Impact of Instructors’ Content Knowledge on Their Online Intercultural English Teaching Instructional Beliefs

This study investigated the level of teachers' content knowledge of online intercultural language teaching and beliefs about teaching Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) in online classes, and the relationship between the two. A quantitative research design was employed. The sample included 110 in-service university English as a Second Language (ESL) instructors in China. They were instructed to complete an online survey by rating the importance, frequency, or their agreement with the statements about online intercultural teaching. Through descriptive and inferential statistics, the study found that the level of the ESL instructors' content knowledge of online intercultural teaching was high, while their beliefs about teaching ICC in online classes were at a medium level. A significant correlation were found between the instructors' content knowledge and their instructional beliefs. However, the relationship between the two was very fragile, which indicated limited impact of content knowledge on online intercultural teaching practices.