Becoming Interculturally Competent-The Challenge For Chinese University Teachers Of English

As globalization speeds up, the time today calls for the abundance of interculturally competent world citizens in all fields. The current situation in China is, although people are increasingly aware of the imperativeness of becoming interculturally competent, there lacks systematic endeavor to help people improve their intercultural competence. Teachers of foreign languages are on the front line of interacting with alien cultures. Therefore, they especially English teachers, since English is the largest foreign language taught in China for many years, are supposed to shoulder the majority of the responsibility. The fact is some pioneers of them have already carried out the task, introducing intercultural communication related courses, revising textbooks, adopting new methods of instruction, etc. However, generally speaking, most English teachers do not receive specific training on intercultural communication, or the ways to promote students' intercultural communication competence. Their ways of teaching are divided and experimental.In the field of intercultural communication education research what has been done is almost all related to students, for example, Guo & Guo (1997), Li (2002), Yin (2002), Wang (2003), Jiang (2004), Guo (2006), Wu (2006) to name just a few. The teachers' role has long been neglected. In the process of education, in and out of classroom activities, teachers play a crucial role, as organizers, participants, facilitators, observers and innovators as well. The teachers' levels of intercultural communication competence will inevitably exert great influence on the students'. Based on a small scale investigation this thesis addresses the following research questions: What is the status quo of intercultural communication competence level of Chinese university teachers of English? What are the factors that hinder / facilitate the process of their becoming interculturally competent? What measures should be taken to further improve their intercultural communication competence level?...