Investigating Self-Emotional Talk In Intercultural Communication Competence Of Pre-Service Teacher During International Teaching Practicum: A Thematic Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to investigate self-emotional talk in intercultural communication competence during international teaching practicum. This study is conducted by applying the qualitative method using thematic analysis with two students as the participants. The participants of this study are undergraduate students of English Department in an Islamic Private University in Yogyakarta. The data were collected from interviews of the participants using Zoom meeting. After the data were collected, the researcher transcripted it, arranged the data into coding, grouping the coding into themes, checking the results to make sure the coding earlier is relevant with themes, analyzing the themes, and the last is presenting the data results analysis. The findings of this research are both participants have higher interest to go abroad, they could interact with locals although still struggled with the language. They obtained new knowledge about other cultures, improving understanding of differences from worldview. They gained awareness towards other cultures and language competence to avoid misunderstanding, building wellcommunication

to maintain anxiety, empathic towards others, trained before going abroad to adapt new environment, and they understand and could explain others’ behavior based on their experience.