Intercultural Communicative Competence, Communication Apprehension and Willingness to Communicate Levels of English Language Instructors

Abstract

This study aims to examine the Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC), Communication Apprehension (CA) and Willingness to Communicate (WTC) levels of English language instructors and if there is any relationship among these constructs. The study also explores whether there is a relationship between demographic factors and the aforementioned constructs. Based on these purposes, data of the study which a quantitative method design were collected from a total of 108 English language instructors working at the School of Foreign Languages of 8 different universities in Turkey. Data analyses revealed that English language instructors had average ICC, CA and WTC. In addition, ICC, CA and WTC of English language instructors were significantly correlated. Regarding the demographic factors, it appeared that age, gender, years of teaching, educational background and time spent in a foreign country had no statistically significant effect on ICC, CA and WTC levels of English language instructors. Nevertheless, a noteworthy outcome related to the amount of time spent in a foreign country was that as the amount of time spent in a foreign country increased the mean values of Intercultural Communicative Competence increased while the mean values of Communication Apprehension decreased. Overall, the study puts forward significant implications for language teacher education departments, professional development programs, curriculum developers, language teaching institutions and language teachers.