Language And Culture In The English Cross-cultural Interview Study

Native-nonnative cross-cultural interview phenomena take place very commonly both at home and abroad. But to facilitate a successful cross-cultural interview, to gain valuable information as well as establish harmonious relationship is very complicated, involving both theoretic and practical study of many disciplines. The paper strives to examine the subject from the following angles: communication theory, culture contrast, linguistics and journalistic practice. In the paper, the author initially introduces High-context cultures and Low-context cultures as the cultural background of cross-cultural interview, then borrows 揟hird Culture?theory and establishes two-way information exchange pattern as the fundamental framework for cross-cultural interview; then focuses on macro and micro- environment for cross-cultural interview. As to the macro-environment, the emphasis is put on native-nonnative differences on values, thinking patterns and interpersonal relationships in interview context. As to the micro-environment, the emphasis, in terms of verbal and nonverbal, is placed on the contrast of English and Chinese lexicon, syntax, discourse layout ,variety, pragmatics, taboo, kinesics, space, time, paralanguage especially in interview context. Finally, based on the previous patterns, the author examines in detail some specific language and culture strategies and skills for cross-cultural interview, such as interrogation mode, turn-taking, feedback, conversation implicature. As conclusion, the author puts forward four aspects of cross-cultural communication competences specific for cross-cultural interviewer for self-recognizing, self-improving and self-perfection. That is the key to interview activel.y and flexibly, and gain valuable information in changing and complicated interview contexts. I hope this tentative study could provide general language and cultural guidelines to cross-cultural interview participators for reference.