scholarly journals Investigation on the Intercultural Sensitivity of English Teachers in Chinese Elementary Schools

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (12) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Xinglei Jia

The development of technology has driven human beings into a globalized world, which requires intercultural communication competence (ICC). As its affective aspect, the subject of intercultural sensitivity (IS) is being heatedly discussed nowadays. This study focuses on the importance of intercultural sensitivity (IS) among Chinese EFL teachers and attempts to explore their current level and the possible reasons for it. For this purpose, questionnaires were distributed to 29 Chinese elementary school English teachers, and the results from the questionnaire showed that the IS level of these teachers is satisfactory, scoring high in five dimensions: interaction engagement, respect for cultural differences, interaction confidence, interaction attentiveness, and interaction enjoyment. The follow-up interview suggested that the high IS level may be a result from intercultural communication training. Moreover, this research found that Chinese teachers were more engaged and enjoyed less in view of scarce opportunities for communication in authentic cross-cultural contexts. Several suggestions and implications for further research have also been included in this article.

2019 ◽  
Vol 160 (39) ◽  
pp. 1527-1532
Author(s):  
Bettina Pikó ◽  
Erzsébet Kapocsi ◽  
Gergely Tari ◽  
Hedvig Kiss ◽  
Katalin Barabás

Abstract: It is a necessary part of modern medical education that medical students should learn about the binary nature of human beings – biological and cultural – since both have an impact on our behavior. The subject of medical anthropology helps with understanding the mechanisms and lay concepts behind patients’ decisions which is particularly important in our globalized world. The major goal of this course is to help medical students with acquiring cultural competence through theoretical bases and empirical examples that may help them later in their work when they meet patients with different cultural backgrounds. In the present study, we introduce the course of Medical Anthropology as it happens at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Szeged: the so-called Szeged model – its aims, syllabus, strengths, opportunities and possible difficulties. During the development of the subject, we greatly focused on its links to other subjects of behavioral and medical sciences and on its practice-oriented nature. Thus, the course partly contains of lectures and seminars which display cultural variability in relation to biological reality through practical examples. As a result, the topics of medical anthropology prepare the students to use the knowledge as well as skills and attitudes in clinical practice. Orv Hetil. 2019; 160(39): 1527–1532.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-187
Author(s):  
Kenneth J. Levine ◽  
Michelle E. Garland

This paper examines how the study-abroad experience enhances intercultural communication competence. This study used Bennett’s (1986, 1993) model of ethnorelative typology of acceptance, adaptation, and integration to explore intercultural communication competency. Central to intercultural communication competency is intercultural sensitivity and modified perceptions of cultural differences. A pre-test/post-test open-ended questionnaire design was utilized to uncover what was learned by students while participating in a four-week summer study-abroad program in Paris and Brussels. Based on 110 participants over 16 years, results indicated that both sensitivity to and understanding of cultural differences are heightened as a result of the study-abroad experience. Further, these findings provided support for outcomes showing attainment of intercultural communication competency learning objectives.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Catherine S. Thomas ◽  
Leona Konieczny

Service learning (SL) is an educational strategy to develop intercultural sensitivity. Nursing students benefit from the opportunity to care for persons from diverse cultures. Social awareness and making significant social contributions is part of professional nursing. Nursing students are educated to provide culturally sensitive, person-centered care incorporating the values of social justice, diversity, and global awareness. The SL experience was independent from a specific nursing course and exclusive from a designated clinical practicum. This descriptive quantitative study examines the impact of a SL experience in Appalachia on intercultural sensitivity. Intercultural sensitivity is in the affective domain of intercultural communication. Appalachia has distinct cultural differenences related to both geographical and socioeconomic factors. Intercultural sensitivity is in the affective dimension of intercultural communication competence. The Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS), developed by Chen & Starosta, was the instrument used for measurement. Study findings demonstrate an impact on interaction engagement and interaction attentiveness for study participants.


2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique Bouchet

This article explains why intercultural communication always should be studied in context and how even though misunderstanding is normally at stake in intercultural communication, one can argue that the promotion of mutual understanding actually is of mutual interest for all of humanity. Studying in context means paying attention to circumstances around the uses of signs as well as to the roles and moods of the users of signs. Promoting mutual understanding means avoiding a state of mind that implies the depreciation of the other. To be intercultural, a communication must not be infected by prejudices. Any real attempt at intercultural communication is a paradoxical procedure. It supposes that human beings who engage in it at one and the same time recognize the stranger as similar and as different. Also, it can lead to acceptance of the other and a better understanding of what communication is about as well as to rejection and obscurantism. In this paper, I argue that even though people always relate in various ways to common and different cultural backgrounds, they still have to relate to common issues that govern their ways, and that focusing on those common issues and studying the various communicative contexts and contents help promoting mutual understanding, as these activities highlight the implicit role of the value of respect in all interpersonal communication. Human beings cannot avoid evaluating situations, contexts, relations, peoples and cultures. How can we establish that mutual respect and open-mindedness are better than disdain and dogmatism? Well, precisely by affirming that human relations commonly build on the inevitability of communicating and contrasting values and norms. Meaning in interaction permanently transforms cultural elements and patterns into something new. Intercultural communication becomes more respectable when it acknowledges the variety of ways humans interact meaningfully and the plurality of their logic of (inter-)action. It is good and reasonable to value understanding because this variety and this pluralism always have kept the social alive and more than ever in our modern globalized world contribute to the creativity and interactivity of modern life. The interest of pragmatics in user attitudes, its focus on practical rather than on alethic modalities, can contribute to a more nuanced approach to intercultural communication, where the different elements of meaning in interaction can be studied in various bundles rather than in a single strand.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
IMRAN SSEMUDDU

<div> <div> <div> <p> </p><div> <div> <div> <p> </p><div> <div> <div> <p>This study is set out to understand intercultural communication competence and sensitivity among International students in Malaysia. In the discipline of communication, intercultural communication competence (ICC) has been a subject of study for more than five decades. Over this time, many have identified a number of variables that contribute to intercultural communication (ICC). This paper examines significant relationship between international students’ intercultural communication competence and their intercultural sensitivity as per their everyday situations in Malaysia. Anxiety uncertainty management theory is applied to the study to explain the relationship between intercultural communication competence and intercultural sensitivity among international students studying in Malaysia. Gudykunst (2005) described seven factors that envisage a person’s uncertainty and anxiety levels while communicating with unfamiliar persons: motivation to interact with strangers, self-concept, reactions to strangers, social categorization of strangers, situational processes, ethical interactions and connections with strangers. These help reduce other people’s anxiety as well as their uncertainty. The study employed a quantitative research design using the survey method where a self-administered questionnaire was employed and respondents were recruited using non-random sampling to generate the data. 300 international students from international Islamic university Malaysia (IIUM) who have studies in Malaysia for over a year participated in the study. Findings show, that there is a significant relationship between students with intercultural sensitivity and intercultural communication competence. The study recommends, that further research should be done to examine whether a single mediating factor such as change in anxiety and uncertainty can affect the level of intercultural sensitivity and intercultural communication competence. The theory is also supported in the study.</p><p> </p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Muhammad Nur Ahadi

AbstractThe purpose of this research was to explore the relationship among the variables: intercultural sensitivity, intercultural awareness, and intercultural effectiveness. The survey research method was used to collect data from 51 residents of multiethnic community at Kampung Pemali, Semarang. Overall, residents of Pemali Neighborhood reported high level of intercultural sensitivity, intercultural awareness, and intercultural effectiveness. The result of Kendall’s tau-b correlations confirm the positive relationship between intercultural sensitivity and intercultural effectiveness (R=0,351 p=0,009), the positive relationship between intercultural awareness and intercultural effectiveness (R=0,297 p=0,026), and the positive relationship between intercultural sensitivity and intercultural awareness (R=0,351 p=0,008).Keywords: intercultural sensitivity; intercultural awareness; intercultural effectiveness; intercultural communication competence


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Wanrong Lei

Enhancing pupils&rsquo; intercultural communication competence (ICC) is a key EFL teaching goal in China and the pre-service English teachers&rsquo; ICC plays an essential role in it. This study aims to investigate the pre-service English teachers&rsquo; ICC levels and whether there were any differences between their ICC levels and their genders or their family origins in a public university in China. Data were collected from 186 pre-service English teachers by employing Zhong et al.&rsquo;s (2013) &ldquo;Intercultural Communication Competence Self Rating Scale (ICCSRS)&rdquo;. The results showed that the pre-service English teachers&rsquo; ICC is only moderate with an average score of 3.20. Among the eight dimensions of the ICC, attitude showed the highest score (3.87) while linguistic competence showed the lowest (2.72). In addition, the study revealed the female pre-service English teachers have higher ICC than the male ones, but there is no difference between the urban and rural pre-service English teachers. As a result of the pre-service English teachers&rsquo; low level of ICC, the study suggested that the university should lay more emphasis on the ICC development in the teaching, provide more opportunities to communicate interculturally for the pre-service English teachers, and take a flexible policy in the class division and teaching.


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