Enhancing the Cross-Cultural Competence of Prospective Language Teachers

Abstract

In the twenty-first century, education does not merely focus on information exchange; additionally, it does so on various abilities and living in harmony. To materialize such acquisition among students, cross-cultural competence is an essential vehicle in a rapidly globalizing world. This calls for integrating comprehensive cross-cultural education as an independent subject into teacher training programs alongside the applied practices that go with it. Against this backdrop, the current study aims to determine the cross-cultural competency capabilities of Turkish language teacher candidates studying at one of the major universities in Turkey. In this article, initially cultural dimensions, scope of culture, and aspects of cross-cultural competency are addressed on a theoretical basis. In addition, learning materials are developed by the candidates, based on the instructions provided by the researcher, and analyzed according to their content of cross-cultural competency. The paper also discusses the cultural background of the candidates and their cross-cultural competency capabilities. The findings show that the participants have major difficulty presenting sufficient information or content in developing their cross-cultural competency. In the end, there are recommendations for enhancing the cross-cultural competency capabilities, while shedding light on the inadequate focus devoted to improving these skills within the training programs.