摘要：To enable the Vietnamese youth to join the international workforce during
ASEAN integration, teaching English in general education has undertaken a reform
with the aim of intercultural communicative competence instead of communicative
competence. Since building learners’ intercultural communicative competence
requires their personal engagement in social interaction, teachers should follow a
proper approach to activate students’ participation in intercultural communication.
This research studied to what extent upper secondary school teachers perceived
and practiced intercultural integration prior the educational reform. Data collected
from 101 participating teachers through questionnaires and open-ended questions
proved that (1) teachers had good understanding of intercultural integration, but (2)
they rarely conducted intercultural activities in practices, and (3) teachers’
graduate education, not international experience or coursebook teaching, had a
positive impact on their intercultural teaching practices. The findings suggested
that educational management should be consistent with the progressive reform
through the synchronization of all curricular factors towards intercultural
education, and teachers should be oriented with intercultural teaching pedagogy to
conduct suitable activities to develop students’ intercultural communicative
competence.
关键词：educational reform; intercultural communicative competence; intercultural
integration; teachers’ perceptions and practices; teaching English
