Mapping intercultural trajectories: Chinese secondary school learners’ standpoints on the cultivation of intercultural awareness in English education

With the intensification of globalisation and international exchange, intercultural communicative ability has become a focal point in English as a foreign language education in Chinese secondary schools. However, recent studies have indicated that the developmental construct of intercultural awareness is sometimes conflated with intercultural communicative competence. This leads to ambiguity in defining appropriate learning objectives. Using a sequential explanatory research design, this study surveyed 200 learners, followed by an interview with three learners. Questionnaire data were summarised using descriptive statistics, and thematic coding was used for analysing the interview transcripts. The results indicate that learners have positive attitudes towards cultural diversity (mean = 4.12) but fairly poor cultural knowledge (mean = 2.73) and low behavioural engagement (mean = 2.45). The thematic analysis highlights three barriers: a persistent grammar–translation orientation reinforced by exam pressure, fragmented “culture bites” offering little communicative value and showcase lessons disconnected from daily practice. The results highlight a disconnect between what the national curriculum aspires to achieve and what actually happens in classrooms. The material should include dialogue and recommendation-based materials and need to be supplemented with reflective journals and performance-based tasks to enable reflection and to promote aspects of authentic cultural interaction. Thus, it can enhance the development of intercultural awareness and provide some practical implications for promoting intercultural learning in Chinese secondary education.