摘 要

在如今的经济全球化背景下，我国和其他国家的跨文化合作与交流日益密切，对国际化人才的需求也日益增多。本文通过基于微信平台的问卷调查研究，初步探讨当代大学生的跨文化交流情况，根据从问卷中反映的情况，再做访谈进行深一步了解。目的是探究中国大学生的跨文化交流能力，以及微信平台对培养大学生跨文化交流能力的影响。结果表明，微信对大学生跨文化能力发展的影响不大，就跨文化能力发展维度来说，对本国文化知识、态度有一定影响，对意识和外国文化知识、跨文化交流技能以及影响微乎其微。

关键词：跨文化交流；大学生；微信平台；调查研究

Abstract

Under the background of economic globalization, the cross-cultural cooperations and communication between China and other countries have become closer and closer, and the demand for internationalized talents have also increased. The paper is based on a research through Wechat, briefly discussing about the situation of contemporary college students’ intercultural communication. According to the feedback, some interviews will be conducted to support further studies. The aim is to explore the Intercultural Communicative Competence(thereafter as ICC) of Chinese students and the influence that Wechat causes to the cultivation of Students’ ICC. The result indicates that Wechat has a little effect on it. From the perspective of dimensions of ICC, it has some influence on native knowledge and attitude, but little on awareness and communicative competence.

Key Words: intercultural communication; college student; WeChat; research

Contents

A Research Based on College Students’ Intercultural Communication through WeChat 1

1：Introduction 1

1.1 Research background 1

1.2 Intercultural Communication and the Belt and Road initiative 2

2: Literature Review 3

2.1 Researches about Intercultural Communication 3

2.1.1 Overseas researches about Intercultural Communicative Competence 3

2.1.2 Domestic researches about Intercultural Communicative Competence 4

2.2 Wechat and Intercultural Communication 5

2.2.1 The Introduction to Wechat 5

2.2.2 Wechat and Intercultural Communication 5

3：Research Methodology 6

3.1 Subject 6

3.2 Method 6

3.2.1 Questionnaire 6

3.2.2 Interviews 6

3.3 Result 7

Table 3.3.1 Wechat to the cultivation of Knowledge 7

Table 3.3.2 Wechat to the cultivation of Skills 8

Table 3.3.3 Wechat to the cultivation of Attitudes 10

Table 3.3.4 Wechat to the cultivation of Awareness 11

4：Discussion 12

4.1 Description 12

4.2 Analysis 12

Table 4.2.1 College students’ frequency of using Wechat 13

Table 4.2.2 College students’ opinions on influence of Wechat to ICC 13

5: Conclusion 14

5.1 Summary 14

5.2 Research Limitations and Further Studies 14

References 15

Appendix 1: Questionnaire 18

Appendix 2: Interviews 20

Acknowledgement 21

A Research Based on College Students’ Intercultural Communication through WeChat

1：Introduction

Research background

Nowadays, with the rapid growth of information technology and the progress of economic globalization, China is gradually engaging into worldwide communication. Under the leadership of President Xi, China has been developing the “Belt and Road” Initiative, which is a common aspiration of all countries along their routes.

Since 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative, China has insisted in being kindly to its neighbors, being a good partner with its neighbors, and persisted in “proposal of a good-safe-and-rich neighbour lines”, has made great efforts to make itself a best developing country in Asia. China will work together with other countries, to accelerate the construction of the Belt and Road ,and Maritime Silk Route in 21th century. The policy will lead China to participate in deep cooperation with other countries, push the development of Asian economy, and all countries will gain benefit by associating together.

The initiative, for most people, has made great contributions on their economic capability and living standard. Since the past five years, countries have conducted various forms of public diplomacy and cultural exchange, and enhanced mutual understanding and trust. Now the policy still need to continue, and more prospects will be found in the future. What we people are supposed to do is to unite in a concerted effort, struggling to achieve it, people’s common dream.

1.2 Intercultural Communication and the Belt and Road initiative

A countries’ development not only requires economic growth, but also needs cultural power as internal source. As China’s entry into WTO and many other worldwide groups or organizations, our contact with the outside increased dramatically. More and more foreigners are coming to China for various reasons including emigration. Cultural exchanges between China and other countries has been keeping increasing and intercultural communication(thereafter as IC) has become premise and consensus of International Economic Cooperation, providing complete supports for Economic and trade activities.

Nowadays IC has played an important role in the development of world. Therefore, China has encouraged the “Belt and Road” initiative, to promote cultural exchange, collision and fusion with other different areas. Through the “Belt and Road” Initiative, China provides an interactive platform for other countries to facilitate cultural exchanges, expanding Chinese culture and fusing it with other countries, and promotes free flow and fusion of different culture elements to make them more acknowledged in the process.

The “Belt and Road” Initiative, which not only promotes mutual benefit and deepen regional cooperation, but also drives the fusion and development of multicultural perspectives, has been bringing economic benefits and cultural wealth for relevant counties and areas. The history and culture，political system and opinions of value of countries and regions along the route tends to be distinctive. Through IC, reciprocal knowledge and awareness between different countries and regions will be significantly deepened.

2: Literature Review

2.1 Researches about Intercultural Communication

Nowadays, IC has become the focus of attention at home and abroad. From the 1970s, overseas and domestic scholars have probed into the various elements and models of cross-cultural competence from their respective research fields.

2.1.1 Overseas researches about Intercultural Communicative Competence

There have been a great number of academic works about the study of Intercultural Communicative Competence(thereafter as ICC) by foreign scholars since 1960s when intercultural education has been brought up in many countries especially in the U.S. They rapidly developed after the end of the Cold War. For example, IC was first put forward in 1959 by an American anthropologist Edward T. Hall in one of his books: The Silent Language，which means people from different cultural backgrounds and beliefs communicate with each other, and he was named the Father of IC, and his research work was delayed by the war. Result from his research, there arouse numerous foreign scholars who did extensive researches from all kinds of fields to define the meaning of ICC, and many other experts have mentioned the term. At first, Hymes (1972) introduced the new term communicative competence that means the ability to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meaning with other speakers in specific contexts. Ruben（1976）put forward Seven Dimensions of Communication Theory from the cross-cultural situation perspective, such as respect, attitude, knowledge, character. American Educational Psychologist Joseph（1994）mentioned that ICC mainly included Cross-cultural awareness, attitude, knowledge and skills. Chen amp; Starosta（1997） analyzed from another point of view and divided ICC into four parts, which are Personal ability, communicative competence, Psychological adaptability and cultural awareness. Byram（1997) said that ICC consists of Critical Cultural Consciousness，attitude, skills and knowledge. Spitzberg（1997）believed that ICC is constituted by knowledge, motivation and skills, three of which both affect and rely on each other. Campinha-Bacote（1998）put forward Cultural Competence Model, which consists of cross-cultural awareness, knowledge, skills, collisions and expectations. Kim（2001）believe that ICC consists of cognitive ability, emotional ability and disposing capacity. Samovaramp; Porter （2004）concluded that ICC is constituted by motivation, knowledge and skills. Scheitza（2009） summarized from all kinds of documents and draw a conclusion that the constituent elements of ICC are attitude, knowledge, intercourse, confidence and social relationships and so on. These researches make it possible to promote the culture development of the world, making people from every country or nation to get over such obstacles as world view, belief, attitude and mode of thinking, insisting on harmony and tolerance, seeking common ground while reserving differences，to strengthen those conversation, mutual understanding and identification between different civilizations.

2.1.2 Domestic researches about Intercultural Communicative Competence

In China, the study of ICC is later and the number of scholars is smaller than abroad. The birth of China Association for Intercultural Communication in August 1995 brought about a new wave on IC studies. More and more scholars began their intercultural studies from the perspective of Chinese culture. For instance, Hu Wenzhong edited Selected Readings in Intercultural Communication. Jia Yuxin (1997) pointed out that ICC includes the system of basic communicative ability, the system of emotional and relational ability, the system of plot ability and the system of communicative strategies, and wrote the book Studies on Intercultural Communication, to name just a few of works by Chinese scholars and researchers. Yang, ect. (2007) proposed a channel for constructing a frame mode of Intercultural Communicative Competence and for developing Intercultural Communicative Competence in English Teaching. Wang,ect.（2008）made a research based on Byram’s Intercultural Communicative Competence Model, through a questionnaire participated by 193 Non-English major Students, and carried out a comparative study. Wu, ect. (2013) find that ICC involves six main factors: knowledge of native country, knowledge of foreign countries, attitudes, intercultural communicative skills, intercultural cognitive skills, and awareness in the Chinese context. In the 21th century, scholars at home are more and more interested in the study of improving foreign language learner’s ICC. Many other scholars have elaborated on the importance, advantages, functions and different ways to enhance students’ ICC.