Assessment of intercultural communicative competence in pre-service English language teachers: challenges and practices

Abstract

Preparing future teachers to be successful and competent intercultural communicators cannot be overemphasized in a time of migrations, cross-cultural misunderstandings, ethnic clashes, and gender politics. It is crucial to provide both instruction and training, so that students can both work on their own intercultural competence (IC), and become skilled and equipped to include IC elements in their teaching. The Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) course for pre-service English language teachers in Serbia has been reshaped several times since its introduction into the curriculum in 2008, primarily in its assessment formats. As a case study of assessment tools, the paper examines the organisation of assessment, how different assessment strategies were selected and employed over a period of 10 years. Special attention is placed on the balance between the three ICC domains, the use of summative and formative assessment, and the backwash effect against the specificities of the teaching context and pre-service English language teacher profile in a monocultural setting. It is shown that further adjustments are needed with particular attention being paid to the student profile and required outcomes for teacher education. assessment, intercultural communicative competence, intercultural sensitivity, teacher education. introductionIntercultural communicative competence (ICC) is as needed as ever in today's world of geo-economic changes, migration, and rising ethnic and national tensions. To prepare future professionals, there have been different efforts in education to include the intercultural (IC) component. Over a period of twenty years, a number of documents have been issued by