Exploring in-service Chinese as a second language teachers’ cognition and stated 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 alongside semi-structured interviews with eight in-service CSL teachers to further examine their cognition and stated 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 was detected between CSL teachers’ cognition and stated practices regarding ICC teaching, largely constrained by rigid curriculum structures, linguistically-driven teaching materials, and limited instructional time. This study provides context-sensitive empirical evidence from northern Chinese university settings. It also identifies a pattern that differs from prior research: CSL teachers’ ICC teaching is primarily knowledge- and attitude-oriented rather than skills-oriented.