Linguistics

A Reflection on Intercultural Communication and the Ways to Develop Intercultural Communication Competence

Abstract: Human beings are culture beings. This paper mainly discusses the importance of Intercultural Communication and the difficulties of Chinese students with English speakers and then explores the ways to develop intercultural communication competence.

Key Words: intercultural communication, communication competence, communication difficulty

1. Importance of Intercultural Communication

With the increase in international trade, the global economy and the globalization, more people than ever before are involved in interactions with foreigners and communities are becoming increasingly multilingual and multicultural. Nowadays intercultural communication has become an important part of everyday life for ordinary Chinese and intercultural communication competence an important attribute for success we should possess. If we are better intercultural communicators, we can meet our life goal more confidently. If individuals can attain a higher degree of intercultural communication competence they will presumably become better government officials, entrepreneurs, teachers and so forth. If each of us can better understand others who are culturally different from ourselves, our society will be more productive and our country will become more prosperous and powerful, and more attractive for foreign investors and visitors to come.

2. Definition of Intercultural Communication and Intercultural Competence

For the purposes of this study, it is important to define intercultural communication and intercultural competence. “Intercultural communication is communication between people whose cultural perceptions and symbol systems are distinct enough to alter the communication event.” (Larry A. Samovar, 2000: 48)The labels “race, ethnic groups, and intra-cultural communication” are often used in discussions of intercultural communication. In summary, intercultural communication describes the interaction between individual and group with different perceptions of communicative behavior and differences in interpretations.

“Intercultural communication competence is the degree to which an individual is able to exchange information effectively and appropriately with individuals who are culturally unalike others. Individuals vary greatly in their ability to communicate with culturally dissimilar.” (He Weixiang, 2004: 238) And cultural misunderstandings sometimes result in a vicious cycle. Fore example, when foreigners do things we don’t understand, we tend to judge their behavior negatively. Then we use these negative conclusions as evidence (often passed on to others) to prove negative generalizations about foreigners. This in turn causes us to be more suspicious of foreigners and more likely to interpret their behavior negatively next time.

However we can, with practice and efforts, develop the necessary skills to overcome these problems. We have good reasons to be confident as intercultural communication is not impossible, no matter how wide the difference between cultures may be. In some way, to learn intercultural communication skills is to learn how to deal with cultural differences.

3. Reasons for Communication Difficulties of Chinese Students with English Speakers

3.1 Language Problems

The global spread of English generated the development of man varieties of English. A major challenge in the era of globalization of English is the maintenance of culturally determined varieties of world English in the face of pressures to achieve viable international communication. Thus English language proficiency not only means one can understand the English native speakers’ speech, but also the varieties of English used by the majority of non- native speakers.

However, successful intercultural communication cannot be reached only by good listening and speaking abilities. Language and culture are intertwined and are shaping each other and cannot be separated. When people communicate with others, they do not only select words and form sentences but also make cultural choices. Language can reflect the environment, people’s lives, customs, and values people hold. So even if people who have a good language proficiency may misinterpret the cultural signal, leading to confusion and misunderstanding without the support of cultural knowledge. It also suggests that language teaching needs to be integrated with raising intercultural awareness.

3.2 Cultural Problems

Cultural shock was considered a major reason for communication difficulties. It is precipitated by the anxiety that results from losing all our familiar sighs and symbols of social intercourse. The cultural shock results from different understanding of the social interactions, different values in the two cultures, and different lifestyles. Culture shock is an inevitable experience people undergo to different degree. Effective intercultural communication entails the understanding and acceptance of differences. To achieve that, people should accept the difference of viewpoints and cultural values between them.

Nonverbal communications constituted a significant reason for the difficulties. Misunderstanding often occurred in the interpretations of nonverbal behaviors because different display rules create very different meaning about the appropriateness and effectiveness of particular interaction sequences. For example, when you gave a thumb up to praise an African, he may become very angry because that gesture in his culture in insulting.

4. Ways to Develop Intercultural Communication Competence

As experts, Chinese or foreign, cannot seem to agree on the specific components of intercultural communication competence, it is beyond my ability to provide all the essential skills to ensure success in intercultural interactions. I just want to introduce some basic guidelines for successful interactions between cultures by reflecting the research in the area of intercultural communication and sharing experiences.

4.1 Develop Foreign Language Competence with Acquisition of Cultural Knowledge

Communication is the exchange of information, or in other words, the exchange of meaning. As the meaning of words (symbols) is determined by culture, culture knowledge is essential to the understanding of your communication partner with a different culture. Different cultures have different sets of knowledge, social system, life styles, values and