This study sought to understand how teachers of Maltese as a foreign language (MFL) develop intercultural capabilities by exploring the importance of intercultural competence (IC) to MFL teachers, the characteristics of interculturally competent MFL educators, and the ways in which educators develop IC. The study adopted the interpretivist paradigm and a case study research design to collect qualitative data. Seventeen MFL teachers of adult learners were purposefully selected because they all taught MFL to non-native adults. These educators were interviewed, by answering the researcher’s ten unstructured questions. A smartphone was used to record the interviewees. Findings regarding the perceptions of the teachers who were interviewed are as follows. Firstly, the participants stated that IC is important for MFL teachers because it helps them to embrace diversity, to help adult learners to learn the target language (i.e. Maltese) better, and to be sensitive and accommodative to learners from different backgrounds. Secondly, according to the participants, an interculturally capable person is one who knows their own culture and others’ cultural aspects, respects and accepts other cultures. It was also found that teachers develop intercultural capabilities through learning at a school and by visiting other countries and being immersed in the cultures of those countries. The implications of the findings as supported by existing literature, are that IC is important for foreign language teachers and as a result, intercultural training, learning through interactions with others and visits to other countries are necessary to develop intercultural capabilities.

本研究旨在通过探讨跨文化能力 (IC) 对 MFL 教师的重要性、跨文化能力的 MFL 教育者的特征以及教育者发展跨文化能力的方式，了解马耳他语作为外语 (MFL) 的教师如何发展跨文化能力。该研究采用解释主义范式和案例研究设计来收集定性数据。有目的地选择了 17 位成人学习者的 MFL 教师，因为他们都向非母语成人教授 MFL。通过回答研究人员的十个非结构化问题，对这些教育工作者进行了采访。使用智能手机记录受访者。关于接受采访的教师的看法的调查结果如下。首先，参与者表示，IC 对 MFL 教师很重要，因为它有助于他们接受多样性，帮助成年学习者更好地学习目标语言（即马耳他语），并对来自不同背景的学习者保持敏感和包容。其次，在参与者看来，跨文化能力人是了解自己的文化和他人的文化方面，尊重和接受其他文化的人。还发现教师通过在学校学习和访问其他国家并沉浸在这些国家的文化中来发展跨文化能力。现有文献支持的研究结果的含义是，IC 对于外语教师很重要，因此，跨文化培训，