Chinese ESL Instructors' Beliefs and Practices of Intercultural Education in a Ubiquitous Environment

Abstract

Primarily motivated by the practical question of whether it is feasible to identify the barriers that English instructors would face while cultivating students' intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in a ubiquitous learning (u-learning) environment, the study outlined in this chapter examined English instructors' online teaching experience in terms of their beliefs and pedagogical practice. A mixed-method research design was adopted to collect data from a survey among 110 English as a second language (ESL) instructors in Chinese universities and interviews with five of them. The findings indicated significant tension between Chinese ESL instructors' disposition towards effective intercultural education in a u-learning environment and their deeply held pedagogical conviction that teaching ICC requires face-to-face interactions. The authors, therefore, suggest that Chinese ESL instructors should be equipped with alternative teaching beliefs toward more innovative educational approaches.