An Empirical Study Of Cultivating Non-English Majors’ Intercultural Sensitivity Based On Constructivist Learning Theory

With the globalization of the world’s economy, technology and culture, people around the world areconducting much more frequent intercultural communication than ever before. The importance of interculturalcommunicative competence has been widely concerned and recognized. Thus, intercultural communication hasbecome an important part of the daily life for people all over the world. In2004, Ministry of Education advancedthe―College English Teaching Curriculum Requirements‖. This document proposes that cultivating theintercultural communicative competence is the main goal of English education. As an important aspect ofintercultural communication competence, intercultural sensitivity is the prerequisite for interculturalcommunication. Intercultural communication competence is composed of the intercultural awareness,intercultural sensitivity and intercultural skills in which intercultural sensitivity is regarded as the core element toconnect the connection of cultural awareness and intercultural skills. Only when people hold a appropriatecognition, emotional tendencies, right attitudes toward the cultures of other counties as well as master of thecultural similarities and differences, can they use appropriate communicative skills so as achieve a effectiveintercultural communication. Therefore, improving intercultural sensitivity is the start point and one of thenecessary conditions for cultivating intercultural communicative competence.The author gives a thorough review of the researches at home and abroad on intercultural communicationcompetence, Intercultural Sensitivity in order to understand the relative studies in this field in details. This thesisadopts the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale designed by Chen and Starosta (2000) on the basis of their theories ofintercultural communication competence and Intercultural Sensitivity (1996,1997) and applies the cultureteaching principles suggested mainly by Zhang Hongling (2007). Furthermore, the author carries out anexperiment of Chinese culture teaching in College English class, aiming at focusing on the similarities anddifferences between Chinese culture and that of western countries. This thesis explores the current level ofstudents’Intercultural Sensitivity and the five factors of Intercultural Sensitivity respectively.In the research, the author conducts an investigation among63first-year non-English majors from NorthwestNormal University Zhi Xing College. The31subjects in the test class have gone through a treatment ofeight-week college English courses which focus on the comparison between Chinese and western cultures. Thestatistics are analyzed through the independent samples T test in SPSS. Meanwhile, the author adopts aninterview to investigate the subjects’responses to the treatment. The major findings are as follows:1) In general, the63participants’ Intercultural Sensitivity level in the pre-test is close to the agreement level which implies their positive attitude toward intercultural communication.2) Before training, the highest scoring rate is the factor Respect for Cultural Difference, while InteractionConfidence takes up the lowest. After culture training, the test class achieves significant improvement inIntercultural Sensitivity. In addition, the level of Intercultural Sensitivity of the test class is higher than that ofcontrol class.3) The factors which help improve the participants’ Intercultural Sensitivity levels in English languageteaching include: intercultural-sensitivity-centered and task-based teaching design, teaching organization of thecombination of Chinese and western cultures, comparisons between two of them, the balance between the inputand output activities, and the application of multimedia technology in order to help the students to enhance theirintercultural sensitivity by practicing in real communicating environment so that their intercommunicativecompetence are to be improved in real intercultural communication activities.Based on the findings in this research, two essential pedagogical implications have been made:1) Foreignlanguage education should pay attention to cultivate the students’intercultural communication attitude which canassist them in understanding and recognizing the diverse cultures in order to avoid the attitude of culturalcentralism.2) In intercultural communication, students’ satisfaction and happiness of communication are tightlyrelated with whether they realize the differences of behavior patterns and values and understanding, acceptance,tolerance, respect, recognition toward cultural differences. A positive and open attitude is vital for getting thefeelings of satisfaction in communication. In the process of intercultural communicative competence teaching,not only the superficial knowledge concerning about English language culture but also the deep social valuesystem behind it should be acquired and understood by the students.