The Defining And Assessment Of Intercultural Communicative Competence

As the process of globalization moves on, intercultural communication (IC) has become a part of people's daily lives. People need to know how to behave appropriately and effectively in a certain intercultural context so as to achieve favorable outcomes; they need to know how to improve their intercultural communicative competence (ICC). As for decision makers or human resource managers, to know about one's ICC and being able to assess it will provide valuable information for decision making. Based on the definitions, models and components of ICC, this research probes into the issue of improving ICC and makes a preliminary attempt to assessing intercultural communicative competence.In the beginning of the dissertation, the researcher introduces the research background and presents the research questions. These are followed by the literature review which were conducted from three aspects: the definition and models of IC; the definition and components of ICC as well as the research on the assessment of ICC at home and abroad. The whole research is composed of two phases. In phase 1, the definition and components of ICC are discussed with qualitative approach. By interviewing 5 excellent intercultural communicators, the researcher investigated the necessity and feasibility of an Intercultural Communicative Competence Test (ICCT); then with quantitative approach, an ICCT survey was conducted to further clarify the components of ICC. Based on the result of the survey, an ICC model was constructed. Phase 2 of the research involves the development process of an ICCT. In this phase, the researcher worked out the test design and blueprint for ICCT, compiled the test paper and administered the test to 248 test taker in a university. The quality of the test is analyzed and some evidences of reliability and validity were provided.The researcher discovered that ICC is a comprehensive competence comprising knowledge, skills and awareness. Now, the ICC assessment system in China still needs to be improved. This research attempts to develop a paper-pencil test that can improve the efficiency and reduce the cost of assessment to build a multi-dimensional evaluation system to provide references for decision-making and training.This research is a preliminary exploration into the field of ICCT, the framework of ICCT is constructed and one version of the ICCT examination paper is provided. However, the reliability and validity evidence of the test still need to be accumulated and lots of improvements still need to be made to the test.