Improving Intercultural Communication Competency And Second Language Identity Developmem

Throughout the late20th and early21st centuries, the advent of the internet, as well as improvements in technology and transportation structures have contributed to a rapidly globalizing world, a "global village" of socio-political interconnectivity. But while worldwide harmony and understanding is the goal, it is far from being realized in today’s somewhat inchoate global arena. Cultural difference is still the norm, not the exception, and it is this difference that the field of intercultural communication attempts to define and analyze both quantitatively and qualitatively.However, despite its growth and increasing importance in regards to other fields of social science, intercultural communication theory and its corresponding principles remain relatively unrecognized as an independent field of research, and especially, study. Nowhere is this more apparent than in second language education, a field that is inherently linked to the study of culture and communication. As a student of a second language, one inevitably must cope with friction and/or contradictions between one’s native culture and the target culture. Most second language education courses are only tangentially connected to intercultural communication, with vague or unspecific requirements; for this reason, second language learners knowledge of intercultural interaction and awareness of the potential problems facing those who enter into other cultures, as well as their solution, is partial at best. Moreover, the negative effect of cultural miscommunication on effective second language education and learning is also a topic that has been largely overlooked.The following study attempts to bring together the main theoretical components of intercultural communication and intercultural interaction as they relate to the second language learner, regardless of race, age, or situation. By thoroughly examining the inseparable nature of culture, language, and communication, as well as their role in identity formation, this study comments on the aspects of intercultural communication theory most salient to second language teaching. Finally, it states that the chief purpose of such educators is not merely to encourage language acquisition, but rather help students construct a culturally-conditioned, integrated sense of self identity in the target culture, such that communication is harmonious and unproblematic.