Into a Task-Based Language Teaching Approach to Raise EFL Students’ Intercultural Competence: A study on Algerian EFL Teachers’ Perceptions

Abstract

With the increasing globalization and intercultural meetings, developing intercultural competence for EFL learners is a necessity for guaranteeing effective and appropriate intercultural exchanges and communication. The current study aims to shed light on EFL teachers’ perceptions and attitudes towards the implementation of the TBLT approach in the EFL setting, and its effect on EFL learners’ acquisition of intercultural competence. Accordingly, this study addressed middle school teachers of the English language in the Algerian context. Particularly, a semi-structured questionnaire was administered to (60) EFL teachers to gather their views on the effectiveness of the TBLT approach, and to shed light on their teaching practices related to the notion of intercultural competence. The data obtained were analysed manually, and the findings were displayed via pie charts. The results indicate that EFL teachers had mostly positive attitudes towards the use of TBLT to raise EFL learners’ intercultural competence. Moreover, based on their responses, the teaching practices adopted within the TBLT framework are likely to provide learners with an environment that supports their development of intercultural ability.