Intercultural Sensitivity As An Integral Constituent Of Foreign Language Education: Exploring The Gap Between Teachers’ Perceptions And The Instructional Practices In The First-year Oral Class

Résumé: In higher education, the EFL oral class is a rich venue to nurture intercultural communication. This scrutiny, as a corollary, purports to explore first-year oral expression teachers’ perceptions of the necessity to promote intercultural sensitivity as a growing need of EFL learners. To this end, a structured questionnaire was administered to a conveniently selected sample of 17 teachers at Mohamed Lamine Debaghine, Sétif 2 University. A follow-up interview was conducted with 6 volunteer teachers to gain an in-depth picture. The findings revealed that there exists a gap between the important place that intercultural sensitivity occupies through the perceptual lens of teachers and their instructional practices. The reasons behind this discrepancy were entwined with diverse educational impediments in the way of integrating interculturality. Therefore, the participants suggested myriad practical solutions. Ultimately, further pedagogical implications are postulated to bridge this gap.

Publié dans la revue: أبوليوس