Toward A Host Culture Perspective On Intercultural Communication Competence

As people in the world experience more and more intercultural interactions in their daily life, scholars begin to focus more study on intercultural communication competence (ICC), attempting to help people with dissimilar cultural backgrounds interact successfully.Drawing from the research and conceptualization of interpersonal communication competence, scholars conducted extensive work from different perspectives by applying various methods and scales (Spitzberg & Cupach, 1984; Spitzberg, 1987; Imahori & Lanigan, 1989; Kim, 1995, 1996). However, theories, models and behavioral skills identified either from literature review or empirical investigations are largely concerned with sojourners. What's more, the conceptualization of intercultural communication competence implies a competence of sojourners. Meanwhile, it should be noted that intercultural interactions are very much a reciprocal transaction, which involves both parties and both should bear responsibilities. Therefore, to develop intercultural communication competence means a lot not only to sojourners but also to hosts.Based on the aforementioned studies concerning ICC, this paper attempts to identify the factors which hinder the competent performance of Chinese hosts and find out which dimensions of ICC need improvements. First, a sample of international students was interviewed and asked about their satisfaction with intercultural communication when interacting with Chinese host; then a questionnaire was designed and administered to Chinese hosts to find out the intervening factors and the ICC problems of Chinese hosts by correlating the results with the three dimensions of ICC. Explanations are given and possible solutions are proposed. By incorporating and studying the ICC from the host culture perspective, we believe curriculum and training can be designed to better prepare host interactions to help yield more successful intercultural communications. (266 words)...