An Investigation Into Business English Undergraduates’ Intercultural Communication Competence

Under the influence of the current trend of economic globalization,the economic and trade co-operations between China and the world are increasingly inseparable.The proposal of the ‘‘One Belt and Road’’ policy fully demonstrates China’s confidence in actively participating in world economic cooperation and exchanges.In this way,in order to cope with a wide range of international trade and cultural exchanges,college students majoring in business English should be possessed of a decent level of intercultural communication competence.The National Standards for the Quality of Business English Undergraduate Teaching issued by the Ministry of Education in 2014 also clearly stated the need to cultivate the intercultural communication competence of business English majors.Nonetheless,there are relatively few studies on the intercultural communicative competence of business English undergraduates.The purpose of this study is to understand the current situation of business English undergraduates’ intercultural communication competence through 176 business English majors ranging from freshmen to seniors,analyze the factors influencing their intercultural communication competence(ICC)and put forward some suggestions and methods to improve their intercultural communication competence.The main research methods are quantitative method and qualitative method,which adopt questionnaire and interview respectively.The questionnaire used in this research is Arasaratnam’s(2009)intercultural communication competence scale(ICCS).In combination with interviews with 5 students,the data is analyzed by using SPSS 16.0 software.Research findings show that business English undergraduates’ intercultural communication competence is in a medium level.In terms of three dimensions of intercultural communication competence,it is the best in affective dimension,the second in behavioral dimension,and the worst in cognitive dimension.As far as the influencing factors are concerned,there is the significant difference of the mean score of ICC between male and female as well as between those who have the experience of participation in intercultural activities and those who do not have.Meanwhile,there issignificant difference between male and female in the affective dimension.Female participants manifest a higher level of ICC than male participants,and those who have the experience of participation in intercultural activities manifest a higher level of ICC than those who do not have.Finally,based on the above research findings,the suggestions for cultivating business English undergraduates’ intercultural communication competence are as follows: first of all,colleges and universities need to reform and update the settings of related courses and teaching syllabus of business English major,and provide more opportunities for business English undergraduates to participate in activities of intercultural communication;second,teachers need to improve their professional competence and strive to conduct intercultural foreign language teaching;finally,business English undergraduates should enhance their interest and motivation in intercultural communication and actively increase the acquisition and acknowledgement of knowledge of intercultural communication.At the same time,in the end,this research also points out the shortcomings of this survey and made some suggestions for future related research.