چکیده:
Critical cultural awareness as a component of intercultural competence (Byram, 1997, 2012) has received the extensive attention of scholars in the fields of language teaching, cultural studies, ethnic studies, gender studies, communication studies, etc. in the recent decades. However, no instrument has ever been developed to assess this construct among Iranian EFL teachers. To fill this gap, in the first phase of the present study a theoretical framework for critical cultural awareness and its components was developed through reviewing the literature and conducting interviews with ELT experts. In the second phase, a questionnaire was developed and piloted with 370 participants who were available and willing to participate in the study. More specifically, the 37 items of the newly-developed ‘CCA' scale were subjected to principal component analysis which revealed the presence of three components. These phases led to the development of a questionnaire with three components and 37 items: (1) ‘CCA in ELT Programs' including 20 items, (2) ‘CCA in ELT Textbooks and Materials' including 13 items, and (3) ‘CCA in General Terms'
including four items. The findings of this study may shed some light on this fuzzy subject and help researchers assess Iranian EFL teachers'critical cultural awareness.
خلاصه ماشینی:
": intercultural communicative competence, critical culturalawareness, questionnaire development, EFL teachers Received: 01/03/2017 Accepted: 05/09/2017 Corresponding author The hegemonic spread of the English language and Anglo-American culture or way of life has been the primary concern of many scholars (Kumaravadivelu, 2012; Martin & Nakayama, 2000; Phillipson, 1992) in the recent decades.
Intercultural competence, in turn, consists of three components (knowledge, skills and attitudes) and is complemented by five values (the savoirs): (i) intercultural attitudes (savoir être) which implies inclination to defer distrust concerning other cultures, curiosity, and directness, and belief about the individual’s native culture; (ii) knowledge (savoirs) which refers to the knowledge of societal groups and their productions and performances in their own or their interlocutor's country, and of the common procedures of individual and social communication; (iii) skills of interpreting and relating (savoir comprendre) which comprises the ability of interpreting an event or document from foreign culture, explaining it and relating it to those from the individuals' native culture; (iv) skills of discovery and interaction (savoir apprendre/faire) which is concerned with the ability to obtain new understanding regarding a culture, its practices and the ability to activate those outlooks, knowledge and skills under the constrictions of real-life communication; and (v) critical cultural awareness / political education (savoir s'engager) which encompasses the ability of conducting crucial evaluation on the basis of clear principles, practices, standpoints and products in their native or foreign language cultures and countries.
For creating these items, the findings of the comprehensive review of the literature on intercultural communicative competence and critical cultural awareness as well as the results of the in-depth interviews with ELT experts and experienced teachers were used."