFL Teachers’ Perceptions and their Intercultural Communicative Competence in Iranian Context

The current study attempted to cast light on the status quo of Iranian EFL teachers' perceptions of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC). It further attempted to see if their experience would influence their conceptualizations of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC). To this end, a total of ۱۰۰ EFL teachers were asked to complete a questionnaire survey adapted from Han and Song's study. The results suggest that Iranian EFL teachers are aware of the necessity of integrating cultural dimensions in foreign language education. The findings revealed that Iranian EFL teachers, less experienced ones in particular, conceive of culture teaching as the transmission of a bulk of knowledge about the target cultures rather than a consciousness-raising mission. The findings point to the prominence of intercultural teacher education in the Iranian context. The findings of the study will be of interest to anyone desiring to find out how foreign language teachers view intercultural competence and how their views impact on their teaching.

Keywords:

foreign language education , intercultural communicative competence , teaching experience , teachers' perceptions