icc conceptualization from iranian efl teachers and learners’ perspectives

Given the significance of the teachers' beliefs as the bases of their teaching practices, and the crucial role that their knowledge of both home and foreign cultures plays in facilitating successful intercultural communication among english as foreign language (efl) learners, this study aimed to investigate the efl learners and teachers’ conceptualization of intercultural communicative competence (icc). for this purpose, a mixed-method research design was adopted, and for data collection purposes, icc belief scale and intercultural sensitivity scale were administered to 179 iranian efl teachers and 120 efl learners. for addressing the validity concerns of the scales, exploratory factor analyses (efa) were carried out on the questionnaires’ data. in addition, cronbach's alpha coefficient measure was applied which indicated that the scales enjoyed a high level of reliability, α= .803 and .868, respectively. furthermore, around 10 percent of the teachers were given a structured interview. the obtained results indicated that while the majority of efl teachers favored integrating icc into their praxis in theory, they were unable to do so in real practice. moreover, it was found that there was a positive correlation between efl learners’ years of language learning experience and their intercultural sensitivity. the findings of this study can be helpful to the ones related to language education and those who believe in the significance of intercultural competence through language education.