Teacher identity, teacher cognition and teacher instructional practices in the teaching of intercultural communicative competence : a mixed methods study on Chinese language teachers

Abstract

The development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) has emerged as one of the major foci in foreign or second language (FL/SL) education. However, ineffective ICC teaching is widely found in FL/SL classrooms. Teacher identity plays a crucial role in the teaching profession, and changing ineffective teaching cognition and practices is profoundly related to changes in teacher self-positioning. It is thus important to understand teacher ICC teaching through the lens of teacher identity. The present study explores Chinese language teachers’ ICC teaching and its relationship with teacher identity in the Chinese as a foreign or second language (CFL/CSL) classroom. In this research, teacher ICC cognition focuses on FL/SL teachers’ ideas about what to achieve through ICC teaching, and on what to focus to achieve the desired outcomes. Teacher ICC teaching practices concern FL/SL teachers’ strategies for or approaches to attaining their desired outcomes. Teacher identity is a complex construct, consisting of personal, professional, and sociocultural identities, and is closely related to and shaped by teacher cognition and practices in FL/SL teaching. The present study employed a sequential exploratory mixed-method research design and comprised two studies: a qualitative study and a quantitative study. The qualitative study aimed at eliciting CFL/CSL teachers’ reports of their ICC teaching cognition and instructional practices, as well as identity components related to their ICC teaching. In this phase, 16 CFL/CSL teachers from international schools in Hong Kong and mainland China, and from universities in mainland China took part in individual face-to-face interviews. The interviewees’ responses were also used to inform the development of the inventory instrument employed in the subsequent quantitative study. The quantitative study examined the association between teachers’ identity and their ICC teaching. In this phase, an inventory was constructed and adopted to quantitatively test the relationships between teachers’ identity and their ICC teaching cognition and practices. One hundred and three teacher participants from international schools in Hong Kong and mainland China and universities in mainland China responded to the inventory. This study revealed, first, that there was a conflict between the participating teachers’ reported ICC cognition and their instructional practices. Second, CFL/CSL teachers embraced various aspects of both professional (Chinese language teacher and school/university staff member) and sociocultural (cultural learner, cultural bridge, Chinese culture bearer, and cultural transmitter) identities simultaneously in their ICC teaching, with Chinese language teacher, cultural learner, cultural bridge, and Chinese culture bearer identities being the key factors shaping teachers’ cognition and practices in ICC teaching. Third, teacher participants from different working contexts exhibited different teacher identity profiles, which interacted in a hierarchical manner with the working and sociocultural contexts to shape teachers’ ICC teaching. The findings of the present study contribute theoretically to the literature on key variables (i.e., ICC teaching and teacher identity). Practical implications are provided for stakeholders (e.g., policy makers, school/university administers, and in-service teachers) in educational settings. Directions for future research are recommended. (477 words)