On Cultivating Intercultural Nonverbal Communicative Competence In FLT Classroom

Nowadays, owing to the quick and advanced technology in both transportation and information system, especially the development and the popularity of computer technology in our daily life, the earth has become a global village. In the process of globalization, people from different cultures are brought together by economical, political and cultural purposes and the interaction becomes more and more frequent. Especially we Chinese people, taking the advantage of the policy of reform and "opening up", communicate with an increasing number of people from different countries and contact with different cultures more and more frequent. As a result, the study of intercultural communication is increasingly important. Intercultural communication involves communication between people from different cultures, which comprises both verbal communication and nonverbal communication. However, people tend to attach more importance to verbal communication when encountering those from other cultural backgrounds and neglect nonverbal communication, for they maintain the widespread view that in intercultural communication, the mastery of the target language is essential and they value the correctness and appropriateness of verbal behavior more. Such neglect often results in cultural misunderstandings and conflicts because studies on nonverbal communication reveals that nonverbal communication usually carries the basic cultural traits from which people are able to gather clues about underlying attitudes and values. So it goes without saying that the study of nonverbal behavior is an important component to the study of intercultural communication.Under such circumstances, I put forward the idea of cultivating students' intercultural nonverbal communicative competence. First, with the rapid development of global village, it is essential for all of us to become more sensitive and more observant to the myriad motions, gestures, and body language that surround us each day. Second, college education is facing social and cultural challenges that have implication for teaching and learning. Education cannot isolate itself from the changing society. With the various goals of the learners, teachers have to innovate their teaching ideology and develop effective teaching strategies with the intention of increasing students' awareness of social and cultural issues and their all-round competence. However, this is a big challenge for both teachers and students.Third, it is the author's sense of professional responsibility of adding new knowledge and improving teaching skills or techniques in order to help students to achieve an effective communication in intercultural communication. As a college English teacher, the author has witnessed many teachers, who focus on linguistic competence of students or high marks in academic achievement tests, strive hard to attain the goal. However, they often hear complaints from the society about students' low proficiency. Most students, in spite of their academic achievements, are deficient in intercultural communication.Nonverbal communication is the essential part of communication and interculturalcommunication. It is well acknowledged that ignorance of nonverbal communication results in pragmabehavioral failure and hinders the effective intercultural communication. To testify my assumption, surveys are done between two universities, including 240 students and 24 teachers.After a careful study of communicative competence and intercultural communicative competence (ICC competence), I assume the components of intercultural nonverbal communicative competence (ENCC competence). Intercultural nonverbal communicative competence takes the knowledge dimensions of nonverbal communication, cultural differences in nonverbal communication as the core of the system.In the last section, I make some tentative suggestion on how to cultivate students' INCC in FLT classroom. To avoid intercultural miscommunication, I propose that students' intercultural sensitivity and intercultural awareness towards cultural differences should be cultivated. Then I suggest that the effective way of cultivating students' INCC in FLT classroom is to combine the teaching of cultural differences with employing the nonverbal behaviors as a tool. Some methods are introduced for the teaching of cultural differences. First, the teaching process is divided into three stages: 1) the stage of enlightening. At the first stage, the teacher can help students to have basic knowledge of nonverbal communication. The purpose of this stage is to awaken their awareness of nonverbal communication. Interest is the mother of success. So another purpose of this stage is to arouse students' interest in nonverbal communication. 2) The stage of comparing and contrasting. By comparison and contrast, students will learn the cultural differences in nonverbal communication. 3) The stage of maturing. If they can apply the knowledge to the intercultural events flexibly, students reach the last stage and finally attain the goal. Second, some practical approaches are employed through behaviors.In a word, researchers and educators have long recognized the importance and necessity of nonverbal communication in intercultural communication. However, a further systematic study is still necessary for an effective communication. My thesis is built on my assumption to draw the experts' attention.