Pre-service EFL Teachers’ Intercultural Competence Development Within Service-Learning: A Chinese Perspective

Despite a clarion call to cultivate EFL teachers’ intercultural competence (IC) in supporting their classroom practice, there is a lack of empirical research on how pre-service EFL teachers develop their IC. To fill the gap, the study examined two pre-service EFL teachers’ IC development during a service-learning programme in China. Drawing on data from interviews, reflective journals, and researchers’ field notes, the findings revealed two IC development patterns derived from the Chinese notion of harmony, i.e., “prioritising harmony” and “seeking harmony in diversity,” shaped by the participants’ motivations, personality traits, and contextual influences. Implications are provided to facilitate pre-service teachers’ IC development in culturally diverse contexts.