Exploring Iranian Pre-Service English Teachers’ Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) Identities and the Role of Mentor Teachers

Abstract

Globally occurring changes in an ever-shrinking world acknowledge the goal of making effective communication between people with various cultural backgrounds (East, 2012; Jin, 2014; Kramsh, 2013; Zheng, 2014) and hence the development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in EFL context respectively. This longitudinal study based on mixed method sequential design, and random sampling procedure strived to investigate male and female Iranian pre-service teachers' intercultural communicative competence. It also tried to assess the effect of mentor teachers on pre-service teachers' ICC and to see how and to what extent those perceptions are reflected in their classroom practices. This investigation was done in two academic semesters with participation of 49 pre-service teachers (M= 29, F=20) who were in their last year of their teacher education program in Farhangian university of Esfahan, one of the biggest teacher training centers in Iran. the second group of the participants was four mentor teachers (M=2, F=2).Results revealed that the first group of participants achieved an acceptable level of ICC, with higher mean scores in the attitude dimensions and lower levels in skill and knowledge components respectively. The results also indicated negative correlation between the attitudes and skill components of mentor teachers and pre- service teachers. The results of triangulation indicated an apparent disparity between teachers’ ICC perception and practice.