Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC): A Comparison of Thai and International Teachers of English in the Thai Vocational Context

Abstract

This study aims to investigate English teachers’ levels of ICC within five components, which are knowledge, attitude, skills of interpretation and relating, skills of discovery and interaction, and critical cultural awareness, and to compare the differences between levels of ICC and its components between Thai and international teachers of English. This study also seeks to understand the influences of aspects of intercultural background, consisting of international travel experiences, international seminars/training experiences, and intercultural contact. The participants were 113 Thai and 36 international teachers of English who were chosen using a multi-stage sampling methodology. The research instruments consisted of ICC scales adapted from the Byram ICC model (2020) and an intercultural background survey. Descriptive statistics, a t-test, and a two-way ANOVA analysis were used to analyze the dataset. The results showed that international teachers had greater levels of ICC. Of the five components, the attitude component was found to be at the highest level in both groups. Critical cultural awareness was at the lowest level among Thai teachers, while international teachers’ skills of interpretation and relating were at the lowest level. Regarding international travel experiences, contact with international friends, social media contact, and frequency of co-worker contact were found to affect the ICC score of two groups; however, no effect on ICC score was found in regard to international seminars/training experiences. This study suggests that ICC components could be integrated into vocational education. Moreover, travel experiences and intercultural contact could contribute as extra activities for developing ICC in ELT.