Intercultural competence and parsnip: voices from teachers of English in Australia

The globalized era together with demographic, geographical, and structural changes to English has reshaped the landscape of English language teaching (ELT) and emphasized the importance of preparing language learners for intercultural communication. Research has shown that without intercultural communication, academic success and life satisfaction are hard to achieve (Young, Sercombe, Sachdev, Naeb, & Schartner, 2013). However, in order to engage successfully in intercultural communication, language learners need intercultural competence. Intercultural competence (IC) is variously defined; however, here it refers to “being aware that cultures are relative. That is, being aware that there is no one ‘normal’ way of doing things, but that all behaviours are culturally variable” (Liddicoat & Scarino, 2013, p. 24). It is also understood as the ability to interact, communicate, and work effectively with people from various linguistic and cultural backgrounds both in local and international contexts (Sharifian, 2009).