A Study Of The Correlation Between English Majors’ Critical Thinking Disposition And Intercultural Sensitivity

With the economic globalization in the world,the communication between countries has increased more than ever.Intercultural communication competence is becoming more and more important.As the lingua franca,English plays an important role in intercultural communication.Many universities therefore attach great importance to the teaching of English.In most cases,the focus of English teaching in China,however,is on the improvement of language proficiency.The cultivation of thinking ability is unfortunately often neglected.Language is the carrier of thinking.A good intercultural communicator does not only need to have proficient language skills,but also a good thinking ability.Critical thinking is reflective thinking,which helps people evaluate new information rationally and make objective judgments.At present,few studies combine critical thinking competence with intercultural communication competence.And researches of intercultural sensitivity are basically about students’ intercultural sensitivity levels and their influencing factors which are just the experience abroad,the experience of intercultural communication,cultural training,nationality and language proficiency.This paper creatively explores the correlation between critical thinking ability and intercultural communication competence.But both of them are general concepts consisting of multiple dimensions which need various tools to measure.The author decides to specify critical thinking ability and intercultural communication competence into concrete aspects i.e.to conduct an empirical study of the correlation between critical thinking disposition and intercultural sensitivity.This paper includes the following questions: 1.How is English majors’ intercultural sensitivity? How is English majors’ critical thinking disposition? 2.How are English majors’ critical thinking disposition sub-scales correlated to intercultural sensitivity sub-scales? This paper distributes questionnaires of critical thinking disposition and intercultural sensitivity to 110 English majors(58 sophomores and 52 seniors).This quantitative analysis adopts CTDI-CV(Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory-Chinese Version)which is designed by Peng Meici to measure critical thinking disposition and ISS(Intercultural Sensitivity Scale)which is designed by Chen and Starosta to measure intercultural sensitivity.And the statistics analysis software----SPSS is also used to analyze the questionnaire data.The findings are as follows: 1.English majors have minimal endorsement towards critical thinking.English majors are at median-high level in terms of intercultural sensitivity.2.English majors’ critical thinking disposition is significantly moderately correlated to their intercultural sensitivity.The critical thinking disposition sub-scales are weakly and moderately to those of intercultural sensitivity.(1)Three critical thinking disposition sub-scales----Open-mindedness,Inquisitiveness and Overall critical thinking disposition are moderately correlated to intercultural sensitivity sub-scales.Specifically,Open-mindedness is moderately correlated with Interaction engagement,Respect for cultural difference and Overall intercultural sensitivity;Inquisitiveness is moderately correlated with Respect for cultural difference and Overall intercultural sensitivity;Overall critical thinking disposition is moderately correlated with Respect for cultural difference,Interaction attentiveness and Overall intercultural sensitivity.(2)Four intercultural sensitivity sub-scales----Interaction engagement,Respect for cultural differences,Interaction attentiveness and Overall intercultural sensitivity are moderately correlated to critical thinking disposition sub-scales.Specifically,Interaction engagement is moderately correlated with Open-mindedness;Respect for cultural difference is moderately correlated with Open-mindedness,Inquisitiveness and Overall critical thinking disposition;Interaction attentiveness is moderately correlated with Overall critical thinking disposition;Overall intercultural sensitivity is moderately correlated with Open-mindedness,Inquisitiveness and Overall critical thinking disposition.The findings are of guiding significance for the teaching and learning of intercultural communication,i.e.students and teachers are able to design specific plans in accordance with their strengths and weak points---improve the sub-scale or sub-scales of critical thinking disposition to improve intercultural sensitivity.This paper quantifies critical thinking disposition and intercultural sensitivity and makes correlative analysis of them,which provides new perspective for studies of intercultural communication competence and offers statistical support for relevant researches.Teachers have new ways to teach,i.e.applying critical thinking to their teaching especially in intercultural classes;students especially language learners have new ways to learn,that is,they do not only need to know foreign cultures but also pay attention to the cultivation of critical thinking awareness.