| With the speeding up of economic globalization and the deep development of the Belt and Road Initiative,the relationship among different countries or various cultures is increasingly close.In consequence,intercultural communication competence has become an indispensible quality for individuals in the contemporary world.Intercultural sensitivity,which is the affective aspect of intercultural communication competence and able to make a significant difference in it,is in an important filed of intercultural research and attracts more and more attention from scholars both at home and abroad.The domestic studies of intercultural sensitivity are mostly related to English language teaching with the samples of college students or English majors.Few studies,however,attempt to explore the correlation between intercultural sensitivity and oral English competence that may easily be influenced by affective factors of learners.Hence,this study has examined the correlation between intercultural sensitivity and oral English competence of high school students,which is meaningful for improving both intercultural sensitivity and oral English competence.The thesis combined the quantitative and qualitative methods,assessing the level of intercultural sensitivity of 200 senior high school students of grade three in the High School Affiliated to Yunnan Normal University with Chen and Starosta’s intercultural sensitivity scale.Among the 200 students,160 students validly filled the questionnaires and took the oral English test in College Entrance Exam at the same time,so the 160 scores for the test were collected from their English teachers as well.With the help of SPSS 20,this study aims to make clear the status quo of intercultural sensitivity of the sample and the correlation between intercultural sensitivity and their oral English competence.To further address the research questions and obtain more implications,the author conducted an interview later with four questions based on the four factors of IS that correlate significantly with oral English competence.Six students with different scores for oral English competence took part in the interview and gave their explanations and reasons toward the questions.As the results of research presented,the 160 high school students are generally at the medium level of intercultural sensitivity.Among the five factors,Respect for Cultural Difference reaches the highest and Interaction Confidence comes to the lowest.Intercultural sensitivity as well as its five factors is correlated positively and significantly with each other.But no significant difference exists in intercultural sensitivity and the five factors between male and female students.Moreover,the correlation between intercultural sensitivity and oral English competence of high school students is positive and significant.Except Respect for Cultural Difference,the rest four factors of IS are correlated positively and significantly with students’ oral English competence.The correlation between Interaction Engagement and oral English competence is the strongest in all pairs.In addition,the results of interview revealed that high school students with different oral English competence mostly have ever had intercultural communication experience,and the students with low oral English competence are more likely to experience negative emotions in the process of intercultural communication.Meanwhile,they commonly lack interaction confidence and their confidence is restricted to inadequate language knowledge,insufficient communicative skills and face culture.Most students are also not attentive enough because of the existence of cultural differences and language barriers.At last,the students with high oral English competence are easier to get a sense of enjoyment during intercultural communication,and their interaction enjoyment has also to do with interaction partners or topics.On the basis of data analysis,the conclusions and implications of this study are listed as follows:(1)The intercultural sensitivity of high school students is generally at a medium level.Teachers should lead students to autonomously learn about excellent exotic cultures as well as try to understand and appreciate exotic cultures,to broaden the cultural horizons of students.(2)Among the five factors of IS,Interaction Confidence is the lowest.Teachers are not only obliged to enrich language knowledge of students,but also improve their communicative skills and help them build up cultural confidence.(3)Intercultural sensitivity and its five factors of high school students are all correlated with each other positively and significantly.Teachers are supposed to assist students to hold correct views of intercultural communication with efforts of the joint development of the five dimensions.(4)Interaction Confidence,Interaction Enjoyment,Interaction Attentiveness and Interaction Engagement bear positive and significant correlations with oral English competence of high school students.Teachers ought to create more communicative situations in English classes to strengthen the output of language,and cultivate the positive emotional experience of students when they engage in interaction activities.The thesis expects to make a contribution to intercultural sensitivity research and English language teaching.However,there still exist some limitations that can be improved in the future studies. |
