Research On Chinese Oversea Students Intercultural Communication Based On Anxiety And Uncertainty Management Theory

Based on the Anxiety and Uncertainty Management(AUM) theory of Gudykunst.W.B., this research focus on the factors which affect on the level of anxiety and uncertainty among Chinses oversea students. And discusses how they deal with these anxiety and uncertainty during the communication with local residents. The aim of the research is develop the Anxiety and Uncertainty Management theory into application among the Chinese oversea students, and help them increase the ability of intercultural communication.Gudykunst asserts that anxiety and uncertainty influence the effectiveness of intercultural communication. Either too high or too low the level of anxiety and uncertainty is can decrease the effectiveness of the communication. To achieve the effectiveness of intercultural communication, people should manage their anxiety and uncertainty to keep them in a appropriate range. Meanwhile mindfulness should be addressed.As a typical group of intercultural communication participators, Chinese oversea students are involved in intercultural communication during their study and daily life. The author chose Chinese oversea students from The United State. Germany, and Japan to study by the questionnaire and interview. Attempt to analyze the level of influence of which can effect on their anxiety and uncertainty during the intercultural communication. Based on the Anxiety and Uncertainty Management theory, the author chose eight of all effective factors to measure. The results show that there are several similarities among these three countries:knowledge of the host culture, favorable contact conditions, second language competence, and cultural identity are strong effective factors; cultural similarity, stereotypes, shared networks, and intergroup attitudes are weak effective factors. But the conditions are different when comes to comparing each country. The author discussed the differences,and analyze the reason through interview after the questionnaire, and utilize the High context/ Low context theory of E.T. Hall.During the research, the author concluded the strategies used by Chinese oversea students to manage the anxiety and uncertainty during the intercultural communication. Generally, they chose to increase the contact with local residents, search for the similarity of them, tolerant the ambiguity and differences, gain more knowledge of host culture, alter their perceptions, and let others know more about Chinese culture to manage the anxiety and uncertainty. Some of these strategies extended the ones suggested by Gudykunst in his research about the training of intercultural adjustment.