Promoting Iranian EFL learners' intercultural competences in english classrooms: The use of pedagogical intercultural and critical incident tasks

A long-standing concern reverberating over the minds of intercultural scholars is how best to incorporate intercultural issues in English language education, an issue on which there has been little research in the Iranian EFL context. Anchored in Byram's (1997) intercultural model, this paper explores the efficacy of employing pedagogical intercultural and critical incident tasks to promote Iranian English learners' intercultural competency in Anzali, Guilan Province, Iran. Twenty-two English learners (12 females and 10 males, ages 21-30) consented to participate in the research. They then enrolled in eighteen sessions of intercultural instruction utilizing intercultural textbooks and accomplished fourteen tasks prior to and during the course to examine the participants' probable changes as a consequence of course practices. The primary data comprised students' pedagogical intercultural tasks, critical incident tasks and reflective entries. Adopting qualitative content analysis, the results underscore that the pedagogical intercultural and critical incident tasks as well as the utilization of a virtual forum as a zone for cross-cultural interaction and learning, boosted learners' intercultural attitudes, knowledge and skills. Furthermore, three themes emerged from the reflective entries analysis. Implications for educational practice are provided for further implementing and practicing pedagogical intercultural and critical incident tasks.