A Research On Effectiveness Of Discourse Community In Intercultural Communication

In intercultural communication, people can not ignore the differences between theindividuals in same culture and similarities between the members from different culturesin order to decrease the miscommunication. Taking full account of the similarities anddifferences between the groups in intercultural communication, studies should beconducted in a multi-dimensional method of comparison. Cultural differences betweenpeople in professional communication are likely to be rather less significant than otherdifferences which arise from being members of different discourse systems, such asprofession, gender, and generation discourse system. Since people in discourse communitycome from different subcultures, differences exist in their ideology, socialization, andforms of discourse. The communication between them is regarded as interculturalcommunication. The members always follow the norms of their discourse community tojudge and evaluate others’ behavior, which inevitably results in miscommunication.Therefore, how to communicate effectively with the members of other discoursecommunity becomes a new perspective of research.Gudykunst, a famous American professor of intercultural communication, proposesanxiety/uncertainty management (AUM) theory which provides a theoretical basis for thepresent study. Based on the theory, this thesis tries to analyze the effective communicationin discourse community, with the aim of finding out ways to improve the effectivecommunication between discourse communities from the aspect of professional expertise.The thesis attempts to conduct the elaboration from the following aspects: First, it aims toanalyze the effectiveness of communication between the members belonging to differentspeech communities in same discourse community. Secondly, it tries to analyze thefunctions of professional expertise in effective communication between the members indiscourse community. Thirdly, it hopes to find out the ways of improving the effectivenessof communication between the members from different discourse communities. To answerthe above questions, questionnaires are adopted in the present research, and the college foreign language teachers are chosen to participate in the investigation and interview. Then,statistic methods are used to analyze the206valid questionnaires. At last, the data of theinvestigation are analyzed and elaborated from the perspective of AUM theory.The results of the research basically achieved the objectives. First, by analyzing theresult of the investigation, it is found out that the communication between the membersfrom different speech communities in a discourse community is more effective than that ofthe members belonging to different discourse communities in same speech community.The effectiveness of the communication in discourse community lies in the eight factorsthat are self-concept, motivation, reactions to strangers, social categorizations, situationalprocess, connections with strangers, ethical interactions and the mindfulness. Secondly,the author summarizes four characteristics of FL teacher’s professional expertise thatcontribute to effective communication in discourse community. The four characteristicsare practical knowledge, critical reflection, critical inquiry and ethical commitment. At last,this thesis proposes ways of improving the effective communication between the membersof different discourse communities from the three aspects of motivation, knowledge andskills.