The Reflection of the Intercultural Communication Teaching: A Study of Two Courses of the Chinese-Foreign Cooperative Education Program
Author: Ma, Junjie
Date: 2022-00-00
Type: Dissertations/Theses - Masters Theses
Subjects: Intercultural Communication,Cooperative Education,Instructional Effectiveness,Higher Education,International Education,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Foreign Countries,Communicative Competence (Languages),Undergraduate Students,Study Abroad,English (Second Language),Educational Change,Translation,Language Proficiency,Teaching Methods,Code Switching (Language),Models,Educational History,Language Usage,Native Language,Cultural Differences,Cultural Awareness,Chinese

Against the background of increasing internationalization, Chinese-foreign cooperative education programs are growing in the Chinese higher education sector. With the international teaching environment combined with the local IC education concept, Chinese-foreign cooperative education programs are potentially the ideal platform for the complete realization of the entire process of intercultural language teaching and learning in higher education. Nevertheless, there is a lack of research on intercultural communication (IC) teaching in Chinese-foreign cooperative education programs. Moreover, the contents of IC courses offered in Chinese higher education, including the Chinese-foreign cooperative education programs, is not conducive to developing Chinese learners' intercultural communication competence (ICC). To investigate the effectiveness of IC teaching on developing students' ICC in Chinese higher education, this paper focuses on a Chinese-Hong Kong cooperative education program, adopting a qualitative approach to conduct in-depth interviews in two undergraduate curriculums, &quot;Language and Intercultural Communication&quot; (LIC) and &quot;English Oral Communication&quot; (EOC), to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of intercultural teaching in the program and to find out the reasons why learners of the courses have difficulties in mastering ICC and preparing for overseas study from a pedagogical perspective. This paper finds that both the two courses neglect the role of translanguaging practices in developing learners' ICC. Meanwhile, there is also an excessive focus on essentialist perspectives and Euro-American cultures in the LIC and EOC courses, respectively. Furthermore, both courses also neglect the importance of various forms of practice and, more critically, intercultural contact in developing learners' ICC. Such reflective issues that do not play to Chinese-foreign cooperation education program strengths and have a negative impact on cultivating learners' ICC. The shortcomings demonstrated by these courses also reflect a series of shortcomings in the IC teaching of Chinese higher education. Based on the research findings, this research proposes that the IC teaching in Chinese universities should be transformed from the Euro-American IC model as the main content and the essentialist perspective. Moreover, IC teaching in China should also attach importance to the role of translation competence in facilitating learners' ICC. In addition, the role of intercultural contact in the IC class for cultivating learners' ICC also needs to be emphasized.