An Investigation Of Non-english Major Undergraduates’ Intercultural Communicative Competence

In the 21 st century, the trend towards globalization and internationalization makes Intercultural Communicative Competence(ICC) an essential quality of modern talents. Thus, College English Curriculum Requirements states ICC as one of the contents in college English curriculum in 2007. According to Chen and Starosta, ICC is an umbrella notion which consists of three dimensions as intercultural awareness, intercultural sensitivity and intercultural effectiveness in the process of intercultural communication. Taking Chen and Starosta’s model of ICC as theoretical basis, this thesis attempts to answer the research questions as:(a) what is the current status of non-English major undergraduates’ ICC in its components of awareness, sensitivity, and effectiveness?(b) What factors may influence the results of the participants’ ICC status?The participants in this investigation include 134 Chinese non-English major undergraduates from different departments in a university in Northeast China. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are employed to enquiry the research questions concerning the participants’ current level of ICC and the factors affecting their level. The quantitative research applies the Chinese versions of three questionnaires as the instruments: Intercultural Sensitivity Scale, Intercultural Awareness Instrument and Intercultural Effectiveness Scale. Also, SPSS17.0 software is employed to analyze the statistics collected. The study is complimented by a qualitative method taking the form of interviews which focuses on the participants’ perceptions on the quantitative results.The research results indicate that:(a) the general level of ICC and its each dimension is medium for the majority of the participants, with a relatively higher level of intercultural sensitivity; and(b) several factors affect the participants’ ICC including lack of cultural knowledge, lack of motivation and the unbalanced dual identities configuration.The paper attempts to find out the strength and disadvantage of non-English major students’ ICC in China. Hopefully, it may be suggestive to foreign language teaching in higher education, and make contribution to the relevant study in this field.