Intercultural Competence Assessment Of Business English Undergraduates

In the course of world economy integration,interests among China and foreign countries are becoming more and more interdependent,accompanied with closer economic cooperation than ever.The demand for professionals with competitiveness in foreign language,business knowledge and intercultural competence is more urgent in particular.ICC development has also been clearly proposed in the new“National Standards” of BE program released in early 2015 and the teaching requirements released in 2009.Currently the majority of ICC development frameworks and strategies mentioned in researches of BE teaching are simply based on theoretical induction,teacher's own observation or experience,without statistical supporting evidence of the current status of students' ICC level.In view of such weakness,this thesis attempts to assess the intercultural competence of BE undergraduates in a case study of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.In order to present a comprehensive picture of BE undergraduate's ICC,longitudinal contrast of fourth-year and first-year groups and horizontal comparisons with average Chinese undergraduates are illustrated in addition to presenting overall ICC level and features of six different components.Grounded on the above statistical analyses,implications for ICC development in BE program are elaborated with integration of intercultural teaching feedback and requirements in new “National Standards”.140 BE undergraduates from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies are involved to complete an online survey with a 28-item ICC self-assessed instrument and to provide feedback on intercultural teaching.Intercultural competence is assessed in a framework of six components—Knowledge of Self,Knowledge of Others,Attitudes,Intercultural Communicative Skills,Intercultural Cognitive Skills,and Awareness.The assessment instrument is adopted from the FuzzyComprehensive Evaluation system of Chinese undergraduates' intercultural competence,the localized assessment tool developed by Chinese scholars recently.According to assessment results,the overall ICC score of BE undergraduates falls within medium level.Among the six components,Attitudes ranks at highest level while Knowledge of Others is the only component at low level.Intercultural Communicative Skills and Awareness result at high level and the rest two components Knowledge of Self and Intercultural Cognitive Skills are at medium level.Although it is proved by the longitudinal contrast by grade that current BE program is effective in improving Knowledge of Others and Intercultural Cognitive Skills,there is no significant progress in overall ICC score.Compared to the average Chinese undergraduates,BE undergraduates possess relative advantages in most components by surpassing 21.5% as a whole,except for the weakness in Knowledge of Self below the average level of reference group.First and foremost,the weakness in Knowledge of Self exposed from horizontal comparison deserves particular attention.It is necessary to increase the proportion of Chinese culture related courses in the curriculum to complement the knowledge modules.Secondly,in spite of progress in Knowledge of Others and Intercultural Cognitive Competence as reflected from longitudinal contrast,the overall ICC level of has not been improved significantly.It can be revealed that traditional knowledge centered teaching pattern needs upgrading by providing more interaction and practice opportunities to sharpen learners' intercultural skills.In addition,the teaching methods of intercultural related courses require higher flexibility and diversity to further engage learners and maintain their strong learning willingness.Finally,it is suggested to supplement materials based on real business contexts meanwhile exemplifying the theoretical knowledge deeper and in more interesting ways.