The development of Chinese university students’ intercultural competence in a short-term study-abroad program
Abstract
With increasing internationalization in higher education, more and more Chinese universities are providing students with exchange programs in cooperation with foreign universities. Hitherto, however, research about Chinese university students’ intercultural competence in a study-abroad context has been relatively rare. The present study, adopting a mixed-method research design, examines the development of Chinese students’ intercultural competence in a short-term study-abroad program, as well as the factors that might have a role to play in the process. It is found that the students made significant progress in intercultural competence after participating in the program and factors such as attitudes towards intercultural communication, cultural knowledge storage, English language proficiency and engagement in intercultural communication are important contributors to the development of intercultural competence in a short-term study-abroad context.
References
Allport GW (1954) The Nature of Prejudice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Arasaratnam LA and Doerfel ML (2005) Intercultural communication competence: Identifying key components from multicultural perspectives. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 29: 137–163.
Arasaratnam LA (2015) Research in intercultural communication: Reviewing the past decade. Journal of International & Intercultural Communication 8(4): 290–310.
Arasaratnam LA (2016) Intercultural competence. In: Nussbaum J (ed.) Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.1–23.
Behrnd V and Porzelt S (2012) Intercultural competence and training outcomes of students with experiences abroad. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 36(2): 213–223.
Byram M (1997) Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual.
Caligiuri PM (2000) The big five personality characteristics as predictors of expatriate’s desire to terminate the assignment and supervisor-rated performance. Personnel Psychology 53(1): 67–88.
Carrell PL (1984) Inferencing in ESL: Presuppositions and implications of active and implicative predicates. Language Learning 34: 1–21.
Cui D (2013) A study on the changes of English proficiencies acquired by Chinese students’ short-term learning experiences in Canada. PhD Thesis, Shanghai International Studies University, China.
Czerwionka L, Artamonova T, and Barbosa M (2015) Intercultural knowledge development: Evidence from student interviews during short-term study abroad. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 49: 80–99.
Deardorff DK (2004) The Identification and Assessment of Intercultural Competence as a Student Outcome of International Education at Institutions of Higher Education in the United States. Raleigh: North Carolina State University.
Deardorff DK (2006) Identification and assessment of intercultural competence as a student outcome of internationalization. Journal of Studies in International Education 10(3): 241–266.
Deardorff D (2009) Implementing intercultural competence assessment. In: Deardorff E (ed.) The SAGE Handbook of Intercultural Competence. Thousand Oaks: Sage, pp.477–491.
Dwyer MM (2004) More is better: The impact of study abroad program duration. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad 10: 151–164.
Fantini AE (2000) A central concern: Developing intercultural competence. SIT Occasional Papers Series, 1: 25–42. Brattleboro: School for International Training.
Fantini AE (2006) Assessment Tools of Intercultural Competence [online]. Brattleboro, VT: School for International Training. Available at: http://www.sit.edu/publications/docs/feil_appendix.pdf (Accessed: 10 June 2019).
Fredricks JA, Blumenfeld PC, and Paris AH (2004) School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research 74(1): 59–109.
Gregersen-Herman J (2015) The impact of exposure to diversity in the international university environment and the development of intercultural competence in students. In: The European Higher Education Area. Cham: Springer, pp.73–92.
Hammer MR, Bennett MJ, and Wiseman R (2003) Measuring intercultural sensitivity: The intercultural development inventory. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 27(4): 421–443.
Hismanoglu M (2011) An investigation of ELT students’ intercultural communicative competence in relation to linguistic proficiency, overseas experience and formal instruction. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 35(6): 805–817.
Jiang M (2012) Xichao yu Xinchao [Tides from the West & the Renaissance]. Beijing: People’s Publishing House.
Kolb DA (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Koike DA (1996) Transfer of pragmatic competence and suggestions in Spanish foreign language learning. In: Gass SM and Neu J (eds.) Speech Acts across Cultures: Challenges to Communication in a Second Language. New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp.257–281.
Liu B (2004) An interface study of intercultural communicative competence and language testing. Unpublished Thesis, Shanghai International Studies University, China.
Lu X and Li X (2012) Comparison of the intercultural sensitivity of Chinese postgraduates at home and aboard. Academic Exploration 9: 105–107.
Lustig MW and Koester J (2003) Intercultural Competence: Interpersonal Communication across Cultures (4th edn.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Medina-Lopez-Portillo A (2004) Intercultural learning assessment: The link between program duration and the development of intercultural sensitivity. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad 10: 179–200.
Olson CL and Kroeger KR (2001) Global competency and intercultural sensitivity. Journal of Studies in International Education 5: 116–137.
Orlandi M (ed.) (1992) Cultural Competence for Evaluators Working with Ethnic Minority Communities: A Guide for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention Practitioners. Rockville: Office for Substance Abuse Prevention, Cultural Competence Series 1.
Peng R, Wu W, and Fan W (2015) A comprehensive evaluation of Chinese college students’ intercultural competence. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 47: 143–157.
Pusch M (1994) The chameleon capacity. In: Lambert RD (ed.) Educational Exchange and Global Competence. New York: Council on International Educational Exchange, pp.205–210.
Rosen R, Digh P, Singer M, et al. (2000) Global Literacies: Lessons on Business Leadership and National Cultures. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Schuetze U (2008) Exchanging second language messages online: Developing an intercultural communicative competence? Foreign Language Annals 41(4): 660–673.
Spitzberg BH and Changnon G (2009) Conceptualizing intercultural competence. In: Deardorff D (ed.) The Sage Handbook of Intercultural Competence. Thousand Oaks: Sage, pp.2–52.
Wang YA and Kulich SJ (2015) Does context count? Developing and assessing intercultural competence through an interview-and model-based domestic course design in China. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 48: 38–57.
Wang Z (1990) An analysis of data from a socio-cultural test in China. Foreign Language Teaching and Research 4: 32–36.
Watson JR and Wolfel R (2015) The intersection of language and culture in study abroad: Assessment and analysis of study abroad outcomes. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad 25: 57–72.
Wiseman RL (2001) Intercultural Communication Competence [online]. Available at: http://commfaculty.cullerton.edu/rwiseman/ICCCpaper.htm.
Wiseman RL, Hammer MR, and Nishida H (1989) Predictors of intercultural communication competence. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 13: 349–370.
Wu W (2013) A comprehensive evaluation on Chinese college students’ intercultural competence. PhD Thesis, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, China.
Copyright (c) 2022 author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The author(s) warrant that permission to publish the article has not been previously assigned elsewhere.
Author(s) shall retain the copyright of their work and grant the Journal/Publisher right for the first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under:
OA - Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0). This license allows for the copying, distribution and transmission of the work, provided the correct attribution of the original creator is stated. Adaptation and remixing are also permitted.
This broad license intends to facilitate free access to, as well as the unrestricted reuse of, original works of all types.
_%E5%89%AF%E6%9C%AC1.png){kind=logo}
