Correlation Between Intercultural Sensitivity And Intercultural Pragmatic Competence

Language is the carrier of culture; it is restricted by culture, too. It is unimaginable to learn a foreign language without the background of culture. How to carry out effective cross-cultural communication has become the final goal of modern foreign language teaching. Linguist Leech provided that "social pragmatic competence refers an ability to conduct decent communication observing social principles, which is higher pragmatic competence." M.J. Bennett stated his conceptual framework of intercultural sensitivity in1986and defined intercultural sensitivity into an ability to adapt cultural difference in real situation. Intercultural sensitivity plays a very important part in successful intercultural communication. Therefore, it is of great necessity to investigate the intercultural sensitivity and intercultural pragmatic competence.In this research, Chen and Starosta’s ISS (Intercultural Sensitivity Scale) and a pragmatic competence questionnaire were used as the tools of investigation for investigating375students who are taken from Suihua University and Northeast Forestry University. For controlling the variables, all of the students were chosen from senior students of English Faculty. Ultimately,360valid questionnaires are taken for doing the research. Through comparison and analysis, two target questions of this research were answered:first, present situation of intercultural sensitivity and intercultural pragmatic competence among English majors of common universities of China; second, relation between intercultural sensitivity and intercultural pragmatic competence and the possible influence of intercultural sensitivity on intercultural pragmatic competence.This thesis stated the background, significance and framework of the research and introduced related researches and theories of intercultural sensitivity and intercultural pragmatic competence. Then it listed the purpose, methods and data of this research and analyzed the data obtained with statistic software SPSS19.0. The two questionnaires are all divided the intercultural sensitivity and intercultural pragmatic competence of the students into five levels. The levels of the two concepts are compared horizontally. The results show that: firstly, the intercultural sensitivity and intercultural pragmatic competence of the participants remain in middle levels. The whole structure appears as a pitch pit. Only a few students’ indexes belong to the higher level. The intercultural sensitivity and intercultural pragmatic competence levels of the undergraduates of English major in China need to be improved. Secondly, in terms of correlation analysis, intercultural sensitivity influences on intercultural pragmatic competence. The present theories are used to draw the inherent correlation between the two concepts; moreover, with teaching experience, the conclusion is confirmed. Teachers can improve their students’ intercultural pragmatic competence through strengthening their intercultural sensitivity level.The results of this research contain pragmatic value of foreign language teaching. Through empirical study, the thesis investigated and analyzed the fundamental reason of intercultural sensitivity influencing intercultural pragmatic competence and explained it with the presented theories and actual teaching experience. It provided ways to improve intercultural pragmatic competence from intercultural sensitivity in teaching and learning.