A Study Of The Acquisition Of Intercultural Communication Consciousness Of Chinese English Majors

The purpose of this study is to investigate the status quo of intercultural communication consciousness (Ice) of Chinese English majors, find possible problems existing in the acquisition process and make effective suggestions to improve the acquisition of Ice.For the purpose of this study, a questionnaire was administered to116students, the junior English majors in the School of Foreign Languages at Qingdao University of Science and Technology (QUST). The participants’Ice status was established by their scores on the questionnaire, the main part of which was designed to test the participants’Ice through24items deriving from6major factors. The questionnaire data was grouped and processed by SPSS (19.0). Based on the results of the questionnaire, in-depth interviewing of four participants was conducted. These participants were selected, by purposive sampling from the116participants to find out possible problems existing in the status of Ice and its acquisition process.It was found that most Chinese English majors have weak Ice but intend to equate English language proficiency with intercultural communication competence (ICC). The study identified the possible causes resulting in such consequences. On the one hand, current English language teaching and learning in China is knowledge-centered and exam-oriented, not attaching enough significance to cultural education in language teaching. Furthermore, the limited cultural teaching also stresses cultural facts and differences without enlightening students as to the causes of these differences. On the other hand, most Chinese English majors do not have an objective and comprehensive attitude towards foreign culture and lack confidence in intercultural communication. The study attempted to propose effective methods for improving the acquisition of Icc of Chinese English majors.