Integrating Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) in Language Teaching
Zeena Hussam Abdulhasan
Over the past two decades, due to globalization and the changes it brought about, the objectives of second language teaching education have drastically shifted from mainly emphasizing on the linguistic approach to the intercultural approach. Consequently, many higher education institutions are set out to develop meaningful internationalization in education to cultivate learners’ intercultural competence skills. In this regard, this study is an attempt to investigate the beliefs of Iraqi EFL University Instructors regarding the incorporating intercultural communicative competence (ICC) into English language education. A total number of 50 Iraqi university teachers, from AL-Iraqia, and Baghdad Universities participated in this study. All the participants held a master's degree, with nine of them also possessing a PhD, instructors specialized in various English degrees. The findings of this study revealed a clear discrepancy between instructors’ beliefs and their classroom teaching practices, suggesting a standardized approach for ICC, as well as providing training programs to capitalize the importance of ICC, and to ensure learners that are well-equipped with the needed tools and abilities to successfully operate in an intercultural environment.
Keywords: Intercultural Communicative, Competence (ICC), Iraqi EFL teachers integration
