Language Choice In Intercultural Communication

This paper is based on the research conducted on a sample(N=50)of international students in Harbin Institute of Technology to statistically analyze the issue of language choice of international students in China.The questions analyzed in this article are as follow.(1)What are the language choices(language choice in practice and language choice in ideology)of international students in intercultural communication in the new phase of internationalization in China?(2)Among the many potential influencing factors,what are the significant factors that affect the language choice of international students in China?(3)What is the correlation between the language choice in practice of international students in China,their language choice in ideology,and China’s current language management policies?Owing to the complexity of language choice,this study integrates Spolsky’s(2004)framework of language policy with Saville-Troike’s(2008)the ethnography of communication on language choice and Jakobson’s(1956)theory of language functions to construct the research framwork and design the questionnaire.In the thoery of Spolsky’s language policy,he defined the investigation of language choice should belong to the study on language policy in a broader context,which puts both language practice,language ideology and language management into consideration.Saville-Troike(2008)summarized the factors affecting language choice as participants,setting and communication functions.Thus in this study,the questions about potential factors affecting language choice were designed from three aspects:participants,settings and language functions.A quantitative method was used to design the other questions in order to collect the results of language choice in practice and language choice in ideology,which was combined with the language function theory put forward by Jakobson(1956).The data were analyzed with SPSS22.0.First,descriptive statistics were conducted on the potential influencing factors of language choice and the results of language choice(language choice in practice and language choice in ideology).Second,the correlation between the data of language choice in practice and the data of language choice in ideology was tested out.Last,the chi-square test was performed on the potential influencing factors and the results of language choice.Harbin Institute of Technology has made an excellent achievement in attracting international students studying in China,therefore,it has a practical basis to be qualified to carry out the small-scale research on the intercultural communication.The major findings of this study are:(1)Regarding to the study of language choice,the data of language practice and language ideology have similar statistical results,with Chinese accounting for about two-thirds of the total survey results,English for about one-third,and other languages accounting for a smaller proportion.(2)There is a significant positive correlation between language practice and language ideology of international students in terms of language choice,which can prove that the results of language choice in practice of international students are consistent with the results of language choice in ideology.(3)There are 9 significant factors affecting the language choice of international students.They are the sense of identity,Chinese people’s choice of language in intercultural communication,major,English level,gender,the attitude towards language barriers,the tendency of being affected by the language of communication partners,the attitudes towards intercultural communication,and lessons for Chinese learning.The internationalization of China’s domestic higher education has entered a new phase.However in this new context,the results of language choice of international students in China and its influencing factors are still unclear.Through quantitative analysis,this study takes Harbin Institute of Technology as the research site,and provides statistical evidence for the current results and influencing factors of language choice in intercultural communication.In addition,the findings of this study can enrich Spolsky’s language policy theory,and to some extent make up for the lack of quantitative analysis evidence in the current research field of language choice.The results of this study can also provide a reference for the formulation of language policies for international education in universities.