Developing Cambodian secondary school students' intercultural competence: Strategies and challenges

Abstract

This study aims to investigate teachers' teaching goals, perception of intercultural competence (IC), and to what extent their teaching goals and perceptions are reflected in their classroom practices for developing their students' IC. The study also aims to explore teachers' strategies and the challenges they have faced in developing their students' IC. Closed and open-ended questions were utilised to collect the data from 38 English as foreign language (EFL) teachers teaching an English subject at 19 different public secondary schools located in 12 different provinces and cities across Cambodia. The results revealed that most EFL teachers reported their teaching goal as equipping students with competence in using English to communicate with people across borders. The results also indicated that most EFL teachers accepted IC as a significant aspect of language learning. Yet, the teachers did not regularly incorporate cultures as topics into their teaching practices, due to some challenges such as the lack of multicultural content in the textbook, the lack of knowledge of IC assessment and cultural incorporation, and their students' low level of English language proficiency. Based on the findings, the study sheds some light on how to help EFL teachers develop their students' IC.