摘 要

经济全球化和中国国际化的发展使得跨文化活动日益频繁，这对于人才的成长和跨文化能力的培养提出了更高的要求与挑战。近年来，随着电子设备的普及与互联网的高速发展，在线阅读蓬勃发展。有研究表明，英语新闻在线阅读对于培养跨文化交际能力具有促进作用。

本文通过问卷法，对120名在校大学生的英语新闻在线阅读情况与跨文化交际能力进行调查，运用SPSS 20.0分析工具处理所收集数据；为了进一步完善实验结果，本文通过访谈法，对10名在校大学生进行访谈，记录并分析其英语新闻在线阅读的实际情况以及英语新闻在线阅读是如何影响跨文化交际能力。

研究结果表明，英语新闻在线阅读与跨文化交际能力的四个因子（即跨文化认知技能、与外国文化有关的知识、跨文化交流技能和跨文化意识）之间存在正相关关系且相关性显著。本研究通过定性与定量相结合的研究方法，探究英语新闻在线阅读对于跨文化交际的影响，旨在强调英语新闻在线阅读对于培养跨文化交际能力具有的重要作用，以及在教学中的启发与实践意义。

关键词：英语新闻在线阅读；跨文化交际能力；在校大学生

Abstract

The globalization of economy and the development of China’s internationalization makes intercultural activities more and more frequent, which puts forward higher requirements and challenges for the growth of talents and the cultivation of intercultural competence. In recent years, the popularity of electronic devices and the rapid development of the Internet makes online reading become flourished. Some researches show that English news online reading can help readers enhance intercultural competence.

The research uses questionnaire to investigate 120 college students’ situation of English news online reading and ICC. The research uses SPSS 20.0 to analyze the collected data. In order to further explore and supplement the experimental result, the author interviews 10 college students about their situation of English news online reading and conducts the concrete analysis on how reading English news online influences ICC. The result of the research shows that there is a positive and significant correlation between English news online reading and four elements of ICC (intercultural cognition skill, knowledge about foreign culture, intercultural communication skill and intercultural awareness).

The research combines qualitative and quantitative research techniques to explore the influence of English news online reading on ICC. The significance is to emphasize the important function of English news online reading in cultivating college students’ ICC and practical significance in teaching.

Key Words: English news online reading; intercultural communication competence (ICC); college students

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Literature Review 3

2.1 Intercultural Communication Competence 3

2.2 English news online reading 5

3 Research Methodology 6

3.1 Research subject 6

3.2 Research method 7

3.2.1 Questionnaire 7

3.2.2 Interview 8

3.3 Data analysis 8

4 Result and Discussion 9

4.1 Current situation of English news reading 9

4.2 Descriptive statistics of English news online reading and ICC 10

4.3 Correlation analysis of English news online reading and ICC 11

4.4 The influence of reading English news online on ICC 13

4.4.1 The influence on intercultural cognition skill 13

4.4.2 The influence on knowledge about foreign culture 14

4.4.3 The influence on intercultural communication skill 15

4.4.4 The influence on intercultural awareness 17

5 Conclusion 19

References 20

Appendix A 22

Appendix B 25

Acknowledgements 26

Research on the Influence of English News Online Reading on College Students’ Intercultural Communication Competence

1 Introduction

The rapid development of globalization promotes more frequent communication among different countries, different regions and different societies. In the process of communicating, intercultural activity plays a more and more significant role in the world. It is acknowledged that a successful international cooperation depends on good communication. For college students, intercultural competence should become a necessary ability. Intercultural communication competence (ICC) is an ability to conduct effective and appropriate communication with cross-cultural knowledge, skills, motivations and awareness in a particular communication environment. In recent years, the research on ICC has caused more and more attention among Chinese scholars. Only when college students have the ability to overcome culture obstacles in intercultural communication, can they adapt to the development and changes in the world better.

The booming of digital technology and popularity of smart phones facilitates the rapid development of online reading. The influence of online reading on English learning and intercultural communication has caused widespread attention and discussion. There has been a large number of researches on using electronic devices to learn English.

On the relationship between English news online reading and intercultural communication competence, Peng (2016) pointed out that cultural product plays an important role in cross-cultural indirect contact. The research uses Chinese college students’ intercultural communication competence evaluation scale (Wu, 2013) to explore the influence of reading English news online on college students’ ICC.

The significance of the research is to enlighten teachers to use English news online reading in education to help students foster their intercultural communication competence, and remind educators to bring online reading into class, which may also inspire students’ learning interest and English competence in reading, vocabulary and expression.

2 Literature Review

2.1 Intercultural Communication Competence

The foreign scholars’ research on intercultural competence began in the 1950s. They conducted extensive researches on intercultural competence from different perspectives and fields, and gradually formed a comparably consistent understanding of the connotation of intercultural competence. Deardorff (2004) found that the definition of intercultural competence by Byram (1997) got most approvals. The content is that some elements play important roles in effectively communicating and interacting with individuals from different cultures in specific intercultural environments, and they are knowledge about other foreign cultures, knowledge about domestic culture, intercultural communication skill, language communication skill, cognitive and interactive skill, attention and respect towards values, beliefs and behaviors of different cultures, critical culture awareness and self-awareness, etc. (Byram, 1997)

In terms of the composition of intercultural competence, Byram (1997) believed that intercultural competence consists of attitudes (curiosity and open mind), knowledge (foreign culture knowledge and domestic culture knowledge), interpretation/ association skills (the ability to interpret other cultural symbols and events), discovery/ interaction skills (intercultural communication skill, language communication skill), critical cultural awareness (attention and respect towards different cultures, behaviors, beliefs and self-awareness). Scholars represented by Byram proposed four dimensions of intercultural communication competence and they are knowledge, skill, attitude and consciousness. Some scholars believe that the motivation for effective cultural communication among people of different cultures are particularly essential in their intercultural competence. Based on Byram’s EU model, they used motivation instead of attitude to propose the three-dimensional intercultural competence model composed of knowledge, motivation and skill (Spitzberg, 1997; Samovar amp; Porter, 2004; Gudykunst, 2004; Spitzberg amp; Changnon, 2009). Other scholars, from the perspective of the development of intercultural competence, divided intercultural competence into three dimensions and they are consciousness, knowledge, and skills. They believed that the development of intercultural competence is the process of continuous learning in three dimensions (Bennett, 1993). In general, foreign scholars generally agree that ICC includes dimensions of capability like knowledge, skill, attitude and awareness (Wu, 2014).