Exploring English Language Instructors’ In-class Practices of Intercultural Communicative Competence through Vignette Cases

Abstract Being an intercultural speaker has been acknowledged one of the essential skills in foreign language teaching. Therefore, Intercultural Communicative Competence of foreign language learners and related in-class practices have gained significance. This study aims to explore English language instructors’ in-class practices of Intercultural Communicative Competence through vignette cases in order to reduce the self-reported ideas. Following the qualitative, phenomenological research design, the data were collected from the ten participants through the vignette-based interview designed within the study. The results revealed that ideal and real versions of Intercultural Communicative Competence practices were different; they ideally believed that it should be in the centre of language teaching; yet, it was not covered much in real situations. The participants were mostly able to determine the problem of teaching Intercultural Communicative Competence throughout the vignette cases offering numerous suggestions and sharing their reactions to the cases. They also provided hypothetical practices for themselves, and shared their in-class experiences. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research were provided at the end of the study.