An Investigation Of The Intercultural Communication Competence Of Business English Undergraduates

The whole world is now experiencing rapid development,and globalization has become an unavoidable trend.In the year of 2013,the National Educational Department has launched the National Standard for the Cultivation of Business English Undergraduates,which has clearly stated that the Business English undergraduates are supposed to be possessed of a good level of intercultural communication competence.Hainan Island,as the hot spot on the "One Road and One Belt," international business activities in Hainan Island will be more frequent than ever.Besides,the further construction of International Tourism Island keeps facilitating business connections with other countries.For the Business English undergraduates,they should not only equip with strong professional language and business knowledge but also they should possess qualified intercultural communication competence.Plenty of scholars at home and abroad have studied the issue of the cultivation of Business English undergraduates'intercultural communication competence.However,this topic was seldom focused on Hainan Island.The author has taken 218 Business English undergraduates from the Hainan University as the research subjects.Moreover,this research is using the questionnaire as the major research method with the guidance of Young Yun Kim's intercultural adaptation theory,and it aims at exploring the current situation of Business English undergraduates' intercultural communication competence,as well as the factors that are influencing the research subjects' intercultural communication competence.Moreover,the measures which is helpful in the cultivation of Business English undergraduates'intercultural communication competence also included in the research.In summary,there are several points concludes as follows.1.The Business English undergraduates from Hainan University have a decent level of intercultural communication competence.More specifically,they are strongest in the affective components,lower in the operational components,and inferior in the cognitive component.Regarding the cognitive components,the author has found out that the research subjects are lack of home cultural knowledge and foreign cultural knowledge.2.There are six hypotheses aroused in the study,5 of them have been accepted,and only one hypothesis has been rejected.The result shows that the intercultural communication competence is correlated with gender,language proficiency,and intercultural experiences,etc.,meanwhile,the research subjects who are superior in the affective components have a higher level of intercultural communication competence.3.Language proficiency,cultural understanding,attitude,and intercultural experiences,etc.,are the important factors that are influencing their intercultural communication competence.4.For the cultivation of Business English undergraduates,it needs the input of home cultural knowledge and foreign cultural knowledge,and it also imperative to develop their intercultural awareness and intercultural practices.Based upon the major findings of the research,the author has put forward several suggestions on the promotion of Business English undergraduates' intercultural communication competence.Moreover,this research studies the Business English undergraduates' intercultural communication competence for the students' point of view,the Business English faculty,and their curriculum are not considered in this research.Besides,there is only one university covered in the research.With the limited the resources and the knowledge of author,further study on this topic is needed.