Improving teachers’ intercultural awareness and communication skills for the benefit of non-native learners’ academic performance

Abstract

Despite the increasing need for teachers to effectively accommodate students in increasingly multicultural grade-school classrooms, there remains a glaring lack of practical suggestions for teachers to do so. In response to this gap in the literature, the goals of this paper are (a) to highlight the effects of teachers’ intercultural awareness and communication skills on the academic performance of non-native students; (b) to generate practical recommendations for teachers to improve their intercultural awareness as well as verbal and non-verbal communication skills in the classroom. In doing so, this paper may function as a response to the call for additional insights on the topic.