An Empirical Research On Teachers' Perceptions Of ICC Competence In FLT

Over the last two decades, the discussion carried on in FLT has been concentrated on the dichotomy between linguistic competence versus communicative competence. However, as the communicative approach in FLT is gaining increasing popularity and researches on language and culture have been done persuasively, more and more researchers and scholars begin to concern themselves with learners' ICC competence rather than the two competences mentioned above. The ultimate goal in FLT is now the development of the learners' ICC competence.Therefore, new professional demands are made on teachers. FLT can no longer be regarded as mainly linguistic task and communicative competence. Teachers are now required to teach ICC competence. Are teachers in China already moving in the advocated direction and are they willing to support the new objectives put forward? The purpose of the thesis was to inquire into how the teachers' current professional self-concepts related to the envisaged profile of the intercultural foreign language teacher, and into the extent to which their teaching practices can be characterized as directed towards the attainment of ICC competence instead of linguistic competence and communicative...