Lecturer’s perceptions of intercultural communicative competence and its impact on teaching performance : a case study in a New Zealand higher education institution
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Other Title
Authors
Dhanaraj, Indra
Author ORCID Profiles (clickable)
Degree
Master of International Communication
Grantor
Unitec Institute of Technology
Date
2013
Supervisors
Kolesova, Elena
Rolland, Deborah
Rolland, Deborah
Type
Masters Thesis
Ngā Upoko Tukutuku (Māori subject headings)
Keyword
ICC
ESL lecturers
ESL students
intercultural communication
communicative competence
interpersonal communication
ESL teaching performance
New Zealand tertiary education
Unitec Institute of Technology. Department of Languages
DOLS
ESL lecturers
ESL students
intercultural communication
communicative competence
interpersonal communication
ESL teaching performance
New Zealand tertiary education
Unitec Institute of Technology. Department of Languages
DOLS
ANZSRC Field of Research Code (2020)
Citation
Dhanaraj, I. (2013). Lecturer’s perceptions of intercultural communicative competence and its impact on teaching performance : a case study in a New Zealand higher education institution. (Unpublished document submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of International Communication). Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10652/2350
Abstract
This research explores Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) with specific focus on lecturers teaching English as a second language (ESL) in a New Zealand tertiary institution. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the ‘lived’ experiences of lecturers in the tertiary educational sector. This research aims to address a gap in the literature about lecturers’ understanding of their own intercultural communicative competence (ICC) by illuminating the key components, namely knowledge, motivation and skill, which impact upon ICC in the English language (ESL) classroom. A qualitative approach that incorporated triangulation was used to analyse Intercultural Communicative Competence in practice in the Department of Language Studies (DOLS) Unitec. The research consisted of two data collection methods, namely reflective journal entry and focus group discussions, which enabled data collection related to the participants’ personal perceptions, opinions, attitudes, values, power distance, and non-verbal communication on ESL classroom experiences. Although the reflective journal entry was collected from only lecturer participants as they are the primary focus of this research, the focus group discussions were conducted with lecturer and student participants in separate groups to give the research a valuable comparison. Overall, the findings of this study indicate the lecturers have an awareness of intercultural communicative competence and they view ICC as an on-going process. However, the lecturers’ perceptions about ICC are different from students’ perceptions. While the findings of the student analysis generally indicate they believe lecturers display satisfactory ICC, there were two points of contention. One important difference was lecturers’ assumptions of students’ ability in understanding New Zealand academic norms. The other difference was non-verbal communication. These different perceptions indicate that although lecturers believe they make a conscious effort to gain knowledge about students’ cultures in order to interpret and react to a situation, the students believe otherwise, and this impacts on students’ learning. Finally, the research proposes future research directions for a longitudinal study across Unitec, including further exploration of the theme of ‘Western’, and makes recommendations to the DOLS management team for professional development on ICC.
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