Understanding the intercultural communicative competence (ICC) of the Chinese-English major students in Chengdu College University of electronic science and technology, China

Abstract

This study was conducted in Chengdu College of University of Electronic Science and Technology, China and the English major’s Chinese students, as participants. The two objectives and research questions were answered by using a mixed design methodology. These different instruments: questionnaire survey organized in four dimensions: Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills and Awareness, classroom observation and semi-structured interview were employed to gather data from 184 English major’s students who participated in this study using purposive sampling.The findings revealed that the Chinese students who participated in this study had moderate Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC). This implies that all four components of ICC; knowledge, attitudes, skills and awareness were found in the students’ English language teaching and learning.The implication therefore is that, ICC should be inculcated in all levels of teaching and learning activities, as this likely to help students to be confident when communicating with people from different cultural and linguistic background, as this helps them to be familiar with varieties of English spoken by different users in the world.