A Study Of The Application Of Developmental Model Of Intercultural Sensitivity In College English Teaching

Foreign language learning is becoming the trend in today’s globalized world, which requires English learners to be not only equipped with proficient language ability but also intercultural communication competence(ICC) which is considered as the ultimate goal of foreign language teaching both at home and abroad. Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity(DMIS), an influential model of ICS, is applied in the study to seek the effective ways to develop students’ ICC.The present research employs both quantitative and qualitative methods. 57 non-English major students participate in the research. First, the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale(ISS) designed by Chen Guoming & Starosta(1997) is adopted as pre-test to investigate students’ ICS level and 5 students are interviewed about their expectation towards DMIS-based teaching. Then students are divided into groups according to Zhou Xingying’s grouping method. Four students are chosen from the high-level group and low-level group respectively. After that, the author conducts her teaching experiment for 10 weeks. In the teaching experiment, the author designs six training periods based on the six stages of DMIS and the themes of the students’ textbooks and assigns related homework. The performance of the 8 students are observed and traced. After 10 weeks’ ICS training, the same questionnaire is administered again. Besides, the author interviews another 5 students at random in order to investigate their attitudes towards the training.The major findings of this study are:(1) the general situation of the students’ ICS is over the uncertain stage and is approaching the stage of agreement;(2)Interaction Confidence among the five factors of ISS is influenced most;(3) students have positive attitude towards DMIS-based teaching;(4) students’ interest in learning English is aroused. They speak highly of the culture teaching and play an active role in English-related activities.The study integrates intercultural model and diverse intercultural training methods to college English class, largely enriching class activities, and it provides a new perspective of exploring ways to improve students’ ICC in college English teaching.