Pragmatic awareness and intercultural sensitivity of pre-service EFL teachers

As English functions as a global lingua franca, foreign language education increasingly emphasizes the development of learners' intercultural communication competence, which relies heavily on pragmatic awareness and intercultural sensitivity. Teachers play a critical role in fostering these abilities; however, teacher education programs often give insufficient attention to these areas, leaving the competence levels of pre-service teachers underexplored. This mixed-method study investigates the pragmatic awareness and intercultural sensitivity of pre-service English language teachers enrolled at Inonu University and Firat University, examines differences based on demographic variables (gender, grade level, and overseas experience), and explores the relationship between the two constructs. Quantitative data were collected using Appropriateness Judgment Tasks (AJT) and the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS), while qualitative insights were obtained through semi-structured interviews. The findings indicate that participants generally display high intercultural sensitivity and relatively strong pragmatic awareness. Participants were more successful in identifying pragmatically appropriate expressions than inappropriate ones and showed greater sensitivity to rudeness than to over-politeness, suggesting difficulty with subtle pragmatic infelicities. Interview data revealed challenges related to cultural differences, politeness and formality nuances, affective factors, limited practice, lexical constraints, and overall proficiency. Demographic analyses showed no significant gender differences overall, except that males reported higher interaction confidence and enjoyment. Pragmatic awareness differed significantly by grade level, favoring third-year students. Overseas experience enhanced intercultural sensitivity but not pragmatic awareness. Finally, a weak yet significant positive correlation was found between pragmatic awareness and intercultural sensitivity, indicating partial but independent development of these constructs.