Intercultural Competence in Teaching: Defining the Intercultural Profile of Student Teachers

Authors

  • Marta Garrote Salazar Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
  • María Fernández Agüero Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Abstract

This article describes the intercultural profile of European student teachers in order to clarify the relationship between Intercultural Competence (IC) and teacher training. The main tool used for that was a questionnaire to assess IC, following the criteria established by the Intercultural Competence Assessment (INCA) Project in which IC levels are ranked. The survey poses a variety of personal and professional situations where IC comes into play and different responses to choose from, ranging from insufficiently intercultural to highly intercultural. The results of this study show that most European student teachers participating in the research displayed an intermediate level of IC, which indicates a necessity to improve future teachers’ IC training, particularly highlighting IC dimensions such as behavioural flexibility or communicative awareness.

Keywords

Intercultural Competence, teacher training, student teachers

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Author Biographies

Marta Garrote Salazar, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Dr. Marta Garrote is a Lecturer in education at Universidad Autónoma of Madrid. She is a member of the research groups Discourse Analysis and Intercultural Communication and Technology Enhanced Language Learning. She has a PhD in Linguistics and her main research lines are corpus linguistics, development of language resources, teacher training and EFL.

La Dra. Marta Garrote es profesora en educación en la Universidad Autónoma of Madrid. Es miembro de los grupos de investigación Discourse Analysis and Intercultural Communication y Technology Enhanced Language Learning. Tiene un doctorado en Lingüística (2008) y sus principales líneas de investigación son la lingüística de corpus, el desarrollo de recursos lingüísticos, la formación de profesorado y la enseñanza de ILE.

La Dra. Marta Garrote és professora en educació a l'Universitat Autònoma de Madrid. També es membre dels grups d'investigació Discourse Analysis and Intercultural Communication i Technology Enhanced Language Learning. Doctora en Lingüìstica (2008), les seves línies principals d'investigació son la lingüística de corpus, el desenvolupament de recursos lingüístics, la formació de profressorat i l'ensenyament d'ALE.

María Fernández Agüero, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Dr. María Fernández Agüero currently works as an ELT lecturer at Universidad Autónoma of Madrid, and she is a doctor in Philology since 2010. Her main research interests include second language teaching and learning, bilingual education and content and language integrated learning (CLIL).

La Dra. María Fernández Agüero trabaja actualmente como profesora de ILE en la Universidad Autónoma of Madrid y es doctora en Filología desde 2010. Sus principales líneas de investigación incluyen la enseñanza y aprendizaje de segundas lenguas, la educación bilingüe y el aprendizaje integrado de contenidos y lengua extrajera (AICLE). 

La Dra. María Fernández Agüero treballa actualment com a profressora d'ALE a la Universitat Autònoma de Madrid i és doctora en Filologia des de 2010. Les seves principals línies  d'investigació inclouen l'ensenyament i aprenentatge de segones llengües, l'educació bilingüe i l'aprenentatge integrat de continguts i llengua estrangera (AICLE).

Published

2016-12-31

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