The Development Of Intercultural Communication Competence Scale For Non-English Majors

The research on intercultural communication competence(ICC)has the vital significance to international talents cultivation and international discourse system construction in China.However,little research has focused on the design of ICC assessment tools for Non-English majors,especially developing ICC scale with empirical methods.Therefore,this study aims to develop an ICC scale for non-English majors in order to facilitate intercultural communication competence cultivation in College English Curriculum.Based on a construct validity-driven approach,this study combined theoretical,qualitative and quantitative methods and was carried out in the following three stages.The first stage of the study was to establish a pre-test descriptive indicator system of ICC for non-English majors based on the studies of intercultural communication competence cultivation in College English Curriculum and ICC triangle model(Chen?Starosta,1996).In the second stage,the descriptors were collected and grouped into pre-designated categories of the descriptive indicator system,thus forming the descriptor pool.Then the pre-test descriptive indicator system was validated and the descriptors were further revised to improve their clarity,relevance and appropriateness based on qualitative data from expert interviews.Afterwards,in order to grade the descriptors,a survey was conducted,and the collected data were analyzed by multi-facet Rasch model for mathematically scaling the difficulty value of each descriptor.Following a thorough check of descriptive indicator system,descriptors and difficulty levels,the initial scale was constructed.In the third stage,six key hypotheses were proposed based on interpretative argument framework(Chapelle et al.,2008),which were used for scale validity argument.In order to test the hypotheses,a survey was carried out among 1842 non-English majors from 7 universities in China.The quantitative data were analyzed by Rasch rating scale model so that necessary revision could be made accordingly to further improve scale reliability and validity.An intercultural communication competence scale for non-English majors(ICCSNM)was developed,which contained 99 descriptors under six sub-scales:psychological adaptation,cultural knowledge,cultural contrast awareness,global awareness,critical thinking,and strategic competence.The descriptors in each sub-scale were further grouped into preliminary level,vantage level and higher level,accordingly in order to describe the intended learning outcomes of non-English majors with basic,higher and special intercultural learning needs as required from the College English Curriculum.Giving top priority to scale reliability and validity,this study intends to provide multiple sources of validity evidence and to minimize subjectivity in scale development in order to improve the validity of ICCSNM to some extent.As an ICC assessment standard or assessment tool for non-English majors,ICCSNM may provide relevant feedback for College English Curriculum,and give insight into test development and textbook compilation.Theoretically,it is hoped that this study may enrich ICC theory from the perspective of college English teaching and shed new light on the development of ICC scale.