A Multidimensional Perspective Of Stereotyping In Intercultural Communication Research

Stereotyping has been being paid much attention to by the researchers of social psychology, cognitive psychology and intercultural communication, etc. since the concept was first put forward in 1922. Most of the previous researches of stereotyping at home and abroad mainly focused on its negative effect. Based on the previous researches, the thesis first advances a neutral definition of stereotyping: stereotyping is an abstraction and generalization of cultures in people's minds; it is a belief (or a set of beliefs) about people in a social category (nation, gender, social class, religion, etc.).Stereotyping in intercultural communication becomes a major way to generalize cultural differences. It provides an available approach for language learners to know other countries'culture and provides a way for the combination of language learning and culture learning. In order to have a relatively all-around understanding of stereotyping, the thesis in a multidimensional perspective discusses its rise and development, illustration and process of stereotypes'formation, characteristics, classifications, cause of formation and positive and negative effect on intercultural communication. Through research and observation, the author finds out that stereotyping not only widely exists in our daily life and daily communication but also frequently applies to many courses we are learning. For example, in pragmatics, stereotyping is used to have pragmatic inferences on conversational implicature; stereotyping plays an important role in English and Chinese translation; the process for the formation of figures of speech, such as metaphor, metonymy and irony, is closely related with a different nation's culture. Whilst conclusions are drawn: the borderline of stereotyping in intercultural communication is relatively fuzzy; intercultural communication makes stereotyping perfect, that is, stereotyping should be continuously deconstructed and constructed in the dynamic development of intercultural communication for us to know new events and gain new knowledge.The research of stereotyping in intercultural communication inspires English teachers to take advantage of cultural infusion in this pluralistic atmosphere so as to lower uncertainty in communication, foster sensitivity to cultural differences, reduce pragmatic failure and continuously improve intercultural communication competence.