Intercultural learning and identity development as a form of teacher development through study abroad: narratives from English language practitioners

ABSTRACT

The spread of English and its increasing importance in intercultural encounters have challenged essentialist perspectives of culture in English language teaching. In addition to using English as a means of communication, students are expected to develop intercultural awareness, which allows them to analyse and reflect on their intercultural encounters and to participate in social activities. Such a need draws great attention to language teachers’ perceptions of and engagement in intercultural teaching. As a narrative inquiry, this paper examines the reflections of English language practitioners who have returned from an overseas study experience and have become English language teachers in China. It focuses on their study abroad experiences, encompassing both their achievements and challenges in the context of intercultural learning, and examines how these experiences have influenced their current involvement in intercultural teaching. The findings help shed light on the shifts in teachers’ perceptions of intercultural encounters and how the processes of making sense of intercultural experiences inform their orientation towards intercultural learning. The paper considers the importance of helping teachers use their experiential understanding of language and culture to generate a critical pedagogical stance to promote intercultural education.

KEYWORDS:

• Language ideology
• English language teaching
• intercultural learning
• intercultural experiences
• overseas study

1. Introduction

The global spread of English has urged language users and language teaching practitioners to reconceptualise the reality of the English language and the goals of English language teaching (ELT). Whereas English has traditionally been taught and learned using the native-speaker standard as the invisible norm for people who do not speak it as their first language (L1), many scholars and teachers are now coming to embrace a view of English as truly dynamic and diverse, not only in terms of its speakership but also in terms of its structure and use in different contexts across the world (Baker & Fang, 2021; Jenkins, 2014). This has foregrounded questions around how language teachers can design and implement pedagogy that moves beyond Standard Language Ideology in developing learners’ understanding of real-world language use and helps cultivate their capacities for meaningful interaction with individuals from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds (Baker, 2015; Fang, 2020; Sung, 2016). In particular, work inspired by research on English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) has argued for the need to move beyond national conceptions of culture and to challenge the assumption that the English language inevitably reflects Anglo cultural norms (Baker, 2015; Liu et al., 2022). This means helping learners recognise that the cultural meanings associated with different features of the English language such as accents, lexical choices, grammatical patterns, pragmatic routines and discourse practices are increasingly open to interpretation and negotiation amongst participants in interaction, in accordance with participants’ identity positions, cultural biographies, interactional histories and concrete communicative needs (Fang, 2020; McConachy, 2018).

On the other hand, developing culturally relevant and contextually ELF-aware pedagogies remains a challenging task, necessitating constant reflection and innovation on the part of language teachers. Importantly, teachers’ own understandings of linguistic variability and the role of culture in meaning making both enable and constrain their ability to promote intercultural learning in the classroom (Scarino, 2014; Senyshyn, 2018). Recent work on language teachers’ professional development during a period of study abroad has suggested that reflection on concrete interactional episodes has the potential to help teachers become more aware of the scope of linguistic variability within the English language and the fact that linguistic forms and practices can be interpreted according to diverse cultural frames of reference made relevant by interactional participants (Chen & McConachy, 2022; Lanas, 2017). Such a heightened awareness, then, can enable teachers to consider the adoption of a more explicit intercultural stance in their own teaching. However, such outcomes are not necessarily guaranteed, as much depends on the nature of teachers’ experiences and how they interpret them in relation to their current situations and needs. As teachers play a crucial role in shaping students’ understanding of the world and their place within it, it is essential to foster intercultural awareness and competence among them. It is important, therefore, to further understand the nature of intercultural insights that teachers derive from their own experiences of intercultural communication and how they see the relevance of these insights for their own language teaching practices.

This paper draws on narratives from a group of Chinese in-service teachers who spent time pursuing their master’s degrees in a study abroad context. It highlights how these teachers made sense of their intercultural experiences as students abroad and explores how the period of study abroad shaped their own orientation towards intercultural teaching in language classrooms. Our research aims to enhance the understanding of potential benefits of intercultural learning and identity development as means of teacher development, in order to promote a more comprehensive approach to professional growth. Given the increasing number of pre-service and in-service teachers completing professional qualifications abroad, this paper will have implications for such teachers and those involved in second language teacher education.

2. Literature review

2.1. The role of intercultural experience in ELT

It is argued that ELT should not simply focus only on language skills in a narrow sense but should rather aim to develop learners’ abilities to negotiate meanings with others from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds (Baker, 2015; Byram, 2021). This entails helping learners analyse and reflect on the role of language in the construction of meaning and develop a sensitivity to the potential for individuals from different backgrounds to interpret interactional scenarios in relation to specific assumptions and contextual expectations (McConachy, 2018). There is, thus, a strong impetus for teachers to embed more opportunities for reflection on experience, including learners’ own interactional experiences inside and outside the classroom.

It is understood that reflection on intercultural experiences extends the traditional intercultural knowledge learning in classroom settings, as the aim is not to come to conclusions about the traits of the essentialised ‘cultural other’. Rather, the aim is for learners to become adept at generating interpretations of cultural behaviours that take into account diverse possible meanings and evaluations of difference (Tian & McConachy, 2021). This represents an interpretative perspective on intercultural learning that foregrounds learners’ capacity for engaging with difference and decentring from default perceptions of self and other (Liddicoat & Scarino, 2013). In this sense, reflection on experience links social engagement with critical reflection focusing on ‘change’ through participation in order to break cultural stereotypes and make sense of ‘real’ intercultural encounters (Jackson, 2018; Xu, 2024). It is worth noting, however, that the potential for learning from intercultural experiences significantly depends on the degree to which individuals ‘become fully engaged with their environment rather than living almost encapsulated in the links with home’ (Byram, 2021, p. 103). This approach encourages active participation over merely adopting a tourist perspective when living abroad.

2.2. Teacher professional learning and teacher history research

Recent studies on the professional learning of teachers from an intercultural perspective have increasingly emphasised a close relationship between personal and professional learning. For example, Dressler et al. (2023) conducted a nexus analysis of how pre-service teachers from a Canadian university blogged about their English teaching and L2 learning experiences during an international volunteer-teaching sojourn. They found that reflection on intercultural experiences allowed teachers to consider their personal identity as L2 users, their personal and professional language learning and teaching goals, and their professional identity in relation to culturally and linguistically diverse learners in future classroom instruction. Chen and McConachy’s (2022) study of in-service teachers from China studying abroad in the UK also foregrounded the importance of personal experiences in contributing to professional insights as a language teacher. This study showed that encounters with new pragmatic routines and different conceptions of interpersonal relations in academic and social contexts deepened teachers’ own understanding of cultural differences and generated insights regarding the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to develop in their own learners. Importantly, this study showed that a gradual shift in teachers’ recognition of diversity in English language structure and use was a key feature of their intercultural understanding. Thus, Chen and McConachy (2022) argue for the importance of integrating ‘language awareness’ when theorising intercultural learning during study abroad.

The findings of this study resonate with other work in the ELF tradition which has suggested that the development of intercultural awareness involves particular attention to the mobilisation of linguistic markers of identity and cultural frames of reference in situ (Baker, 2015; Darvin & Norton, 2015; Fang, 2018). This has been captured in previous studies about language teachers’ overseas immersion experiences (Lee, 2009; Yuan et al., 2021). In particular, in these studies, participants tried to make comparisons between language use and teaching in the immersion site and their own context, which helped them interpret the richness and dynamicity of language and navigate potential conflicts (e.g. bias against non-native speakers) (Fang, 2018; Sung, 2019). Importantly, these studies also showed that such interpretative and reflective engagement contributed to their identity development as prospective language teachers with enhanced intercultural sensitivity and equity awareness.

Teacher history research has also emphasised the importance of teachers’ professional development through reflection on their past experiences (Ellis, 2016). Such research has shown that teachers can identify best practices, challenges and successes from their past in order to address pedagogical issues and develop critical thinking skills, empathy and cultural competence necessary for professional growth over time. For instance, Peng and Xiong (2021) examined how three Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) teachers in a Chinese university setting adopted the communicative approach through influences from their past language learning experiences. By adopting interviews and classroom observations, the study found that teachers actively employed communicative pedagogy by reflecting on three types of language experiences, namely, positive classroom experiences, negative classroom experiences and natural language acquisition in language learning. Through comparative reflections on their past experiences, the participants were able to ‘draw upon multiple sources from their diverse lived experiences and actively seek positive and negative evidence through dialogic comparisons, in order to arrive at a better understanding of language learners and the learning process’ (Peng & Xiong, 2021, p. 139). Similarly, Donato and Davin (2018) investigated how novice teachers’ classroom discourse is influenced by their historical experiences. By analysing data from two novice teachers, the study revealed how individuals bring history into the present through their thoughts and actions as they are confronted by external forces. The findings suggest that personal history interacts with external factors in complex and unpredictable ways, potentially leading to contentious local practices because of past negative experience of pronunciation teaching in a case and struggle to reach an acceptable language proficiency in another case, leading to a negative impact on language teachers’ beliefs and practices. For example, Moodie (2016) conducted a study in the South Korean context, and found that past experiences influenced teachers’ perceptions of their students’ English language learning.

Such studies carried out in the tradition of teacher history research are useful in that they highlight the role of personal experiences as learners or teachers in shaping teachers’ beliefs and practices. This helps draw attention to the historical dimension of personal identity development and the interface with pedagogical practices. However, what is not well represented in this research tradition is a focus on intercultural elements of personal history and how a teacher’s own experiences of intercultural learning as a learner or teacher help shape pedagogical knowledge. Therefore, we now turn to the literature that has more explicitly connected identity development and intercultural learning in a study abroad context.

2.3. Intercultural learning and identity development through study abroad

As underscored above, identity development is a key consideration when attempting to understand the ways that teachers’ intercultural experiences contribute to intercultural learning and expansion of teaching vision. Essentially, the interpretation of experience is largely driven by an individual’s multifaceted identity in the sense that it relates to ‘how a person understands his or her relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the future’ (Norton, 2013, p. 45). Such a view of identity as individuals’ positioning and negotiating of their relationship to the world across time and space provides a way of understanding potential challenges that teachers might face in interpreting and responding to linguistic and cultural differences and how they attempt to grow from these experiences (Norton & De Costa, 2018; Yuan & Mak, 2018). Darvin and Norton (2015) developed the model of investment to address the complexity of motivation in learning a second language, with identity, capital and ideology as the three constructs. They highlighted the dynamic nature of a learner’s identity from a globalised perspective. Identity is constantly reshaped by the governing ideology and the individual’s possessed capital (Darvin & Norton, 2015). Norton (2013) underscored the importance of viewing identity as ‘nonunitary and contradictory’ (p. 162). From Norton (2013), while individuals may simultaneously hold multiple identities as ‘a site of struggle’ (Darvin & Norton, 2015, p. 45), their positions are constantly negotiated subject to relations of power within a particular site. Therefore, rather than being marginalised, language learners may seek to gain a more powerful position to increase their authority, but this depends on how they invest in gaining new symbolic capital in the new context (Darvin & Norton, 2015; Norton & De Costa, 2018). Canagarajah (2013) also argued for the importance of agency ‘to redefine the translocal space to their advantage’ (p. 218) to further understanding of the negotiation of power in intercultural communication because ‘possibilities for power to be negotiated by diverse agents and agencies in intercultural communication are somewhat limited’ (p. 205).

In the context of study abroad, for example, Zhang and Wang (2022) examined how study-abroad experiences shaped Chinese college English teachers’ professional identities in the process of negotiating new learning with the local context upon return to their home country. They revealed that teachers’ study-abroad experiences were actively translated to their professional growth by allowing themselves to embrace and develop multiple professional identities in a dynamic and non-linear process of identity construction. In this regard, teachers’ intercultural experiences seemed to have a great impact on their perceptions of language as well as their identity development. This confirms that language teachers’ own individual and social identities play a central mediating role in shaping how the linguistic forms and communicative practices associated with the English language are perceived and responded to (Baker, 2015; Cenoz & Gorter, 2020).

Intercultural experience is also relevant to integrating the psychological, cultural or moral aspects of an individual’s multicultural identity (Fang et al., 2023; Fielding, 2021) and also links to a person’s responsibility to participate in intercultural social engagements and activities as a way to develop their intercultural identity. Intercultural experience is particularly important for teachers in contexts where classroom practice still dominates learning and the majority of students are not given the ‘privilege’ of having authentic intercultural experiences. Again, this requires teachers to be sensitive to and reflect on individuals’ intercultural experiences for their own intercultural awareness development if they want to pass it on to their students. In this sense, it is important for instructors to unpack their own experiences and be willing to share that with students to transform the language education experience.

This paper presents a narrative inquiry involving English language practitioners who returned to China after studying abroad. The study delves into their achievements and challenges during their overseas study, especially focusing on how their perspectives on language and communication evolved through the interpretation of and reflection on their intercultural experiences. Additionally, the research examines their transition from student roles to teacher roles and how this transformation influenced their pedagogical ideas and implementations in their own teaching (Chen & McConachy, 2022). This paper aims to answer the following two research questions:

1. How do study abroad experiences contribute to English language teachers’ intercultural learning?

2. How do the intercultural learning experiences of these English language teachers abroad shape their identity and influence their engagement in intercultural teaching upon their return to China?

3. Methodology

3.1. Research context and participants

Traditionally, English in China is taught as a subject without really expanding to understand the cultural levels. With the fact that China has the world’s largest population of English learners (He, 2020), there is a need to investigate the extent to which intercultural learning can contribute to the expansion of English usage beyond the classroom level. Additionally, it is important to consider how the negotiation and construction of identity can be developed among individuals during their English learning journey. The focus on intercultural understanding in China can provide a picture of how English as an international language is taught and learned and how cultural instruction and intercultural communication are understood through education.

The participants were university English language teachers who returned to China after completing their overseas study. From purposive sampling (Dörnyei, 2007), four English language teachers are selected here. Aligned with the research questions, the selection criteria of the participants include: (1) They have pursued a master’s degree abroad; and (2) They returned to China as university lecturers within 2 years after their study abroad experiences. Those teachers had experiences in four different countries: Singapore, the UK, the US and New Zealand. The participants all obtained their master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) or applied linguistics. They ranged in age from 26 to 32, and all lived overseas for at least one year (see Table 1 for a detailed profile of the participants). All the participants had some intercultural experiences and encounters to develop intercultural awareness and engage in some reflections on their intercultural awareness development.

Table 1. Profiles of the participants.

Name	Gender	Age	Qualification	Overseas experience	University Teaching experience	Duration of narratives
Hank	Male	26	MA in Singapore	3 years	2 years	53′39′′
Natalie	Female	26	MA in the UK	2 years	2 years	41′47′′
Irene	Female	27	MA in the USA	5 years	1 year	42′33′′
Edward	Male	32	MA in New Zealand	2 years	2 years	62′34′′

3.2. Data collection and analysis

Data were collected via the first author’s personal contact through purposive sampling (Dörnyei, 2007). The narrative inquiry includes face-to-face semi-structured story-telling – the first author provided some guidelines for the participants to tell their stories in a flexible manner. Narrative inquiry was adopted to encourage teachers to share their life experiences during study abroad and their intercultural teaching experiences upon returning to their own contexts. Thus, the use of narrative inquiry aimed to explore meaning through people’s lived experience (Barkhuizen & Consoli, 2021), particularly regarding critical incidents during their overseas encounters and teaching experience (Baker & Fang, 2021).

The participants were given enough flexibility to express themselves based on the prompts related to their experiences abroad, intercultural encounters, academic and social activities abroad and intercultural communication teaching. Each interview lasted 42–62 minutes. After discussing the study’s objectives with the participants, the interviews were conducted in Putonghua, which enabled the participants to express their thoughts in more depth and with more flexibility.

All the interviews were audio-recorded, and the first author listened to the recordings and transcribed the data verbatim. To enhance credibility, the transcripts were returned to the participants for peer checking purposes. The data were then input into the NVivo software to facilitate the coding process. The approach of qualitative content analysis was adopted to ‘explore the deeper meanings so as to add interpretive depth and breadth to the analysis’ (Jenkins, 2014, p. 128). In particular, the first author reviewed the transcripts in detail to identify the codes related to the participants’ intercultural experiences as language learners and users, as well as their pedagogical beliefs and practices about intercultural teaching as language teachers. These codes, such as ‘recognising the diversity of accents’ (Hank), ‘struggling with intercultural conflicts’ (Natalie), and ‘introducing different varieties of English’ (Edwards), were derived from the significant episodes the participants encountered in their past intercultural learning and teaching experiences. For instance, Hank shared how he came to a realisation of English as a lingua franca through his study abroad experiences. Specifically, he pointed out how important it is for him and his students to appreciate the diversity of English, through which different people can engage in exchange of information and mutual learning despite their own accents and culture backgrounds.

Following the three dimensions of the narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2004), namely, ‘temporality’ (i.e. linking individuals’ past, present and future), ‘sociality’ (i.e. social interactions) and ‘place’ (i.e. the classroom, institutional and socio-cultural setting), these episodes were further enriched based on the data, and transformed into mini-stories. These stories thus captured the milestones of the participants’ narrative experiences in relation to intercultural learning and teaching. Based on a chronological order (i.e. temporality), the different stories were then knitted together to form a story constellation, shedding light on how the participants developed their intercultural awareness through studying abroad and how such experiences informed their current language teaching. In the narratives, special attention was paid to their social interactions with different people (i.e. sociality) during intercultural encounters and classroom teaching, mediated by the external institutional and socio-cultural contexts (i.e. place).

3.3. Trustworthiness

The data were collected and translated by the first author from Chinese to English; a colleague who specialises in English translation was invited to check the original data against the translated version to ensure the accuracy of the translation process. While the first author was in charge of data analysis, the second and third author who are language teacher educators also played a facilitative role by engaging in critical discussion with the first author, thus contributing to the trustworthiness of the findings. For instance, they provided valuable input on data interpretation, offering alternative perspectives to minimise subjectivity in the process.

4. Teachers’ narratives

4.1. Hank

Hank chose to pursue his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in Singapore. Singapore is considered a multilingual and multicultural setting that provides opportunities for people to use English in academic and social contexts. Hank did not plan to be a teacher during his study abroad, and he did not take courses related to intercultural communication in his undergraduate and postgraduate studies: ‘My major was related to education and classroom teaching, so the programmes had almost no courses on intercultural communication’. However, he volunteered as an English teacher at a local primary school where he had opportunities to work with teachers and students. Hank mentioned that these experiences influenced his decision to be a university teacher after graduation:

I am interested in English learning myself and I have learned to enjoy English medium instruction during my study in Singapore; my teacher abroad was a good role model and always inspired me so I decided to aim my career as an English language teacher.

In terms of his experience in Singapore, he stated: ‘I would prefer to work with people who can speak Mandarin, though we still use English to communicate’. Hank shared that his teacher assigned the students into three groups according to their L1s, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil; the teacher also considered students’ L1s when assigning tasks. Hank elaborated:

My teacher teaching semantics was from Malaysia, and he would use some memes in Malay. Other students were laughing while I had no clue what the meme was about. But most of the time we still used English to communicate.

Hank noted that people tended to judge a person based on his or her accent:

I was shocked to hear people’s English accent when I first arrived. People also assumed I am a local but as long as I speak English people know that I am not a Singaporean. I didn’t feel being discriminated but I had to adapt to it. I learned to accommodate and adopt my accent – this changed my attitudes towards a so-called good accent.

Here, Hank changed his attitudes towards what a ‘good’ accent by learning to adapt to Singapore English and even adopting his accent. Hank learned how to accommodate and how people should be tolerant of accent diversity. Hank’s experience in Singapore was also linked to his identity change after being a teacher of English:

I felt that English was simply a tool before my overseas experiences. Now I change my mind – your English and your accent is part of who you are – it is more important to express yourself well in intercultural communication regardless of what English accent you have.

Hank stated that he changed his beliefs about the ultimate goal of English learning, adding: ‘I also shared my intercultural experiences with my students. When I was in Singapore, I participated in a language exchange programme where I taught Mandarin to a local businessperson and he taught me Cantonese’. This experience changed Hank’s attitudes towards language contact, as he shared below:

I don’t evaluate people’s use of language, even people co-switch. I had a Malaysian teacher who would use Malay and English for telling jokes. Although I don’t understand, I realise that people might choose to use certain languages for certain purposes. Therefore, as a teacher myself, I also encourage my students to speak more freely, not to hide themselves because of their accents.

In sum, Hank’s overseas experiences have shaped his perspective on intercultural communication and language diversity. Hank raised his ELF awareness of linguistic diversity from his intercultural experiences, for instance, not to evaluate others’ accents and how he changed his beliefs of English – in turn in his teaching as a teacher by encouraging his students to speak. As an English language teacher, Hank advocated for his students to freely express themselves without fear of their accents or linguistic backgrounds. He valued promoting linguistic diversity in the classroom, as his overseas experiences had greatly influenced his teaching philosophy and approach. Ultimately, this has shaped the way he interacted with his students and fostered intercultural understanding in the classroom.

4.2. Natalie

Natalie went to the UK to earn a master’s degree in English language education. She could not recall having taken any course on intercultural communication during her undergraduate and postgraduate studies. She had some intercultural encounters but felt that she struggled when communicating with other people: ‘At the beginning I felt lonely and wanted to mingle with people, but I found it difficult to understand people because of different accents’. She further elaborated it with a personal story: ‘I went out with my German neighbour and two Italian friends – it was hard for me to understand them, but they were friendly and repeated or spoke slowly for me to understand’.

Gradually, after having more intercultural experiences during study abroad, Natalie reported that she felt more comfortable with those people and had dinner with them. Interestingly, she also felt it difficult to communicate with local British people: ‘I met a British student majoring in physics. He spoke very fast with some local expressions and idioms. I couldn’t understand anything’. However, by communicating with people and being exposed to various accents, Natalie became more accustomed to a wide range of different English accents. As she expressed:

We shared a big kitchen with many people. The kitchen is a natural place for people to communicate – I joined the conversation after I felt tired when writing my essays. I gradually realised the different accents people used to communicate. I’d rather say I adapted to accent diversity rather than saying I made some progress.

Natalie summarised the importance of being exposed to different accents because she did not have that opportunity during her undergraduate studies, which made her more sensitive to accent diversity in order to understand accent is part of one’s own that cannot be abandoned: ‘we were taught mainly on Anglophone accents in my undergraduate studies. It is during my intercultural experiences abroad that I had more opportunities of being exposed to different accents and developed my language awareness’.

Natalie also reported having experienced several intercultural conflicts when in the UK. One is about a lifestyle difference. She recalled: ‘One of my neighbours slept in the morning and stayed up late and made a lot of noise’. Natalie could not sleep and tried to negotiate face-to-face with her neighbour. Natalie added:

I found her, brought some snacks and talked to her politely. The first time she was friendly and promised but she made noise again after several days. Later I tried to stick a note on her door asking her to be quiet but later she also put a note on my door saying it was my fault not to sleep well.

Natalie had to look for a residential manager to deal with the conflict. She expressed: ‘The residential manager was an American. He could understand my neighbour well, so I was disadvantaged in that situation’. She then consulted with her personal tutor but was told that she had to wait for a long time to change a room. She also tried to go to a clinic to prove that she had sleeping difficulty but finally gave up. It seems that Natalie first experienced some linguistic barriers for her understanding but later encountered intercultural struggles because (1) she had to wait for a long time to change a room; and (2) it required such ‘evidence’ for her to change a room. All such experiences upset her as it was out of her expectation that it was so complicated to simply change a room – due to the lack of communication strategies in a different culture as an international student, she did not proceed further because of such ‘distraction’ for her life and study. In this sense, she did not really gain much of intercultural learning and develop her intercultural competence.

In terms of using intercultural experiences in her role as a teacher, Natalie was a bit pessimistic, probably due to many of her intercultural experiences mentioned above. She said: ‘All my intercultural experiences abroad became quite meaningless when I came back to China because few people have the opportunity for such exposure’. She noted that even if students were interested in hearing her stories and were open to cultural diversity, she had to stick to the course syllabus: ‘I teach lower-level students and cultural instruction is not too relevant. Although students are interested in intercultural learning, I have to focus on linguistic aspects in my teaching’. Therefore, Natalie did not have much flexibility to include intercultural communication; such fixed syllabus is an impediment for her to incorporate intercultural teaching, which leads to difficulty for her to develop an identity as intercultural language teacher and she did not really reflect on how to integrate her intercultural experiences into her teaching:

I learn to put myself into perspective and develop a steady mindset because I had a hard time during study abroad and looking for this job. I still haven’t developed an awareness of cultural instruction in my own teaching in this year.

In summary, although Natalie faced misunderstandings and intercultural conflicts at the beginning, she gradually became more comfortable with these experiences in intercultural learning over time. As an English language teacher, Natalie had encountered certain obstacles in integrating intercultural learning into her professional identity due to students’ limited exposure to diverse cultures and the inflexible syllabus. Nevertheless, Natalie recognised the importance of intercultural learning and acknowledged the need for further reflection and exploration on how to effectively integrate her intercultural experiences into her teaching practice.

4.3. Irene

Irene studied for the master’s programme in TESOL at a university in the US. She also worked at a local school in the US and stayed there for three years. When asked about her intercultural experiences, she emphasised the importance of cultural differences in terms of thinking mode, but she did not have the opportunity to take a course on intercultural communication in her master’s programme.

Irene shared the intercultural experiences she had when living with two roommates: ‘I bought and packed some teabags in the living room. One day I realised that the teabags were gone. Probably they assumed that things put in the living room could be shared’. She felt puzzled because her roommates used her teabags without asking her permission. Another similar incident occurred when she bought home a large pizza. She mentioned:

My Tunisian roommate asked me whether she could eat the pizza. I said OK and took one slice to my room and chatted with my mom online. But later when I went out to the room, the whole pizza was gone. I was not so happy at that moment, but I tried to convince myself that was a cultural difference.

Here, Irene assumed that her roommate should ask her before taking the pizza, but her roommate assumed that Irene bought the pizza for sharing. It was a lack of communication and comprehension that both parties would take such assumptions. She also shared an example of her Iranian professor who had an intercultural misunderstanding in the US:

My Iranian professor shared his intercultural misunderstanding when he first arrived in the US. He showed his favourite pen to his students. One American student told the professor that the pen looked great. The professor responded by saying: ‘Thank you. You can have it if you like it’. Then the American student took the pen. The Iranian professor was quite unexpected in this case and shared this story with us.

Such learning experience inspired Irene to emphasise intercultural teaching into her own classroom teaching for her course. For instance, when teaching the word, baby, for her students back in China, she said: ‘I also shared my experience as a babysitter when I was in the US as a student’. She liked the idea of linking what she experienced to her students, not merely teaching a word. She said:

I don’t want to be only an English teacher. Students tend to get bored when teachers simply teach vocabulary. But once I shared my own experience relevant to the words that I was teaching, students became more curious and willing to learn.

Irene believed that she developed a sense of intercultural awareness through self-reflection. She said: ‘I think it is a process because I have learned to see things from different perspectives – even within China, people have different customs and may deal with things differently’. She also shared that she had experienced some difficulties when teaching her students: ‘My students had low English level. They could hardly produce a complete sentence, so vocabulary learning is the priority’. In this case, students are barely exposed to intercultural knowledge, let alone a higher level of intercultural awareness. However, Irene said that she felt a sense of achievement when her students were able to use English to express themselves. For instance, Irene mentioned that she would look for some authentic materials and design intercultural activities such as English film dubbing or cultural drama to supplement textbook content because she recognised the importance of incorporating elements of intercultural teaching:

I searched some videos about intercultural encounters and encouraged my students to watch before some classroom discussions. I think it is both necessary and important for students to develop both linguistic and intercultural awareness during their English learning journey.

To summarise, Irene’s experiences highlight the significance of intercultural communication in both personal and professional settings. Her previous intercultural misunderstandings had led her to emphasise intercultural teaching in her own classroom. By providing authentic materials and designing intercultural activities, Irene aimed to develop both linguistic and intercultural awareness in her students. This created a more inclusive and effective learning environment for them. Therefore, Irene’s intercultural experiences have shaped her approach to teaching and the need for teachers to be aware of cultural differences with an emphasis of incorporating them into their teaching practices.

4.4. Edward

Edward obtained his master’s degree in New Zealand. As an undergraduate, he majored in English and continued to pursue his master’s degree in applied linguistics. Different from the three other participants who reported having almost no formal intercultural learning at home and overseas, Edward shared his teaching practicum in which he had the opportunity to experience intercultural encounters. He said: ‘My professor recruited a group of people and we had an opportunity to discuss our teaching practicum together. We were aware of cultural diversity in our teaching’.

Edward had many intercultural experiences when he was in New Zealand, both in academic and social contexts. As he expressed:

I was very eager to participate in activities organised by my university, as well as some activities organised by my home stay family. For instance, I once participated in a summer training where I was asked to introduce Chinese culture; through working with people from different ethnicities, I also developed a sense of some religious concepts, for example, not to touch Muslim females after I experienced an incident touching a female Muslim colleague.

This happened in Edward’s teaching practicum when he patted the shoulder of a female Muslim student. He was informed by his tutor about this incident – he recalled that ‘it was a truly international classroom setting which could not be experienced when I was in China’. In this case, Edward shared his experience of struggle in terms of ethnic ‘ingroup and outgroup’ for his preparedness to change. In terms of his experience of learning English in New Zealand, Edward said:

I did suffer a lot because I couldn’t understand my teachers’ English, particularly a teacher from South Africa. But I participated in many activities organised by local people. I also went out with two families, having meals with them, going surfing with them. They were friendly and I had opportunities to stay with them, watching films, playing musical instruments and playing sports with them.

Edward reported that he benefited a lot from such intercultural experience. He noted: ‘I was gradually able to understand the diversity of English accents in my second semester and I could understand 80-90% of my courses’.

As a language teacher, Edward was aware of the importance of intercultural education for his own teaching. He noted an experience where he incorporated intercultural awareness into his teaching: ‘We had a unit on environment protection and the listening material was about recycling. I shared with my students regarding waste sorting in New Zealand and used plastic bags when shopping’. Edward was aware of the role of English while he developed a new identity of a teacher of global issues through his (un)successful intercultural encounters. He believed that his study abroad experiences greatly benefited his teaching and he developed as a global citizen:

I would not be able to be exposed to such intercultural experiences if I didn’t study abroad. I could only learn intercultural knowledge from books and papers. Now I developed a critical perspective in my teaching. I have become more critical but more rational too.

Edward hoped that his students could also develop a sense of intercultural awareness through his teaching. However, he lamented the overgeneralisation of Anglo cultural norms in English textbooks in China and mentioned the need to incorporate various English accents and cultures in his teaching. As he opined,

The textbook I used only had British or American accents. I would include some other accents of English in exercise. I even believe that we don’t really need Anglophone English only to communicate with other people against the backdrop of globalisation because you will meet people with different linguacultures in the future.

He also challenged the English-only dominance in language education, stating:

English is used as a lingua franca and we need to recognise that people have different English accents. I encourage my students to be exposed to varieties of English, including local China English. I believe that expression and fluency should be regarded as the priority when teaching English.

Edward’s study abroad experience might encourage him to be a teacher who is aware of critical intercultural education, as he concluded by saying:

As teachers in higher education, we have responsibilities to pass on the notion of intercultural education to students – the idea of criticality and equality – to enable students to deal with conflicts and challenges by themselves and develop their own opinions before entering the society.

In short, during his time of studying abroad, Edward actively participated in various activities with local individuals. This experience greatly improved his comprehension of English accents and language skills. As an English language teacher, Edward understood the importance of intercultural education in his teaching role. His overseas experiences had transformed Edward into a global citizen with a critical perspective, enabling him to encourage his students to appreciate the diverse varieties of English.

5. Discussion and implications

The narratives presented above shed light on how the participants made sense of their overseas study experiences in relation to intercultural learning and how they tried to deliver cultural instruction informed by such experiences. With the narrative data on intercultural encounters and intercultural education within and beyond classroom settings, power has surfaced as a significant variable that influences participants’ willingness to communicate when facing misunderstandings or other forms of potential turbulence in their relationships (Peng & Woodrow, 2010). This, in turn, constrains the potential for intercultural learning. For example, Natalie regarded herself as an outsider when dealing with the incident with her neighbour by negotiating with her residential manager, personal tutor and staff at the clinic. She finally gave up due to an alleged lack of communication strategies, but it was also to do with her lack of capital with the power to speak and lack of investment in the new environment (Norton, 2013). This kind of avoidance strategy when sensing one’s own vulnerability can also be seen in Irene’s example where her pizza was eaten. In contrast, Edward has invested in intercultural learning through activities organised by his university and home stay family and gained certain advantages with his experiences abroad while others mainly gained their intercultural achievements from more formal learning settings.

Aside from the issue of power, the participants’ narratives effectively illustrate the more general point that their willingness to engage with the unfamiliar is a key factor influencing the potential for intercultural learning. Importantly, the ‘unfamiliar’ here includes linguistic forms and practices that might deviate from expectations. Participants in this study mentioned their struggle when communicating with people with different L1s. For example, Irene mentioned her professors’ use of English accents and idioms during class, which created a ‘silent moment’ for international students because they were unable to understand local jokes or accents. However, Edward participated in various academic and social activities to practise English and he gradually understood people’s use of that language. Thus, the data show that the willingness to learn from intercultural encounters can be linked to the struggle to understand and respect the legitimacy of different accents in terms of people’s own identity rather than their attainment of the so-called ‘idealised’ native accents (Canagarajah, 2013; Dovchin, 2022; Norton, 2013). As argued by Park (2022), intercultural experiences should be beneficial for enhancing students’ awareness of cultural diversity and complexity, as well as to ‘raise awareness of the global roles of English that are not limited to specific varieties’ (p. 600). Indeed, in this study, Hank changed his attitudes of what a ‘good’ accent is, while Natalie recognised the importance of being exposed to different accents from her ‘kitchen experience’. Such shifts in the perceptions of accents were a key factor in their own identity development. Moreover, as will be discussed further below, such past experiences have benefited their teaching of English back in China. Overall, these cases help draw attention to the potential for intercultural experiences in a study abroad context to help individuals recognise the complicated and nuanced interrelationship of identity and language ideology across time and space (Norton & De Costa, 2018).

Additionally, the findings of the study also underscore the reality that the degree to which individuals positively engage with linguistic and cultural diversity is heavily influenced not only by their past language learning experiences and intercultural encounters but also their perceptions of power and identity in the specific communication context (Gao & Zhu, 2021; Norton, 2013; Peng & Xiong, 2021). In other words, participants’ narratives showed that the contextual factors that influence intercultural interactions significantly impact their attitudes and behaviours towards linguistic and cultural diversity. For example, Hank’s experience in Singapore enabled him to be more lenient with and inclusive of people’s use of language. Natalie’s incident with her roommate revealed her struggle to gain power through intercultural encounters (Norton, 2013) and her use of agency in the power negotiation processes (Canagarajah, 2013). However, Irene seemed to divorce herself from the power issue and decided to remain silent about the ‘teabag incident’ as she did not even discuss this issue with her roommates; instead, she chose to compromise. Edward learned to reflect upon his intercultural encounters and participated in various intercultural activities offered by his university and social engagements with his friends, and he learned from some unsuccessful intercultural failures. This intercultural awareness through participating in activities and intercultural interactions was well-reflected in Edwards’ experiences.

As above, the findings have highlighted the importance of contextual factors in shaping intercultural interactions, underscoring the need for a more nuanced understanding of linguistic and cultural diversity. By taking these factors into account, we can gain a better understanding of how individuals respond to intercultural experiences and develop effective strategies to facilitate positive outcomes for all parties involved. Importantly, the findings also show that intercultural learning can be complex and unpredictable, potentially hindered by language barriers, cultural misunderstandings, and personal prejudices. Recognising this complexity, it is essential to approach intercultural interactions critically, as not all encounters will result in positive outcomes.

In relation to the second research question regarding the role of intercultural experience in helping teachers consider their own teaching, the data showed the teachers benefited from their previous overseas learning engagements, which expanded their mindset and injected a sense of criticality into their pedagogical practices as language teachers. For instance, participants like Irene and Edward stressed the importance of providing authentic intercultural experiences and teaching materials and engaging students in active reflections on issues related to culture and language in their classrooms. Such evidence suggests their emergent identities as intercultural language teachers who tried to create a holistic and culture-rich learning experience for students. It further testified to the notion of ‘identity-in-practice’ (Yuan & Mak, 2018), highlighting the mutually reinforcing relationship between language teachers’ identities and their embodied practices at pedagogical and social levels.

As for practical implications, the issue of incorporating intercultural education at the classroom level in Chinese contexts requires more than the awareness of different stakeholders. Teachers themselves will learn to reflect on their intercultural experiences and also see the possibilities to link such experiences to their own teaching. During the transition from being a student abroad to becoming a teacher in their own country, the participants also experienced a shift in their identity construction. Their study abroad experience, as a part of their learning history, has enabled them to emphasise the importance of intercultural instruction in the language classroom (e.g. Hank’s and Edward’s sharing of intercultural experiences with their students; Irene’s use of authentic materials and implementation of intercultural learning tasks). While emphasising the importance of authentic intercultural experiences, it is crucial for teacher education to adequately prepare English language teachers to incorporate intercultural education into their teaching practices (Roiha & Sommier, 2021). This will promote cultural awareness and sensitivity, ultimately resulting in better equipping them to create inclusive and supportive learning environments that promote intercultural understanding and appreciation. English language teachers should regard themselves as agents to enhance reflective practice because ‘an embedded and contextual approach to professional development in which reflection is guided and enactment is fostered, is most likely to effectively increase teachers’ intercultural competences’ (Romijn et al., 2021, p. 13). They should develop an awareness of understanding different cultural perspectives, linguistic diversity and the impact of culture on language learning and teaching. In turn, teacher education programmes should also provide opportunities for pre-service teachers to engage in cultural immersion experiences, such as studying abroad or participating in international student exchange programmes.

In this study, all the participants expressed the need for intercultural instruction in English language teaching, and they incorporated it into their own instruction, but they realised the difficulties of implementing intercultural instruction in the Chinese higher education context. For instance, students’ low learning motivation and teachers’ lack of flexibility in teaching both lead to difficulties of adopting an intercultural stance in classroom settings (Liu et al., 2016). An issue that is worth mentioning is that, apart from Edward, intercultural communication teaching was marginalised in the curricula even in majors such as education, TESOL, or applied linguistics, in the context of undergraduate programmes in China and the postgraduate contexts mentioned above. This may call for a systematic review of existing curriculum structure to incorporate a more explicit focus on intercultural communication, while compatible training and support should also follow to facilitate language teachers’ engagement in intercultural instruction.

The findings of this study underscore the need for language education curricula to encourage reflection on linguistic diversity such as variation in accents and communication style (as shown in intercultural experiences from Hank, Natalie and Edward) when addressing intercultural communication content, especially as preparation for study abroad (Baker & Fang, 2021; Chen & McConachy, 2022; Sung, 2022). While studying abroad does not guarantee intercultural learning, it certainly can be an important catalyst for it (Baker & Fang, 2021; Jackson, 2018; McConachy, 2018). However, preparation for study abroad which focuses too much on essentialist cultural differences can actually overlook more fundamental aspects of linguistic diversity that individuals are likely to encounter and need to navigate. Similarly, if English language teachers view the language as having fixed norms that reflect the cultural conceptions of Anglo speakers (e.g. before Hank went to Singapore), there is the danger that they will imbue their learners with similar views, or at least not go out of the way to challenge this understanding (Chen & McConachy, 2022; Liao & Li, 2023). As was seen in this study, this can lead individuals to withdraw from encounters. Conversely, if language teachers come to recognise that users of English are active in the interpretation and production of cultural meaning and the negotiation of linguistic norms in contexts relevant to their own lives (as Edward had gained), they will be in a better position to help their learners develop their capacities to engage with difference (Chen & McConachy, 2022; Jenkins, 2014). This echoes Chen and McConachy’s (2022) findings regarding the benefits of study abroad experiences in English language education from which in-service ELT teachers developed ‘pedagogic insights for the teaching of English as a global language’ (p. 432). As noted by Jackson (2018), through intercultural education as part of their teacher history, language teachers can empower students to become legitimate speakers with an understanding of global interdependence and cultural diversity, thus, encouraging them to combat social injustice, respect human rights and social values and to promote environmental protection to help ensure a sustainable ecological world for intercultural and transcultural communication – now and in the future.

6. Conclusion

This paper examined how a small number of Chinese English language teachers made sense of intercultural encounters that occurred during study abroad, drawing attention to challenges associated with entrenched ideologies, attitudes and relationships with others. The participants’ own willingness to open up to linguistic diversity was shown to be a key factor that encouraged more proactive social interaction and the development of their identities as intercultural communicators and language teachers able to promote intercultural learning in their own classrooms. This paper calls for incorporating critical intercultural teaching into language classrooms in the higher education contexts – regardless of whether English language or other foreign languages are being taught. Linking identity (re)construction through language use and learning abroad, and language teaching with a new role for teachers, it is hoped that the nuanced relationship between language and culture should also be recognised through making sense of intercultural experience as valuable resources for intercultural learning.

Naturally, this study is limited by its focus on only four teachers from one national context. Moreover, as a qualitative study, the findings cannot automatically be generalised to other contexts (Richards, 2003). Nevertheless, the issues faced by the participants in this study such as language ideologies, are likely to be common to many language teachers who study abroad for their professional learning. Thus, we call for more research on teachers from different backgrounds studying in different contexts to help illuminate how teachers’ own experiences of intercultural communication contribute to their identity development and approaches to dealing with linguistic and cultural diversity at a pedagogical level.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Social Science Fund of China [grant number 19AYY021].