EFL Teachers’ Perceptions Towards Multicultural Classrooms: The Role of Intercultural Sensitivity in Developing Intercultural Communicative Competence

Individuals are increasingly exposed to diverse cultures in their work, education, and social life. In multicultural classrooms, intercultural sensitivity (IS) and inter cultural communicative competence (ICC) are relevant concepts that allow for an understanding of teachers’ perceptions as they interact with learners from other cultures. However, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) research has not thoroughly addressed the implications of teachers’ attitudes and contextual phenomena in the process of promoting interaction and integration in a multicultural setting. Therefore, the main goals of this mixed-methods study were to explore the relationship between the attitudes of 61 EFL Chilean teachers towards the multicultural EFL classroom and their intercultural sensitivity perceptions, as well as assess how their intercultural sensitivity influenced their perceived ICC in that setting. The teachers completed the Teacher Multicultural Attitude Survey (TMAS) and the intercultural sensitivity scale (ISS), which was followed by semi-structured interviews with eight teachers. Results revealed high levels of multicultural awareness and intercultural sensitivity displayed by the teachers, but qualitative findings suggested that even though teachers may display high awareness and empathy towards cultural diversity, they may not know how to tackle ICC in the classroom and lack a principled approach to effectively communicate with learners from other cultures. Pedagogical implications in the EFL classroom are also discussed.