Fostering Pre-service English Teachers’ Intercultural Awareness through Lesson Designs

Abstract

This study explored Taiwanese pre-service teachers’ intercultural awareness through lesson designs. Based on the data analysis of textbook evaluation; lesson plans; self, peer, and expert evaluations on lesson plans; videos; and reflection notes, this study had the following major findings. First, the textbook evaluation helped the participants to identify the visual culture and linguistic elements in the textbooks and their relevance to young Taiwanese learners’ home or target culture. However, these participants lacked competence in identifying the appropriateness and authenticity of the cultural concepts in the textbooks, introducing relevant cultural issues, and designing activities on practice and production procedure.