A Review On Gudykunst's Major Contribution And His Influences On ICC Studies

The ever-increasing development of science, technology, transport and communication, as well as the tremendous changes of the world economy, is witnessed to attribute greatly to the increasingly frequent cultural contact among different nations. It seems that the communication activities between various cultures are continuing indefinitely. In order to survive in this interdependent world, the study of intercultural communication (later on ICC for short, whenever necessary) is becoming more and more indispensable. It is apparently the time that requires the steady development of ICC.In the United States, ICC as an academic study was founded in the 1950's, and in the 1970's such studies enjoyed their further researches and being consolidated. While in the 1980's, the discipline of ICC entered the time that links the past and the future. A group of scholars represented by William B. Gudykunst flourished in the academic world during this period. Gudykunst established dynamic ICC theories, which promoted the research concentrating on the comparisons and analysis of communication in different cultures to the focus on studying the differences in dynamic ICC process.Gudykunst is one of the prolific scholars in the field of ICC. In his short life span of 57 years, he has made great contribution for the development of ICC disciplines. He puts emphasis particularly on the theoretical study of interpersonal communication, as well as the effectiveness of intergroup communication. He keeps revising his theories and striving to put these theories into practice. He is the pioneer on constructing ICC theory and interpersonal communicative competence theory. Based on pooling the opinions of other communicative scholars, he differentiates and expounds certain concepts of ICC. The most outstanding contribution he made is the anxiety/uncertainty management theory. In addition, he makes contribution on theorizing about ICC.The author of this thesis sets out to make a brief study of Gudykunst's major contribution and his influences on ICC study by comprehensive analyzing methods. Based on the general retrospect on the development of ICC, it has been found that Gudykunst's theory, especially the AUM theory, has been widely used to guide the practical ICC activities. His theorizing about ICC provides an overview of theories in the United States and criteria for people to evaluate theories. As a whole, the AUM theory embraces great significance on ICC studies; while on the other hand, limitations of this theory can also be found in practice. It is of great importance to better appreciate its significance and overcome its limitations so that further efforts may be made in the right direction for the development of this newly-sprung discipline. Besides constructing our own ICC theories, we can put the theories into practice so that we could avoid misunderstandings in the sphere of economy, trade, and so on.