Current Situation And Countermeasures Of Intercultural Communication Competence Training In English Reading Teaching In Secondary Vocational Schools

With the economic globalization,intercultural communication is becoming more and more frequent.To communicate with people of different cultural backgrounds effectively and appropriately,people need intercultural communication competence.The National Medium and Long-Term Plan for Education Reform and Development(2010-2020)points out that it is necessary “to train a large number of international talents”;English Curriculum Standards for Secondary Vocational Schools(2018)makes it clear that “one of the tasks of English course for secondary vocational school is to equip students with intercultural communication competence in daily life and professional situations”.It can be seen that intercultural communication competence is not only the basic quality of citizens in the 21 st century,but also the essential ability of secondary vocational school students.However,the current situation of intercultural teaching in secondary vocational schools is not optimistic(Huang Yaqiao,2016;Gu Xiaole,2017).English teaching pays more attention to language teaching,and ignores the foundation and precondition roles of intercultural knowledge and intercultural attitude in the training of intercultural communication competence.The students’ intercultural communication competence needs to be improved urgently.In addition,there are few empirical studies on intercultural communication competence training in English reading teaching in secondary vocational schools in China.Based on Byram’s EU Model and referring to the practical teaching circular model of Gu Xiaole(2017),the study designs the language and culture integration teaching model.Quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods are adopted to investigate the current situation of intercultural communication competence and explore the effects of the language and culture integration teaching model on intercultural knowledge and intercultural attitude in English reading teaching in secondary vocational schools.This thesis mainly aims to address the following questions:(1)What is the current situation of intercultural communication competence in English reading teaching in secondary vocational schools?(2)Can English reading teaching in secondary vocational schools under language and culture integration teaching model improve students’ intercultural knowledge level?If so,in what aspects can it improve students’ intercultural knowledge level?(3)Can English reading teaching in secondary vocational schools under language and culture integration teaching model improve students’ intercultural attitude? If so,in what aspects can it improve students’ intercultural attitude?Questionnaires,tests and student interviews are adopted to collect and analyze data.To analyze the current situation of intercultural communication competence from the overall and four dimensions,a questionnaire survey was carried out among 310 students in Grade 2019 in a secondary vocational school in Xuzhou,and 10 students were randomly selected for interview.During the experiment,a total of 85 students from two secondary vocational classes were selected as the research subjects.There are 43 students in experimental class and 42 students in control class.A four-month teaching experiment was conducted under the guidance of the language and culture integration teaching model in experimental class,while the control class remains unchanged.The test paper and the questionnaire are used respectively to compare the results of intercultural knowledge and intercultural attitude.Through SPSS 23.0 data analysis,this thesis has the following findings:(1)In general,secondary vocational school students’ ICC is weak and there are some differences in four dimensions of ICC.The total average of students’ ICC is only 2.89(total 5),below the median 3.0.To be specific,the average of each dimension is as below:attitude(2.98),knowledge(2.93),skills(2.87),awareness(2.77).It indicates that the overall level of secondary vocational school students’ ICC is not satisfactory enough,not reaching the medium level;intercultural attitude needs to be further improved,and intercultural knowledge,skills and awareness are insufficient.(2)Through the independent sample T-Test and paired sample T-Test on the intercultural knowledge test paper,the results show that the average in experimental class is 6.11 higher than that in control class;the average of post-test in experimental class is8.00 higher than that of pre-test(total 100);and the Sig.(2-tailed)is 0.000,less than 0.05,which indicates a statistical significance.On the whole,the language and culture integration teaching model has a positive effect on subjects’ intercultural knowledge;specifically,in five specific aspects of intercultural knowledge,it can be concluded that the teaching model has obvious effects on “knowledge of English speaking countries”,“words with cultural connotation” and “cultural knowledge in textbooks” of intercultural knowledge.(3)Through the independent sample T-Test and paired sample T-Test on the questionnaire,it is found that the average in experimental class is 0.12 higher than that in control class;the average of post-test in experimental class is 0.33 higher than that of pretest(total 5);and the Sig.(2-tailed)is 0.000,less than 0.05,which indicates a statistical significance.In the overall level,the language and culture integration teaching model has significant effects on subjects’ intercultural attitude;to be specific,in five specific aspects of intercultural attitude,the conclusion can be drawn that “interaction engagement”,“interaction confidence” and “interaction enjoyment” improved significantly under the guidance of the teaching model.The findings of the study show that the language and culture integration teaching model has great significance for the training of secondary vocational school students’ intercultural communication competence,which provides a reference for intercultural teaching in secondary vocational stage.