A Survey On The Current Situation Of Chinese University Foreign Language Teachers' Intercultural Competence And Intercultural Contact

In recent years,with intercultural communicative activities with foreign countries are increasing rapidly,Chinese universities place more emphasis on cultivating a new generation of students with higher intercultural competence.However,it should be noted that students' intercultural competence is closely related to their teachers' intercultural competence,and teachers who have high levels of intercultural competence are more likely to cultivate students with high intercultural competence.While the current researches mainly focus on students' intercultural competence,the researches on teachers' intercultural competence combined with intercultural contact in China are scarce.This study aims to explore the current situation of intercultural competence and intercultural contact of FL teachers in Chinese university and the effects of intercultural contact pathways on intercultural competence.In the current study,qualitative and quantitative methods were used to conduct face-to-face intensive interviews with 36 FL teachers and questionnaire surveys with 500 FL teachers among Chinese universities.And 415 valid copies of questionnaire were collected.The questionnaire distributed to participants includes two parts: the intercultural contact questionnaire of Chinese university FL teachers and the self-evaluation questionnaire of Chinese university FL teachers' intercultural competence.The survey results show that the Cronbach's alpha of intercultural contact questionnaire is 0.914 > 0.8,which indicates that this questionnaire has good reliability and validity;and the self-evaluation questionnaire also has a good reliability and validity.The results of the current study are as follows: ICC of Chinese university FL teachers is at an average level as a whole;indirect contact is the main intercultural contact of Chinese university FL teachers,and the frequency of learning about foreign countries' culture through websites is highest;furthermore,almost all aspects of direct contact and indirect contact have significant positive effects on Chinese university FL teachers' intercultural competence.The current study is meaningful to cultivate and improve university FL teachers' intercultural competence.It is not only helpful to have a better understanding of the current situation of Chinese university FL teachers' intercultural competence and intercultural contact,but also conductive for education department to develop corresponding policies to improve teachers' intercultural competence.