Exploring university teachers' and students' perceptions of intercultural awareness

The global spread of English has resulted in diverse varieties of the language and not surprisingly it has influenced English language education worldwide. Its role as an international language therefore, highlights the need to raise intercultural awareness in English language teaching. The aim of this study is to gain an insight into English language instructors and learners' perceptions toward intercultural awareness at a university prep school in Turkey. In order to broaden the scope of the study, this research employed a mixed-method research design, combining quantitative and qualitative measures. The data consists of questionnaires conducted with 45 instructors including NESTs and NNESTs and 92 learners; semi-structured interviews with 8 instructors, and focus group interviews with 24 learners. The quantitative data was analyzed using the SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Science) software version 19.0, and the qualitative data were analyzed using the NVivo qualitative data software version 10.0. The investigation focused on four areas: participants perceptions toward the ownership of English, cultural integration in English language teaching, intercultural efficiency of the ELP program, and suggestions to enhance intercultural awareness. The results revealed that both the instructors and the learners acknowledged the importance of the English language in the realm of intercultural awareness, but both lacked a full understanding of the concept. The findings also indicated that the ELP program could not be considered as successful enough to raise intercultural awareness adequately and a set of recommendations on the issue was provided by the participants. Based on the outcomes of the study, remarkable implications were suggested in order to raise English language teachers' and students' intercultural awareness. The results of the study pointed to the substantial need for in-service teacher training programs and curriculum reflecting intercultural dimension of English language, and extra-curricular cultural activities that promote intercultural awareness. This study aims to contribute to English language teaching by revealing both teacher and student perspectives, which has been seldomly investigated and also offering several recommendations to enrich intercultural perspective in English language teaching.