Uncertainty And Anxiety In Intercultural Communication And Second Language Learning

The rapid development of modern technology, transportation, media, the Internet as well as the globalization of the world economy have transformed our planet into a world village, which is partly characterized by booming intercultural communication. This thesis attempts to focus on one of the prominent problems in intercultural communication: Uncertainty and Anxiety. Due to the difficulty in perceiving differences and predicting responses in an intercultural context, people usually experience uncertainty that may escalate to anxiety. Uncertainty and anxiety above our maximum threshold may cause communication barrier and even failure. This thesis considers second language learning as a specific form of intercultural communication, which is also subject to uncertainty and anxiety. Uncertainty and anxiety may easily lead to learning inefficiency. Since few linguistic researchers have applied the communication theories involved to second language learning, this thesis ventures to study uncertainty and anxiety in second language learning based on Berger's Uncertainty Reduction Theory (URT), Gudykunst's Anxiety/Uncertainty Management Theory (AUM) and other intercultural communication theories.The thesis analyzes three theoretical problems arising from uncertainty and anxiety, i.e., pragmatic inferences, cultural assumptions and degrees of uncertainty and anxiety, and studies their roles in intercultural communication and second language learning based on empirical research (questionnaires and interviews) and intercultural communication theories. Given the theoretical and empirical research, the thesis concludes that second language competence, expectation for the target culture and language and group distance account for the existence and different degrees of uncertainty and anxiety in intercultural encounters. In particular, second language competence including grammatical competence and communicative competence has close bearing on the abilities to draw pragmatic inferences and understand cultural assumptions, hence a significant factor of uncertainty and anxiety. Therefore, communicators and second language learners need to give priority to their...