A Study On The Status Quo Of Junior Middle School English Teachers' Cross-cultural Communicative Competence

In recent decades,one of the most significant changes in language teaching has been the recognition of cultural dimensions as a key component that takes the essential experience of education and learning languages to a great level.The goal of language learning is not just the acquisition of communication competence of a foreign language,but the intercultural communication competence in which individuals can behave more flexibly in behavior,attitude and thinking in other cultures.Due to the growing interest in cultural dimensions in the field of foreign language education,more and more attention has been paid to teachers' intercultural communication competence.The main purpose of this paper is to understand the status quo of intercultural communication competence of junior middle school English teachers in Wanzhou District and the potential factors that affect their intercultural communication competence and then give suggestions on how to improve their ability.After summarizing the concept of intercultural communication competence,the status quo of researches on intercultural communication competence,the models,this paper designs a comprehensive questionnaire that contain 6 dimensions intercultural communication competence of junior middle school English teachers.And there's also some interview questions to be a supply of the questionnaire.The study subjects are 51 teachers from several middle schools in Wanzhou District of Chongqing.After analyzing the obtained data by SPSS 23.0,it is found that the overall level of intercultural communication competence of English teachers in junior middle schools in Wanzhou District is not relatively high.Because these teachers do not attach enough importance to intercultural communication competence,they also lack the initiative to improve their intercultural communication competence and the opportunities to reach out directly to other cultural and customs.Compared the data of each dimension we found that the dimensions of intercultural knowledge and social competence are the weakest parts in the 6 dimensions.The independent sample T-test shows that gender differences do not have any impact on the intercultural communication competence of junior middle school English teachers.However,the training course of intercultural communication competence,overseas experience and higher education qualification all have a positive impact on intercultural communication competence.The training of intercultural communication competence has a more obvious role in promoting the flexibility of junior middle school English teachers.And those teachers who have been abroad before have performed even better in cultural empathy and are more open minded about other cultures,and they are also more confident during the communication with foreigners.The one-way ANOVA test shows that the degree of closeness with foreigners had a positive effect on the intercultural communication competence of junior middle school English teachers,but the effect of the relationship still needs to be studied.Junior middle school English teachers who have never talked with foreigners in this survey have significantly lower intercultural communication competence than the teachers who have had talked with foreigners.Junior middle school English teachers need to pay more attention to their own intercultural communication competence.Education authorities also should pay more attention to this and provide more systematic and comprehensive intercultural communication competence training courses,organize various activities and establish organizations to encourage these teachers to interact with foreigners.With the rapid economic development in China,education authorities may also consider sending more junior middle school English teachers to study or visit abroad,which plays an excellent role in enhancing teachers' intercultural communication competence.However,junior high school English teachers themselves should also pay close attention to the existing overseas projects launched by the Ministry of Education.