A Study On Intercultural Interpersonal Communication Between Guangxi College Students And ASEAN International Students:Characteristics And Motivations

The unique geographical advantages of Guangxi attract a large number of students from Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), thus provides plenty of chances for its college students to interact with ASEAN international students in their study and life. Therefore, their intercultural interpersonal communication and motivation of ASEAN students are of significance to attract academic attention. However, by using keywords "ASEAN international students" and "intercultural communication" to retrieve CNKI database, only 11 papers were found, and most of them were about ASEAN international students’ intercultural adjustment in China. Initiated by the academic blankness, this study attempts to reveal the features, attitudes and motivations related to the intercultural communication between Guangxi college students and ASEAN international students, and thus provide references for further researches on intercultural interpersonal communication.Research questions were focused on intercultural interpersonal characteristics of Guangxi college students toward ASEAN international students, attitude change at different stages and motivation. At first, the quantitative method was adopted and two round questionnaires were distributed to students of Guangxi Normal University, Guangxi University for Nationalities and Xiangsihu College of Guangxi University for Nationalities. The purpose was to find out the basic information and features of college students’ intercultural communication with ASEAN students. Then a qualitative method, in-depth interview was adopted to reveal the change of intercultural communication attitude, and analyze the motivation behind.Data collection was conducted from September 2014 to September 2015. By continuous categorizing and comparative analysis of the collected data, guided by the relevant theories of interpersonal communication mode and interpersonal motivation, the researcher found that the intercultural communication between Guangxi college students and ASEAN students manifests the following features:(1) 90% Guangxi college students took positive communication attitude toward ASEAN students, and as time goes on, most of them still maintained the positive attitude in intercultural communication. (2) language majors especially ASEAN language majors had the initiative to communicate with ASEAN students. (3)Country and personality of international students are essential criteria in choosing ASEAN friends. (4) Classroom communication, club activities and online software have been the three major channels for intercultural communication, with the last two used more frequently. (5) Guangxi college students’interaction motivation including three aspects:friendship motivation, social competitive motivation, material benefits motivation.