Teachers' experiences, beliefs and conceptions concerning intercultural communicative competence
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18041/1657-7531/interaccion.0.2274Keywords:
Intercultural communicative competence, teacher cognition, teachers' beliefs, teacher developmentAbstract
This is a report of a study on teachers’ experiences, beliefs and conceptions concerning intercultural communicative competence (ICC). The study explored the relationship between teacher cognition, professional identity and intercultural competence. To stimulate reflection as well as to collect data, autobiographical accounts and semi-structured interviews were used. This exploratory case study showed that even when teachers have intercultural experiences in English speaking countries, as it is the case with the three informants in the study described, they continue to have essentialist perspectives of target cultures that, in turn, affect their vision of the development of ICC. Results revealed how teachers’ previous personal experiences are influential in their belief and conception formation of ICC. Besides, they do not master the knowledge, skills and attitudes involved in ICC, in spite of their awareness of the essence and purpose of the development of ICC at different levels.
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