Exploring In-Service Chinese as a Second Language Teachers’ Cognition and Practices in Teaching Intercultural Communicative Competence

The cultivation of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) has become an increasingly important objective in language education. The rapid global expansion of Chinese as a second language (CSL) education has highlighted a gap in research on how in-service CSL teachers conceptualize and implement ICC teaching. This study employed a mixed-methods approach, combining an online survey of 108 CSL teachers from seven universities in Tianjin, China, with semi-structured interviews with eight in-service CSL teachers to further examine their cognition and practices in teaching ICC. The findings indicate that while CSL teachers generally demonstrate a strong foundation in Chinese cultural knowledge and hold positive attitudes toward ICC teaching, their pedagogical skills for integrating ICC are less fully developed. A pronounced gap emerged between CSL teachers’ cognition and practices regarding ICC teaching, largely constrained by rigid curriculum structures, linguistically driven teaching materials, and limited instructional time. This study provides context-specific empirical evidence from Tianjin, offering a regional perspective on CSL teachers’ cognition and practices regarding ICC teaching in northern Chinese university settings. It also identifies a context-specific pattern that differs from prior research: in Tianjin universities, CSL teachers’ ICC teaching is primarily knowledge- and attitude-oriented rather than skills-oriented.