Teachers’ Intercultural Communicative Competence and Intercultural Sensitivity: An Investigation of Emergency Online Classes in Higher Education

Abstract

The study aims to ascertain whether intervention workshops held for Iranian EFL teachers had any effect on their knowledge of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) or of intercultural sensitivity (IS). The study investigated the effect of knowledge about ICC and IS on the practice of EFL teachers. 30 EFL teachers participated in a six-session workshop on ICC and IS, and completed the ICC Questionnaire (Zhou, 2011) and the IS Questionnaire (Chen & Starosta, 2000) before and again after the workshops. A further 10 teachers underwent a semi-structured interview designed to obtain their knowledge of ICC and IS. In addition, 10 classes were observed and 10 students took part in a semi-structured interview to identify the effect of ICC and IS knowledge on teachers’ practice. The results indicated that the intervention workshops had a significant effect on both the teachers’ ICC and IS knowledge. All respondents considered themselves interculturally competent and sensitive English teachers who showed respect for different cultures. It was also found that knowledge about ICC and IS had influenced EFL teachers’ practice. These findings have the potential to raise EFL teachers’ awareness of the prominence of ICC and IS, and inspire them to seek opportunities for improvement and consequently improve their job performance.