On Constructing A Comprehensive Model Of Intercultural Communicative Competence Development

With the increasing intercultural communication (IC) against the background ofglobalization, intercultural communicative competence (ICC) has become an essentialquality of modern talents; developing students’ ICC is one of the main objectives offoreign language teaching (FLT) of higher education. This study focuses on thedevelopment of ICC in FLT of Chinese higher education; it aims to present somefindings in theory and practice of ICC development.The comprehensive model of ICC development is a model proposed by theauthor for ICC development in both foreign (English) language teaching and collegeEnglish teaching in China. Based on a literature review, the dissertation first exploredthe framework of ICC, and then it proposed comprehensive model of ICCdevelopment, finally the dissertation discussed this model’s applications in FLT ofhigher education. In-depth interviews and questionnaires on people with rich ICexperiences were conducted; questionnaires on university teachers and students werecollected. Based on the empirical and theoretical research, an in-depth analysis of theresults was carried out. The findings are as follows.According to the author’s framework of ICC, different components of ICC arepresented under four headings; namely knowledge, skills, attitudes and personalqualities. The knowledge of ICC includes cultural knowledge, language knowledge,as well as social knowledge and professional knowledge. Skills consist ofcommunicative skills, social skills, learning skills and professional skills. Attitudesfall into communicative attitudes and personal attitudes. Personal qualities refer tocharacter and personality that are closely related to IC. This framework emphasizescomprehensiveness and integrity of ICC; it states that professional knowledge,professional skills and personal qualities are components of ICC; it also addresses theimportance of learning skills and non-verbal communication skills.The author built a comprehensive model of ICC development by exploring andclarifying the concept, objectives, principles, content and elements of ICCdevelopment. Firstly, the comprehensive model contains two dimensions of penetrating. One is to form a complete development system by penetrating the coreline of ICC development into FLT. The other one is to combine ICC developmentwith students’ individual development, regard students as the center of ICCdevelopment and fully mobilize their subjective initiative. Secondly, the objectives ofICC development of FLT in higher education include: students could conductintercultural communication effectively and appropriately by developing their ICCthrough FLT; students could gradually become intercultural men; finally, their ICCcould be developed in an autonomic and sustainable way. Thirdly, principles of ICCdevelopment include: clarifying the development nature, implementing ICCdevelopment systematically, applying diverse development methods, cultivating ICCgradually and coping with change by dynamic development. Furthermore, ICCdevelopment in higher education has specific content; it is crucial to cultivate bothexplicit and implicit elements of ICC; components of students’ ICC should bepromoted in a balanced way. Last but not least, ICC development also proposescorresponding requirements on components of FLT, including curriculum, teachingmethods and techniques, teaching materials, teaching staff, test and evaluation, etc.The present study explored applications of the comprehensive model in FLT byexamining five components, i.e. classroom teaching and learning, extracurricularactivity and practice, teaching staff, teaching materials, and applications of moderninformation technology. Five key findings were obtained. Firstly, concept andmethods of classroom teaching and learning should correspond with ICC development;culture teaching includes cultural knowledge, awareness, attitude and skills, instead ofbeing limited to cultural knowledge category; suggested ways of culture teachinginclude offering cultural information, creating intercultural context, conductingcultural activities and carrying out cultural practice; it is necessary to closely integrateculture teaching with language teaching. Secondly, extracurricular activity andpractice contribute to strengthen students’ IC awareness and promote their ICC, thereare urgent needs to combine extracurricular activity and practice with classroomteaching, integrate learning, practice and research together, combine on-campusactivity with off-campus practice, and conduct various intercultural activity and practice. Thirdly, culture content of FLT materials should satisfy requirements of ICCdevelopment. It is necessary to strengthen the authenticity and multi-dimensionalconstruction of teaching materials; the selection and use of teaching materials shouldconsider and fulfill the requirements of ICC development. Fourthly, ICC developmentrequires foreign language teachers to possess their perspectives of ICC developmentand promote their own ICC and skills of intercultural FLT; meanwhile, teachers’professional development and teachers’ structure should meet the needs of ICCdevelopment. Fifthly, ICC development calls for the integration of FLT and moderninformation technology. Modern information technology could be applied to buildintercultural context, construct three-dimensional teaching resources, enrich teachingmethods and boost students’ autonomic learning.