A Comparative Study On Intercultural Competence Standards Of Foreign Language In China And Europe

In the era of globalization,the degree of interaction and interdependence among countries has increased.And training talents with intercultural competence has become one of the urgent tasks of current foreign language education in secondary schools.However,domestic researches on intercultural competence are mainly aimed at university students,and the researches on basic issues such as the connotation,framework and standards of middle school students’ intercultural competence are relatively weak.In the context of Chinese culture going global,the necessity and urgency of this research problem have become increasingly prominent.The English curriculum standards in Mainland,Taiwan and Hong Kong in China,and the European language proficiency standards all put forward requirements for intercultural competence.Curriculum standards and language proficiency standards are important guides for textbook compilation,teaching and evaluation.Their descriptions of foreign language learners’ intercultural competence are scientific and authoritative,which contain the compilers’ understanding of intercultural competence.Comparing the intercultural competence standards at home and abroad is undoubtedly an effective means to explore the target system of middle school students’ intercultural competence of foreign language.This research applies the literature research,interview,text analysis and comparative study method.Through combing and comprehensively drawing on the relevant researches of intercultural competence at home and abroad,it constructs a description framework of intercultural competence of foreign language,which consists of intercultural knowledge,skills and affection of foreign language.The reliability and validity of the framework are tested.Then,the researcher revises the framework and finally uses it to study the English Curriculum Standards for High School（2017 Edition）（Mainland,China）,English Language Education: Key Learning Area Curriculum Guide（Hong Kong,China）,English Curriculum Guidelines for Twelve-year National Basic Education（Taiwan,China）and Common European Framework of Reference for Languages（Council of Europe）.Through comparative analysis of the elements and specific requirements of intercultural competence of foreign language embodied in the four documents,the research summarizes their commonalities and differences,finds the core connotation and explores the cultivation conception and goals of intercultural competence behind the standards.Through the content analysis and comparison of the intercultural competence of foreign language in the four documents,this research draws the following conclusions:The components of intercultural competence of foreign language embodied in the four documents present many common understandings in the three dimensions of knowledge,skills and affection,but there are also certain differences.The commonalities are that the four documents cover multiple elements of intercultural knowledge and especially focus on target language cultural knowledge,emphasizing intercultural skills at different levels and the cultivation and shaping of source cultural identity and cultural personality.The differences are that the Chinese mainland curriculum standards and the CEFR have a relatively high level of overall requirements for intercultural competence,while the Chinese Hong Kong and Chinese Taiwan curriculum standards have a relatively low level of overall requirements for it.The Chinese mainland curriculum standards emphasize source cultural knowledge,the Chinese Taiwan curriculum standards and the CEFR focus more on learners’ practical application of comprehensive intercultural skills,while the Chinese Hong Kong curriculum standards highlight intercultural affective education.From the research outcomes,this research puts forward relevant suggestions from three perspectives: perfecting curriculum standards,reforming intercultural teaching and evaluation of foreign language and improving textbook compilation.