Developing crosscultural communicative competence in ESL/EFL preservice teachers: A critical perspective

The primary purpose of this study was to describe and analyze current practices in an MA TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) Program in terms of the program's efforts to develop cross-cultural communicative competence in students enrolled in the program. The research focused more specifically on the conceptualizations of culture utilized within the program, the professional and cultural identity formation processes that appear to be occurring, the characterization of students' analyses of power relations and their own position within these relations, and the ways in which computer-based technologies are being increasingly incorporated as a part of these processes.;The study argues that there is some benefit for creating a closer synthesis of the two fields---critical multicultural education and TESOL teacher education---especially as concerns the introduction of critical perspectives and critical pedagogy. This study introduces a model that can guide such a programmatic movement and makes suggestions concerning content and pedagogy that arise from insights gained from this research.;A domain/thematic analysis, based on the initial research questions, was done by generating categories or domains of interest and then themes from within the categories that emerged from the data, i.e., the answers (to the questionnaires and interviews) given by the responders (27 MA TESOL students, from 10 different countries, 18 females and 9 males), the classroom observations (of three core courses in the program) field note data, and by the examination of the written documents (program handbook, textbooks, syllabi, and Internet sites).;Five main broad themes were identified in the data analysis that seem most pertinent to the current critical analysis: (1) conceptualizations of culture in the coursework that tended heavily toward objectivist conceptualizations, (2) students' analyses of cultural relations, course content, and classroom dynamics that reflected either accommodation, challenge, or contradictions of these, (3) individual level focus vs. a systems level focus of critical thought in ESL/EFL learning and teaching, (4) computer technology, culture, and power, and (5) students' views of classroom pedagogy that tend either toward social reproduction or incipient social reconstruction.