An Investigation Of Senior High School Students’ Intercultural Communication Competence

In the 21^thcentury,with the tide of globalization,Chinese government realized English learning becomes more important than ever before.English is the international language of international communication.So it is very important that Chinese students should know how to learn English and use it as tool for bring in international advanced technology and cultural achievements.At the same time,bring excellent Chinese culture to the world to enhance international understanding.According to The Standard of English Curriculum for Senior High School（2017）,intercultural awareness is one of the core competences of English learning.In the standard,senior high school students should acquire intercultural knowledge,intercultural awareness and certain behavior orientation.Senior high school students also should have the ability of understanding differences and similarities between Chinese culture and foreign culture,so they can form correct values and consciences.Intercultural communication competence is a necessary aspect to evaluate students’English abilities.There were no previous studies applied systematic investigations of senior high school students’Intercultural Communication Competence,So it is necessary to investigate senior high school students’ICC.The present study selected 572 senior high school students from local four senior high schools as participants.The present study used questionnaire,test,and semi-interview as instruments.This study focus on five research questions below;（1）What is the Intercultural Communication Competence profile of senior high school students?（2）Are there any relationships between senior high school students’Intercultural Communication Competence level and their English reading proficiency?If yes,what are they?（3）Are there any significant differences between art-orientated students and science-orientated students in Intercultural Communication Competence?（4）Are there any significant differences between Han students and Ethnic-minority students in their Intercultural Communication Competence?（5）What factors that affecting the students’s Intercultural Communication Competence?Based on the results from Descriptive Analysis,Correlation analysis,Multiple Regression,Independent Sample T-test,and Thematic Analysis.There are several findings;（1）Senior high school students’ICC level is medium;（2）Art-oriented students’ICC and science-oriented students’ICC have significant difference in all six factors of ICC;（3）Han students’ICC and Ethnic-minority students’ICC have significant difference in knowledge of Chinese culture and attitudes;（4）Senior high school students’English reading proficiency is under influence of their ICC,but the affection is relatively small.Intercultural cognition skill and awareness contributed the most to students’English reading proficiency;（5）Personal motivation and environment are two factors that affecting students’ICC.There are several implications as follows;first,students should consider combine English learning with culture learning.Teachers should introduce more intercultural knowledge into daily English courses to emphasize the importance of intercultural knowledge;second,foreign culture part in textbook should present as a individual part in teaching plan to improve students’attention to intercultural knowledge and chances to apply it;third,students should take part in other kind of activities to practice their ICC,such as role play,public speech and simulation dialogue.At the same time,teacher should give students advises and guidances during those activities.