A Dynamic Research Of Intercultural Communication Competence On Volunteer Chinese Teachers In Australia

Volunteer Chinese teachers are all over the world, representing the image of China, shouldering the responsibility of teaching Chinese and promoting Chinese culture. The intercultural communication competence of volunteers has a great effect on their work and daily life. This research is focused on the intercultural communication competence, attempting to find out the disadvantages and obstacles in their intercultural communication, and then it provides some advice and suggestion on the training of intercultural communication competence.This thesis conducted a dynamic three-time survey of 33 volunteer Chinese teachers in Australia, using the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale and Intercultural Effectiveness Scale developed by Chen Guoming. At the same time, the author interviewed some volunteers, collecting intercultural communication cases, making it a qualitative research as well.The research has following findings. (1)In all three stages intercultural sensitivity is better than intercultural effectiveness, and the internal development of intercultural sensitivity and effectiveness is uneven. Interaction confidence and attentiveness are a lot weaker than the other aspects;behavioral flexibility, interaction relaxation, message skills, identity maintenance and interaction management are weaker than interaction respect in the effectiveness. (2)In all three stage, the interaction enjoyment, confidence and attentiveness are significantly correlated with interaction engagement. At the same time, interaction confidence is significantly correlated with interaction enjoyment. The interaction management, interaction relaxation,behavioral flexibility, message skills and identity maintenance are also significantly correlated with interaction confidence, enjoyment and engagement of the intercultural sensitivity. The significant correlations of different competences in the leaving stage are more than the stage before. (3)In contrast of the three stages, in the intercultural sensitivity aspect, interaction engagement and respect for cultural differences in the leaving stage are better than the stage before coming to Australia; in the intercultural effectiveness aspect, interaction respect and identity maintenance in the leaving stage are better than the stage before coming to Australia, while message skills in the middle stage is worse then before. (4)The undergraduate major does not have significant impact on intercultural effectiveness, while have influence on some aspects of the sensitivity. (5)Volunteers mainly have difficulty in comprehension and expression, conversation topic and manner, conversation keeping, way of thinking and acting during intercultural communication; This article attributes the encountered obstacles to language ability and cultural difference between Australia and China.These findings provide some revelations on how to enhance the intercultural communicative competence of the volunteers. Make an effort to improve interaction confidence and attentiveness; Put more focus on intercultural effectiveness;Cultivate volunteers' ability to use foreign language; Increase volunteers' intercultural awareness and enhance understanding towards the various cultures of the country of destination.