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Intercultural communicative competence in English language teaching in Kazakhstan
Kymbat Smakova
Suleyman Demirel University, Kazakhstan
BethAnne Paulsrud
Dalarna University, Sweden
In recent years, the significance of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) development has been widely recognised in foreign language education, with language teachers expected to encourage the development of ICC in their learners. The current study aims to investigate how Kazakhstani EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers from English-medium schools perceive ICC and to what extent their beliefs are integrated and reflected in their reported teaching practices. Employing a questionnaire, qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 103 EFL teachers. The findings reveal that the teachers are aware of the concept of ICC and the role of teaching interculturally oriented objectives. However, the implementation of these has not yet been integrated on a regular basis in their actual teaching and thus requires greater support and promotion.
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| Authors: Kymbat Smakova (corresponding author) is a doctoral student and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Language Education at Suleyman Demirel University, Kazakhstan. She has many years of experience in teaching English and research methods in education. Her research interests cover the best practices of contemporary methods in EFL and intercultural communication in English language teaching. Email: kymbat.smakova@sdu.edu.kz Dr BethAnne Paulsrud is Senior Lecturer in English at Dalarna University, Sweden. Her research focuses on multilingualism in educational policy and practice, English and English-medium instruction in Sweden, translanguaging and family language policy. She has previously co-edited two volumes on translanguaging and education (Multilingual Matters 2017 and Studentlitteratur 2018). Email: byp@du.se Please cite as: Smakova, K. & Paulsrud, B. (2020). Intercultural communicative competence in English language teaching in Kazakhstan. Issues in Educational Research, 30(2), 691-708. http://www.iier.org.au/iier30/smakova.pdf |