Chinese University Students’ Intercultural Communication Sensitivity In The New Social Media Environment

At present, the development of mobile network is growing rapidly. With the unceasing emergence of new smart phones, an increasing number of mobile social applications(social APPs) have been invented and used in mobile devices. Those social APPs create more opportunities and erect a bridge for those who want to communicate with people from different cultures. Social media have changed the ways people communicate, thus affected their intercultural communication. Intercultural communication competence(ICC) has been one of important research topics at home and abroad. Since university students are the main users of the Internet and mobile phones, the research on those students’ ICC is also of great significance. Because Intercultural communication sensitivity(ICS) is an important component of ICC, this thesis will investigate and analyze the present situation of Chinese university students’ ICS under the background of popular social APPs. The author hopes to expose the status quo of ICS, which can provide some meaningful reference to future research.Although a number of scholars at home and abroad have conducted researches on ICS, the related researches in China are still limited, especially empirical research in a particular environment. Consequently, this thesis takes Chinese university students as the research object and make qualitative and quantitative analyses under the popularity of social APPs. Firstly, descriptive statistics is used to describe the present situation of Chinese university students’ ICS; secondly, correlation analysis is used to investigate the relationship between the gender, major and five factors of ICS. Finally, correlation analysis is made to investigate the internal correlation between the five factors of ICS.The results indicate that the standard of ICS of Chinese university students in the social media environment is generally in the medium level. The average data shows that the highest level of participants are Interaction Engagement and Interaction Attentiveness, the lowest is the Interaction Enjoyment. As to the gender difference, the questionnaire results show that female students’ level of Interaction Confidence higher than male students’,but there is not significant difference between male and female on other 4 factors. The questionnaire results also show that the level of Interaction Attentiveness of students majoring in science higher than that of students majoring in arts,but there is not significant difference between two majors on other 4 factors.The study also finds that the five factors of ICS are positively correlated. Among them, the stronger correlation between the five factors is Interaction Confidence and Interaction Engagement, Interaction Attentiveness; the moderate correlation between the five factors is Interaction Enjoyment and Respect for Cultural Difference, Interaction Engagement and Interaction Attentiveness. Correlation between other factors are almost in weak positive correlation, which suggests that five factors influence each other. The interview results show that the five factors of ICS of Chinese university students will increase correspondingly after they use social media. Students are more likely to regard social media as a new way to communicate with people from other cultures. This thesis finally make some suggestions on how to improve Chinese university students’ ICS under the popularity of new media.