A Systematic Study On The Cultivation Of Intercultural Communicative Competence For Mongolian English Majors

This paper undertakes an investigation into the development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) for Mongolian English majors. Three tasks are intended to be fulfilled:setting up a knowledge-based cultivating model of ICC, working out the proportion each type of knowledge in the model constitutes, and finding out the problems formulated in three curricula on the time spent on each type of knowledge.Firstly, after reviewing a large quantity of literature in the field and consulting the experts,24 elements responsible for cultivating ICC are chosen. Then by using a mathematical method called Interpretative Structural Modeling (ISM), a knowledge-based cultivating model of ICC for Mongolian English majors is set up. Within the 4-level model,13 types of knowledge are located at the bottom.The second task of the study is to calculate the proportion each type of knowledge contributes in the process of developing ICC. Based on the data provided by experts, the proportions are worked out by applying another mathematical method in System Theory named Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). First noted is the knowledge of lexis (17%), followed by the knowledge of learning strategies (16%), communication strategies (12%), pragmatics (10%), Mongolian culture (9%), Chinese culture (8%), target culture (8%), grammar (6%), discourse (4%), sociolinguistics (4%), nonverbal communication (3%), phonology (2%), and native language (1%).The last procedure of the study is to make a comparison between the proportions suggested by experts with proportions of hours in the curricula in Inner Mongolian Normal University (IMUN), Inner Mongolian University (IMU), and Inner Mongolian University for Nationalities (IMUN). The comparison is statistically analyzed by SPSS 13.0. The final results of comparison can be concluded as follows:1) The actual appropriated percentage of time on Mongolian culture in all three universities is far lower than that suggested by the experts. 2) Excessive attention is put on teaching grammar. The proportions in all three curricula are much higher than experts'suggestion.3) The knowledge of Chinese culture is ignored. The curricula in IMU and IMUN prescribe no hours on this type of knowledge.4) Comparatively speaking, the curriculum in IMNU is relatively reasonable. Percentage-wise, as many as 10 different types of intercultural communicative knowledge fulfill the desired expectation. However, the results in IMUN show that the school emphasizes linguistic study over intercultural communication. Hours on seven types of knowledge are not properly assigned.