Teaching as Intercultural Communication: A Sociocultural Study of Teaching English as a Second Language in an Asian Country

Abstract

ABSTRACT Teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) has always been studied through the behaviorist lens using quantitative methodology. An alternative is to view it as an intercultural communication and study it qualitatively. Through the frame of the Sociocultural Tradition of Communication Theory (SCT)where communication is theorized as the production or reproduction of the social order and where alienation, misalignments and conflicts are problematized, this study was conducted to answer two research questions: (1) What is the view of the international non-native English professional teachers on ESL teaching? (2) How does this view define their intercultural communicative practices as ESL teachers? In this investigation the view of the participants on ESL teaching constitutes as the meaning that defines their intercultural communicative practices. Such practices explain how the social order where professional standards are alienated and how the traditional teaching proliferates in the ESL classroom is reproduced. A thematic analysis of the interviews of three overseas professional teachers was employed. The analysis surfaced participants’ view of ESL teaching as embracing of the local culture for employment and education. This view defines three communicative practices: local colleagues are befriended; local language is learned; and local culture is integrated in teaching.