Factors influencing the cultural competence of pre-service teachers of foreign languages

Abstract

The development of cultural competence can be affected by various factors. Bearing this in mind, two groups of factors can be distinguished: internal and external. The aim of the current article is to analyse the factors that influence the development of the cultural competence of pre-service teachers of foreign languages. The research was conducted in 2014 as part of the doctoral research and involved 504 respondents, i.e., pre-service teachers of foreign languages at the five largest Lithuanian universities. The analysis of the internal factors revealed that the respondents attached greatest importance to intellectual abilities acquired in the process of formal studies as the most significant factor influencing cultural competence. Other significant factors included knowledge acquired through self-dependent studies of scientific and publicist literature as well as fiction, and experience of cultural activity communicating to persons of other cultures. The analysis of external factors revealed that gender and year of studies were the most significant factors influencing the cultural competence of pre-service foreign language teachers.