A study of the inter-cultural sensitivity among the faculty of English language centre of Jazan university, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The study explored intercultural sensitivity of 103 faculty members of the English Language Centre (ELC) of Jazan University, Saudi Arabia. A quantitative and non-experimental design was adopted for this study in which intercultural sensitivity of the English language teachers was evaluated on five demographic variables (e.g. gender, education, religion, total teaching experience, and experience of teaching in intercultural context). The results revealed that the international faculty of ELC abreast the basic canons of Intercultural adjustments. This suggests that the teachers are not only familiar with different cultural patterns (like beliefs, values and communication styles) they are willing to minimize these differences and adopt universal set of values for effective educational practices. The results indicate the participants’ higher level of empathy, respect for others’ culture, tolerance on differences and high willingness to integrate with other cultures. The data reveals no statistically significant difference between the two groups in three variables, i.e. gender (Male & Female), qualification (Masters’ & Ph.D) and religion (Muslims & Non-Muslims). However, there was found a statistically significant difference in the two groups (Less than ten years & More than ten years) in two variables, i.e. total teaching experience and teaching experience in intercultural context.