Intercultural sensitivities: A mixed methods study with pre-service EFL teachers in Turkey

Serdar Arcagök and Cevdet Yımaz
Canakkale Onsekız University, Turkey

Understanding pre-service teachers' perceptions on intercultural communication could be considered as a substantial step in syllabus design and curriculum development in the field of English language teaching. To this end, the current study is aimed at identifying the intercultural sensitivities of pre-service English language teachers. The participants were 90 pre-service teachers in the Department of English Language Teaching at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey in the 2017-2018 academic year. A convergent parallel mixed-methods design was used to collect, analyse and interpret both quantitative and qualitative data. The research dataset was obtained from the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale and two open-ended interview questions. Results showed that pre-service teachers voiced different codes for the concept of cultural sensitivity. This study also sought to find out whether differences in the pre-service teachers' perspectives could be associated with various factors. Voluntary work by pre-service teachers in any non-governmental organisation emerged as a factor increasing their sensitivity. The study concludes with a discussion of the findings that informs foreign language teaching for intercultural competence and communication.
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Authors: Dr Serdar Arcagök (corresponding author) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Elementary Education at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Canakkale, Turkey. His research interests include curriculum, research methods and teacher training. Email: serdar_arcagok21@comu.edu.tr Dr Cevdet Yımaz holds an MA in English Literature from University of Hertfordshire, England and a PhD in TEFL from Dokuz Eylül University, Turkey. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Foreign Language Education at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Canakkale, Turkey. His research interests include teacher training, literature, classroom research and curriculum. Email: cyilmaz@comu.edu.tr Please cite as: Arcagök, S. & Yımaz, C. (2020). Intercultural sensitivities: A mixed methods study with pre-service EFL teachers in Turkey. Issues in Educational Research, 30(1), 1-18. http://www.iier.org.au/iier30/arcagok.pdf