Review of Empirical Research into Teachers’ Belief related to Intercultural Language Teaching

Abstract

In recent years the topic of intercultural language teaching has attracted considerable research interest, few in the form of empirical studies of teachers' belief related to intercultural language teaching. Arguing the need to make a clear direction for further research of this kind, this paper intends to review the common issues investigated in these studies, and the similarities or differences between their findings. The review found the research focus of these studies can be mainly divided into six categories: teachers’ teaching objectives of language teaching and culture teaching; language teachers’ distribution of teaching time; the content and the way of language teachers culture teaching; language teachers’ belief on ICC and ILT; students’ attitudes towards ILT; and the degree of teachers familiarity with foreign culture. Apart from language teachers’ distribution of teaching time, the way of language teachers’ cultural teaching and language teachers’ belief on ICC, the findings of other aspects vary among different studies, even in the same study. In light of these findings, factors affecting the above differences and areas for further research are suggested.