The Role of Awareness in Intercultural Communication

The Role of Awareness in Intercultural Communication (ICC) (Published in Selected Refereed Papers from the ILEC 2000 Conference, Department of Curriculum Studies, University of Hong Kong, 2001.) I. Introduction: The importance of intercultural communication (ICC) training in EFL Let us start with the assumption that the purpose of English study is not mastery of English per se. In settings where English is studied as a foreign or second language, students’ ultimate goal in English study should be to learn how to communicate effectively with people whose cultural backgrounds are different from their own. Simple as this point is, it is not made often enough, so is worth dwelling on for a moment. If we consider the kinds of settings in which students are most likely to need English for genuinely communicative purposes, we will see that most involve some form of communication across cultural lines. This is most obvious when students meet foreigners face to face, whether these be native English users such as Americans, British, Australians, and so forth, or people from other nations and cultures who use English as a second language. However, English also comes into play in other less direct forms of intercultural encounter. For example, using English to read a book or watch a film is also often a form of intercultural communication (ICC); after all, it requires students to make sense of a communicative act -- albeit one that occurs indirectly through a printed or audio-visual medium -- that originated among people of a foreign culture. Granted, there are occasions when students use English to interact with others from their own culture, but in many if not most cases where students need to use English for genuinely communicatively purposes (instead of practicing their language skills or taking tests), they are likely to be communicating across cultural barriers, often substantial ones. In order for students to learn how to communicate effectively across these cultural barriers, they need to learn more than how to translate English words, phrases, and structures into their own language. As Gundykunst argues: “Linguistic knowledge alone...is not enough to ensure that our communication with people from other groups will progress smoothly and/or be effective...” (1998, p. 3). We must learn to “transmit our messages in a way that strangers can understand what we mean, and we need to interpret strangers’ messages in the way that they meant them to be interpreted” (1998, p. 6). Students who know English but nothing about how to interact with people from other cultures run the risk of becoming what Gundykunst calls “fluent fools,” whose ignorance of others’ culture becomes only more obvious as the language barrier lowers. One solution to this problem is to include information about Western culture in EFL courses, thus ensuring that students know something about the culture as well as language of those with whom they would interact. However, desirable as this approach is, it also clearly has limitations. There simply isn’t enough time available in most EFL programs for students to study the culture of even one English-speaking country in depth, let alone to study all of the different cultures of all the people they might encounter -- and need to use English with. This suggests that students also need to learn generalized ICC skills which can be facilitate their interaction and understanding in any and all intercultural situations. My assertion in this paper is that ICC skills should be included in EFL courses, at least to some degree. In part this conviction arises out of the reality that students in EFL settings are unlikely to be taught these skills in any formal way elsewhere. However, as suggested above, the more compelling argument is that these skills are tightly tied to English as an integral part of the package of communication skills that students should be trying to learn. Inevitably, EFL teachers are on the front line of intercultural skills training -- in fact, the training provided in EFL courses may be the closest thing to formal intercultural skills training students ever get. What I seek to explore in this paper is how EFL teachers can include ICC training in EFL courses. In particular I examine how “critical incidents,” a type of training exercise often used for ICC training, fare as an activity and teaching tool in EFL classes. II. EFL teachers and ICC As we consider the proposal that EFL teachers should incorporate ICC skills into English language courses, we need to recognize that it would be unfair and probably unwise to expect EFL teachers to function as professional ICC skills trainers. The main problem is that, more often than not, formal training programs in ESL/EFL include little or no training in ICC. For example, as Nelson (1998) found in an examination of ESL/EFL preparation courses in the United States, the majority do not offer courses related to ICC as part of the their program, and as Snow (2000) notes, the number of programs which require students to take an ICC course is small indeed -- only about 20%. We cannot, therefore, assume that their professional training will give EFL teachers a theoretical understanding of ICC, nor a good practical command of ICC skills. However, this is not to say that EFL teachers cannot play a role in building their students’ ICC skills, at least within limits. By virtue of their background and training, EFL teachers almost always know a great deal about at least one culture that is alien to students, usually the culture of an English-speaking country. Added to this, the nature of their training and work ensures that EFL teachers are more likely than the general population to have had the experience of interaction with people of other cultural backgrounds. Using these two assets, I will argue that there are several ways the average EFL teacher can and should enhance students understanding of ICC: #1. Raising students’ awareness of the importance of ICC skills. Brislin and Yoshida (1994, pp. 26-7) argue that one of the first and most important challenges intercultural trainers face is building people’s awareness of the importance of ICC skills. As we will see below, students often assume that the main sources of difficulty they will face in communicating with foreigners consist mainly of differences in language and culture, the latter often conceived of mainly as specific differences in customs. There is often little awareness of the dynamics of ICC, nor of the importance of developing special skills to handle ICC situations. While we should not expect EFL teachers to provide a professional introduction to the theory of ICC, it is not beyond their ability to bring basic ICC issues into the EFL classroom, especially if teaching materials incorporate such issues. #2. Raising students’ awareness of the interpretation (attribution) process. One key aspect of ICC is the process by which people interpret the behavior of foreigners, attributing motives and intent to those behaviors. Of course, all communication -- not just communication between people of different cultures -- involves a significant element of interpretation. As Lustig and Koester (1996, pp. 29-30) point out, “communication is always an interpretive process. Whenever people communicate, they must interpret the symbolic behaviors of others and assign significance to some of those behaviors in order to create a meaningful account of the others’ actions.” In part this is because people do not like to be in a state of uncertainty, so they actively make efforts to explain and interpret why others do what they do. Furthermore, “the explanations that they come up with have a major impact on how they react -- both emotionally and behaviorally -- to events” (Brewer and Miller 1996, p. 10). While the interpretation process is a part of all communication, it is especially problematic in ICC. One reason is that we often function on “automatic pilot” as we interpret the words and actions of others, relying heavily on our background cultural knowledge to allow us to assess others’ intentions quickly and accurately (Gundykunst and Kim 1997, p. 14; 40). This approach works reasonably well when we deal with those whose cultural background we understand well. However, when people of different cultural backgrounds interact, the gap in their background knowledge and understanding is too great for this approach to be effective, and often this automatic pilot approach can lead us to jump to premature and overly negative conclusions (Gundykunst and Kim 1997, p. 177). One way to build students’ ICC skills is by making them more aware of the interpretation process, and of the need to be thoughtful and careful when interpreting the words and actions of foreigners. To the extent that EFL teachers encourage students to thoughtfully consider the issue of why foreigners might or might not do things, especially things that seem unusual from the students’ perspective, EFL teachers can help build the habit of pausing and thinking before interpreting foreigners’ behavior. #3. Exposing students to other cultural perspectives. As suggested above, one reason students are likely to misinterpret the behavior of foreigners is that people tend to be ethnocentric; i.e. to use the norms of their own culture as the standards by which they understand and evaluate the behavior of people from all cultures. This tendency toward ethnocentrism is one that is shared by all people to greater or lesser degrees (Gundykunst and Kim 1997, p. 120; Triandis 1995, p. 145). It is also one of the main barriers to effective ICC (Samovar and Porter 1995, p. 274), not least because interpreting the behavior of others from an ethnocentric basis is a process biased against those whose culture is different from the one being used as the norm. This often happens less because students knowingly use their own cultural norms to evaluate foreigners than because they are not fully conscious of the fact that their norms are, at least in large part, culturally based, and they do not stop to consider the possibility that it may be more appropriate to use other cultural norms when interpreting the behavior of people from other cultures. As mentioned above, one of the assets EFL teachers bring with them into the classroom is an understanding of another culture which allows them to see the world from the perspective of that culture. Helping students see and better understand that different cultural perspective is a good first step toward weaning them away from ethnocentric views. At the very least, it enhances their awareness of the possibility of other perspectives, and this increases the chances that as they encounter foreigners, either face to face or indirectly through books and films, they will pause and think a bit longer before jumping to conclusions. III. Critical incident exercises as an approach to ICC skills in EFL courses One specific way EFL teachers can enhance students’ ICC skills is through use of “critical incident” exercises in EFL courses. These consist of brief stories in which some kind of misunderstanding, problem or conflict arises when people of different cultures encounter each other. The stories are brief, just providing the basic facts of what happened, and perhaps the feelings and reactions of the parties involved. The cultural differences that give rise to the situation are not explained. After hearing the story, students are asked to discuss and analyze it, trying to determine what the source of the misunderstanding or problem might be. Critical incidents are often used for intercultural training purposes and are generally considered one of the most effective ICC training tools (Brislin and Yoshida 1994, pp. 120-1). One of their main virtues is that they enhance participants' "awareness of their own typical, idiosyncratic, or culturally determined interpretations and explanations of other's behavior..." (Wight 1995, p. 128). Another virtue is their effectiveness in calling attention to and illustrating cultural differences; as Cushner and Brislin (1996, p. 7) point out, cultural differences become most evident in “well-meaning clashes” between people of different cultural backgrounds. They are also good for helping participants see that they need to learn more about the other culture, and motivating them to do so (Wight 1995, p. 129). As exercises for use in the EFL classroom, critical incidents presumably also have a number of important virtues. First, the emphasis on discussion in such exercises means they should provide an excellent opportunity for the practice of language skills, especially speaking and listening. Second, they don’t force the teacher into an “ICC expert” role, so they should be a realistic option for the average EFL teacher. In critical incident exercises, the role of teachers is to present the story to students, ensure that they understand it, moderate discussion, and provide new perspectives and cultural information. Teachers are not required to explain ICC theory, or even to provide the single “correct” analysis of the critical incident being discussed. Finally, when used for ICC training, critical incident exercises are generally quite effective in arousing students’ interest, not to mention their desire to learn more about other cultures (Wight 1995, p. 131), so presumably they would have the same effect in EFL classes. IV. The study A. Overview: The major goal of this study was to pilot test a set of EFL materials, based on critical incidents, in an intensive summer English program in China. Data on the effectiveness of the material was then obtained by conducting interviews with the students who participated in the program. B. The material: The material tested in this study was the draft of a textbook called “Encounters” that consisted of five units, each unit containing the following three parts. Part A: The core of Part A is an open-ended critical incident exercise. Each exercise consists of an “encounter” situation in which a Chinese person meets a Westerner (either in China or abroad), who does or says something which the Chinese person finds difficult to understand or accept. For example, one situation describes how an older Western man becomes annoyed when a young Chinese woman insists on trying to help him with his heavy luggage. Students are then required to brainstorm different possible explanations of the Westerners’ behavior, a process followed by general class discussion. At the end of each exercise, the teacher is encouraged to suggest possible interpretations of the situation that students might not have thought of, and some such interpretations are listed in a teacher book. However, no single “correct” answer is provided in either the student or teacher book. This particular kind of critical incident exercise is intended not only to raise awareness of the interpretation process but also, by refusing to provide a “correct” answer, to build tolerance of ambiguity, a trait that is of value in intercultural interactions (Gundykunst 1998, p.229). Part B: The core of Part B is a semi-closed critical incident exercise in an advice column (“Dear Abby”) letter format. Again, each exercise starts with a situation in which a Chinese person has a problematic encounter with a Westerner, but in this case the situation is written as a letter from the Chinese person to “Fran,” a Western friend. After reading the first letter, students are asked to try to predict what Fran will say in response to the situation. Then, they turn the page and read a response letter in which Fran offers her thoughts on the situation. Fran generally avoids giving a “correct” answer to the situation, but she discusses the possibilities that seem most likely to her, thus leaving students with somewhat more sense of certainty (and comfort) than provided by the more open-ended exercise in Part A. Part C: The final part of each unit is based on a brief reading text that discusses an aspect of ICC. This reading is not directly related to the two situations which precede it (for fear that students will begin viewing the text in Part C as the long-awaited answer to the previous exercise). However, the concepts that it introduces are meant to heighten students’ general awareness of ICC, and build their understanding of key issues such as stereotyping, ethnocentrism and in/out-groups. C. The program: The study program in which these materials were tested was a two-week intensive training program for Chinese middle school teachers held at Nantong Teachers College in August 2000. The group of 47 participants was divided according to level into two classes. The Encounters material was used for two class hours every morning, and taught by Western teachers (one from Denmark and one from Scotland). Both were EFL teachers by training, not ICC trainers (though one had previously taught an earlier draft of the material). The program also included a course that focused on language teaching and learning issues, and additional conversation practice courses with foreign teachers. D. The informants: The students who participated in the English program also served as informants in the study. These were all Chinese middle school teachers working in the Nantong prefecture in Jiangsu province in China. All had graduated from some kind of professional teacher preparation program, though these ranged in level from primary school teacher training programs (shifan xuexiao) to four-year university programs. All had a professional need to learn about and teach Western culture, but none had ever lived abroad. Many (about 75% of the group) reported having had at least one Western teacher in college, but about 25% said they had not previously had any significant contact with Westerners. E. Data collection: Data collection in this study consisted mainly of interviews with the students, conducted toward the end of the course. 23 of the 47 students in the program, half from each of the two classes, were interviewed by me. Each interview took 15-20 minutes, and was taped and later transcribed. This set of interviews provided the primary data on which the results discussed below are based. 24 other interviews (12 each) were conducted by two research assistants, one Chinese and one American. These interviews were used mainly to check the accuracy of the general picture provided by the first set of interviews. They were also used to see whether students what the students told the author of the materials being tested was the same as that they told other interviewers (especially another Chinese person). (In the end, there seemed to be no appreciable difference in the responses.) The stated (and in fact primary) purpose of the interviews was to get students’ evaluation of the material. While the tone of the interviews was kept as informal as possible, and the order of topics in each interview was thus somewhat flexible, the questions asked were essentially the following: -- Which parts of the material did you like most, and why? Which least, and why? -- What do you feel you learned from this material? -- What do you feel you learned from this material about how to interact with foreigners? -- In the exercise in Parts A and B, were you ever surprised at how your teacher or Fran interpreted the situation? -- Do you have any other suggestions for how this material could be improved? Each interview was started out in English, in large part because students expected to practice and test their English skills. (Most informants attempted -- rather successfully -- to use English as much as possible.) Informants were told, however, they were welcome to respond speak either English or Chinese, and attempts were made to switch the conversation into Chinese if informants seemed to have difficulty expressing ideas in English. Some interviews took place as much as half in Chinese. F. Limitations of the study: 1. The most obvious limitation of this study was the short (two-week) length of the program. To make matters worse, for logistic reasons the interviews had to be started on the first day of the second week of the program, so the first informants interviewed had only studied the material for one week (ten class hours) before the interviews started, and had only completed the first two units. While ten or more hours of classroom exposure is not an insignificant amount of time, the results below may certainly be somewhat different than what we would have found had students been interviewed after a longer exposure to the material. So, in interpreting the results below, it will be important to keep in mind that they may say as much about the starting point from which students in China approach the issue of ICC skills as they do about the results of ICC training. 2. A second potential problem was the fact that most interviews were conducted in English, a language in which the informants were less than fully at home. Concern over this problem led me to start concluding each interview with students from the lower class with a general summation question in Chinese, and to insist that it be answered in Chinese. However, the answers provided by informants in Chinese were consistently the same as those given – albeit more laboriously – in English, so it does not appear that conducting the interviews mainly in English affected the results significantly. V. Results A. Cultural differences and ICC: As informants talked about what they learned from studying the material, they were far more likely to mention having learned about Western culture or differences between Chinese and Western culture than they were to mention anything about ICC or the role of interpretation in the ICC process. Out of 23 informants, 18 mentioned knowledge of Western culture one or more times during the interview as one of the main things they gained from the material. In contrast, only a few mentioned any of the information about ICC presented in the Part C reading texts. Furthermore, in cases where informants mentioned having learned about “intercultural communication” (or words to that effect) follow-up questions usually revealed that what they meant was in fact information about specific cultural differences rather than awareness of the process of ICC. For example, one informant mentioned having learned “strategies to communicate with foreigners” as one of the main things he had learned from the material. However, when asked to give examples, he talked about such things as strategies for striking up conversations with foreigners, the need not to refer to a foreigner as “old” and so forth. It is possible that informants in fact understood and remembered more ICC material from the readings than interviews revealed, but the fact that informants did not mention this without prompting suggests that it was not very salient in their minds. There was also little evidence in the interview data that informants saw a connection between the skills they practiced in the critical incident exercises (Parts A and B), and the ICC issues discussed in Part C. Instead, they seem to have viewed Parts A and B primarily as vehicles for illustrating particular cultural differences. This strong tendency to focus on culture differences was also reflected in the suggestions students made when asked how the material could be improved. 10 of the 23 informants requested more material on Western culture or differences between Chinese and Western culture; there were no corresponding requests for more information on ICC. Given that one of the intended purposes of the material is to promote awareness of ICC, this result is at least potentially discouraging. However it also needs to be placed in perspective by noting that it may reflect the difficulty of the challenge more than any flaw in the material design or effectiveness of critical incidents as a training tool. Within the English-teaching profession in China, there is wide consensus that teachers should teach about differences between Chinese and Western culture, so the informants in this study almost certainly entered the program with a strong desire to learn about such differences, and a strong expectation that they would learn about such differences. This probably translated into a tendency to attend more to information about cultural differences than to topics like ICC to which they were less attuned. Also, as noted above, ICC trainers often experience difficulty convincing people of the importance of ICC, so it may be unreasonable to expect significant changes in students’ awareness of ICC in a short space of time. B. Interpretation as an aspect of ICC: There is also little evidence that a strong and explicit linked was created in students’ minds between ICC and the process of interpretation. In response to the question about what they had learned from the material, only one informant mentioned the need for greater attention to the interpretation process. As above, when informants said something that might possibly have referred to greater awareness of the role of interpretation in ICC, follow-up questioning indicated that what they meant was knowing more factual information about Western culture. For example, one informant said the material had helped her learn how to avoid misunderstandings with foreigners. However, the example she gave (based on one of the situations in the material;) was that knowing about extra charges Western taxis sometimes assess for luggage may help avoid misunderstandings between a Western taxi driver and a Chinese passenger. Another who claimed that the material helped him learn “how to interpret what foreigner’s say and do” gave the example of knowing that when Westerners say “How are you?” they are just saying “Hello” rather than asking a question. Clearly, the focus of these informants was more on specific cultural differences than on the interpretation process. However, this discouraging result is tempered by a second finding from the interviews. When asked what they liked most about the material, more than half said they liked the critical incident exercises in Parts A and B specifically because these made them helped them “broadened their thinking” or words to that effect. Among the comments made were that the exercises “made us use our imaginations,” “”enlarged our imaginations,” “set us thinking a lot,” “expanded our thoughts,” and “helped us develop our thinking.” Interestingly, this was a point in the conversation where many informants slipped into Chinese, commenting that the exercises “rang women kaituo siwei” (make us open our thinking) “kuo da women de siwei,” (expanded our thinking) or “fazhan women de siwei” (developed our thinking). Clearly, these exercises struck a positive chord. (In fact, several commented that they wanted to try similar exercises in their own middle school English classrooms.) While many students may not necessarily have consciously connected this “broadened thought” effect with what they had read in the Part C readings about the importance of the interpretation process in ICC, it seems to have been one aspect of the material that was very salient in their minds. Not all the students were so enamored of the critical incident exercises and the demands they placed on students’ interpretation skills. A few mentioned that it was difficult, at least at first, to think of different possible explanations of the foreigners’ behavior. Another said that it was okay to ask students to guess why the foreigners behaved as they did, but only if the correct answer was provided afterward. The most extreme view was expressed by an informant who insisted that all of these questions about why a foreigner were unnecessary. As he noted: “We just want our foreigner teachers to tell us something. We just want to get more information, not to know why.” C. Exposure to new perspectives: There was at least some evidence that the materials, particularly the exercises in Parts A and B, exposed students to perspectives and explanations of foreigners’ behavior that they would not have otherwise considered. Interview questions about this topic sometimes confused informants, so the data here is less than fully clear, but approximately half of the informants were able to think of at least one example where the interpretation that the teacher, materials, or a classmate suggested was one they had not previously thought of. For example, in discussion of a situation where an older Western man refused help with his heavy luggage from a young Chinese women, several informants commented that they had not previously considered the possibility that a desire to be self-reliant may have been an explanation for his refusal. This finding would seem to suggest that the exercises had at least some value as a vehicle for exposing students to new perspectives on why foreigners act as they do. An interesting side issue was raised by the fact that about one third of the informants cited examples where they were surprised, not by a new possible interpretation of a foreigner’s behavior, but by the behavior described in the situation itself, and in the minds of some informants these examples of surprising behavior seemed to be more salient than the issue of how the behavior was to be interpreted. Furthermore, incidental comments made by several informants during the interview suggested that they viewed the behavior of the foreigners in the situations as typical Western behavior. For example, with regard to the situation described above in which an older Western man resists the attempts of a young Chinese woman to help him with his heavy luggage, one informant commented: “Western people wouldn’t like others to help them.” With regard to another incident in which a Chinese person meets a young Western couple who have decided to live together instead of getting married, one informant commented: “young American couples live together.” Admittedly, such over-generalizations may have resulted from flaws in how the informants expressed themselves in English, but some of them probably reflect a genuine tendency to view the behavior represented in the situations as typical models of Western behavior. Given that the critical incident situations in the material do not necessarily represent typical Western behavior, this finding is a cause of some concern, and needs to be addressed in revision of the material. D. Improvement in English: A final result of the interviews was that, despite the material’s heavy focus on issues of ICC and culture, the majority of the informants felt that the material was interesting and effective as a vehicle for helping them improve their English. An indirect but interesting indication of this was the fact that more than a quarter of the informants made some comment to the effect that they wanted to try exercises like those in the materials in their own middle school classes. VI. Conclusions 1. Despite the heavy focus of the Encounters materials on issues of ICC and culture, students found it to be a useful vehicle for helping to develop their English, especially oral skills. In this sense, there is no problem with the use of such exercises in the EFL classroom. 2. At least in this program, the Encounters material was not very effective in shifting students’ focus from cultural differences toward an enhanced cognitive awareness of the issues of ICC and interpretation. This may, however, have been a result of the short length of the program, and it remains to be seen whether a longer exposure to the material would build a stronger explicit awareness and understanding of ICC issues. This may also be a secondary concern because, as Brislin and Yoshida (1994, p. 87) point out, “understanding theories and concepts in intercultural communication does not automatically lead to culturally sensitive behaviors.” 3. With regard to the question of whether the Encounters material helped cultivate good ICC skills and habits of thought, the results are somewhat more promising. The interview data can only reflect what informants thought about, not what they would actually do in an intercultural encounter. However, it is encouraging that even after only a short exposure to the critical incident exercises many of the informants commented voluntarily and favorably on how it broadened their thinking. This suggests that the exercises made at least some positive impact in terms encouraging them to think more broadly and perhaps more carefully about why foreigners might do things that seem odd from a Chinese perspective. While this may be only a modest gain, it seems to be a good start in the right direction. References Brewer, M. & Miller, N. (1996). Intergroup relations. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Co. Brislin, R. & Yoshida, T. (1994). Intercultural communication training: An introduction. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Cushner, K. & Brislin, R. (1996). Intercultural interactions: A practical guide, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Gundykunst, W. & Kim, Y. Y. (1997). Communicating with strangers, 3rd ed. Boston: McGraw Hill. Gundykunst, W. (1998). Bridging Differences: Effective intergroup communication, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Lustig, M. & Koester, J. (1996). intercultural competence: Interpersonal communication across cultures, 2nd ed. New York: Harper Collins College Publishers. Nelson, G. (1998). Intercultural communication and related courses taught in TESOL Masters degree programs. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 22 (1), 17-33. Samovar, L. & Porter, R. (1995). Communication between cultures, 2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co. Snow, D. (2000). Chinese EFL programs, foreign teachers, and intercultural communication skills. Crosslinks in English Language Teaching, 1, 39-52. Triandis, H. (1995). Individualism and collectivism. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Wight, A. (1995). The critical incident as a training tool. In S. Fowler and M. Mumford (Eds.), Intercultural sourcebook: Cross-cultural training methods, vol. 1. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press. � I wish to thank Anne Froeslev and Julie Crystal for their assistance in pilot teaching materials, and Xu Ying and Janel Fox for help in conducting interviews for this study. My thanks also to the middle school teachers from Nantong who graciously consented to be interviewed. � Gundykunst uses the term “strangers” to refer to people of other cultural backgrounds. Given that my focus is mainly on EFL in the Chinese context, I will use the term more often used in China, “foreigner” (waiguoren). � Nelson (1998) argues that an additional reason Western EFL and ESL teachers should study ICC skills because their interactions with students are often intercultural in nature. He also notes that many Western English teachers will live and work in foreign cultural settings at some point during their careers, and a knowledge of ICC skills would be beneficial in these settings not only to facilitate daily life but also the ability to work effectively in an institutional setting that is culturally alien to them. � Nelson’s study, based on the 1990-92 Directory of Professional Preparation Programs in TESOL in the United States published by TESOL, is somewhat dated. However, examination of the 1999-2001 edition of the Directory produces similar results (Snow 2000). � One additional asset that EFL teachers have is the ability to see another culture in richer detail than students can, and by helping students learn to take a more sophisticated and complex view of other cultures, teachers can help counter-act the tendency to view other cultures in terms of stereotypes and over-generalizations. This is one of the most important ways EFL teachers can contribute to better ICC skills among their students, but little is said about it here because it lies beyond the main concerns of this particular research project. � These are roughly equivalent in level to professional senior middle schools -- students enter after graduation from junior middle school. PAGE 11