Mindfulness-Based Communication: Reflections on the Role of Taiji Practice in Enhancing Intercultural Competence

Taijiquan(太极拳)is a discipline that influences the practitioners’body-mind and could lead them to a healthier state.In this article,the intercultural aspects of Taiji practice are explored,specific characteristics that practitioners could develop through the continued practice of Taijiquan.These qualities are studied through the lens of Taijiquan Classics,a collection of ancient theoretical and philosophical texts that is the foundation for Taijiquan theory and practice,in the framework of the science of intercultural communication.Our purpose is to explore yet another less-known benefit of Taijiquan practice besides its many,already well-known ones.We argue that Taijiquan has the potential to develop qualities and attributes associated with intercultural competence.

The Impact of English Films and TV Series on Non-English College Students’Intercultural Competence

Based on the related theories of intercultural competence and extensive analysis of literature,this paper employed questionnaires and interviews to do a research with 200 non-English college students about the general situation of their intercultural competence and the impact on it caused by English films and TV series in Wuhan University of Technology.The findings of the study indicate that non-English college students have relatively good intercultural competence while the deficiency of intercultural knowledge and skill exists;the appreciation of English films and TV series is positively correlated with the four dimensions of non-English college students’intercultural competence,namely intercultural knowledge,attitude,skill and awareness.Based on these findings of the research,the author brings up some specific and constructive suggestions on improving non-English college students’intercultural competence with the help of English films and TV series for college English teachers and non-English college students.

Research on Enhancing Students’Intercultural Awareness and Competence in English Teaching

With the deepening of globalization,intercultural communication has become an important part of people’s daily lives and work.English,as an international language,plays a vital role in intercultural communication.However,simple language knowledge can no longer meet the needs of modern society.Students need to have intercultural awareness and competence to better adapt to the development of globalization.Therefore,it is particularly important to improve students’intercultural awareness and competence in English teaching.This paper will discuss how to improve students’intercultural awareness and competence in English teaching,which includes three parts.The first part introduces the definition of intercultural awareness and competence.The second part explores the importance of intercultural awareness and competence to students,which can help students better understand and respect different cultures,stimulate students’innovative thinking and creativity,and cultivate critical thinking skills,and is also of great significance to students’professional development,personal growth,and social responsibility.The third part discusses the effective methods and strategies to improve students’intercultural awareness and competence in teaching,including carrying out cultural discussion and debate,introducing diverse materials,creating intercultural experience teaching activities,and using virtual learning tools.To a certain extent,this study can enrich the theoretical research in the field of intercultural awareness and competence,help to improve students’intercultural awareness and competence,and provide certain practical guidance for educators to teach intercultural courses.

The Impact of Street Interviews on Chinese EFL Undergraduates’Intercultural Communicative Competence

The study adopts Byram’s Intercultural Communicative Competence(ICC)model as the theoretical framework,and structured interviews were conducted to explore the impact of street interviews on the participants’ICC.Analysis results revealed street interviews help students acquire knowledge in intercultural attitudes,intercultural knowledge,skills of discovery and interaction,and critical cultural awareness,aligning with the four components of Byram’s ICC model.Meanwhile,they have positive perceptions of street interviews.Therefore,street interviews have a positive effect on the development of participants’ICC.

Cultural Linguistics and Intercultural Communication

The relationship between language and culture is the core issue in intercultural communication.For native language learners,their native language and local culture are in perfect harmony;while for foreign language learners,they often unconsciously separate the two,resulting in the phenomenon of“half-cooked rice”in foreign language education.This phenomenon makes us reflect on the purpose,content,and methods of foreign language education and seek theoretical guidance.Foreign language teaching aims to improve intercultural competencies,so it must face language and culture in intercultural communication.As a branch of cultural linguistics with multidisciplinary origins,intercultural linguistics focuses on the relationship between language and culture in intercultural communication.In the process of exploring how to apply linguistic theories in second language acquisition,it shows that intercultural linguistics not only has important enlightenment and application value,but also needs further studies.

Cultivating Cultural Self-Awareness to Teach Intercultural Communication

Intercultural communication is undisputably important in today’s world.Schools on every level in China attach great importance to educating young people with intercultural communication competence.Chinese anthropologist Fei Xiaotong developed the concept of cultural self-awareness to meet this urgent need.The paper explores the rich meanings of cultural self-awareness concept and how the idea is relevant to teaching intercultural communication.

Fostering Intercultural Communicative Competence in Writing:A Preliminary Study

The deepening of internationalization has promoted intercultural communication.Countries around the world have established education policies on intercultural communication,highlighting the importance of intercultural communicative competence.The paper offers a preliminary study of how to foster learners’intercultural communicative competence in writing.It first elaborates intercultural communicative competence and the factors that cause intercultural communication failures,and then proposes a variety of writing strategies to develop learners’intercultural communicative competence.Suggestions on how to improve English teachers’intercultural communicative competence are also provided.

The Concurrent Predictive Validity of the Intercultural Business Communication Competence Scale

This article reports the concurrent predictive validity of a new Intercultural Business Communication Competence Scale(IBCCS)involving three dimensions:cognitive ability about intercultural business communication situation(CB),business English linguistic proficiency(LP),and intercultural business communication motivation(CM).Survey data were collected with 120 Chinese international business practitioners.It was found that the subjects’intercultural business communication competence(IBCC)appeared to predict the three dimensions of job performance(JP):task performance(TP),interpersonal facilitation(IF),and job dedication(JD).In the three facets of IBCC,CM emerged as significant predictor of the three dimensions of JP.The present study provides more validity evidence for the IBCCS and extends the existing research on the relationship between communication competence and JP to intercultural business context.

A Study on Influence of Students'Intercultural Communication Competence in the Application-oriented University through Short-term Overseas Study Tours

Short-term overseas study tours, as a new type of cross-cultural autonomy education in the era of globalization, aims to help students improve their intercultural communication competence through tourism and cultural learning. Many studies' subjects are concentrated on the higher learning institutions. However, few of them are concerned about application-oriented university students' ICC. So the behavior and role of students' ICC in the overseas study tours in 2016 and 2017 in one of the application-oriented universities in Zhejiang province becomes the main focus. It exams from three aspects: intercultural attitudes, knowledge and behaviors. Basically, students benefit a lot from study tours, especially in the aspect of practical communication, among which, they change from shy, inexperienced learners to be brave, confident, and skilled in the tours. Also, considering the problems of host school are existed, the suggestions proposed by participants that practical courses of destination countries had better be arranged for students to understand and adapt to it beforehand. Besides, more communication and interactions between students and teachers should be increased to create a more active and relaxed classroom atmosphere, which contribute to mobilize students' initiative and enthusiasm to better become a complementary influence to promote students' ICC.

The Education of Japanese Honorifics and Cultivating Intercultural Communication Competence

Japanese honorifics which symbolizes the social culture of Japan are linguistic forms that are indispensable in the Japanese language education.Hence,the Japanese language education requires an improvement of previously solidified teaching methods with the cultivation of students’intercultural communication competence,in order for students to understand Japanese honorifics in-depth and apply them in practice.This paper analyzes the necessity of cultivating students’intercultural communication competence,the difficulties in Japanese honorifics education,and proposes specific training methods to help students improve their competence.

Integrating Chinese Culture Into Language Curriculum:Teaching Chinese Culture to International Students in China

This paper explores the integration of Chinese culture into language education for German students at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology(USST).Focusing on USST’s Chinese curriculum and pedagogical strategies,the study emphasizes the importance of cultural immersion,experiential learning,and authentic materials.Drawing on Byram’s Intercultural Communicative Competence(ICC)model,the Cultural Studies Approach,and Task-Based Language Teaching(TBLT),the paper presents a case study on incorporating Chinese calligraphy into regular classes.This hands-on approach not only enriches cultural understanding but also enhances language skills.The findings stress the need for tailored,multifaceted pedagogical approaches to prepare international students for cross-cultural interactions in a globalized context.

Investigating the Reliability and Validity of Chen and Starosta's Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS) against Chinese Cultural Background

Intercultural Communication Competence (ICC), as one of the research fields of intercultural communication, has been given much importance from scholars all around the world. Intercultural sensitivity is one of the three dimensions in Dr Chen's ICC model. This research investigates the reliability and validity of Chen and Starosta's Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS) (2000) against Chinese cultural background by using Chinese university students majoring in English as respondents.

The Exploration of Intercultural Education in College

Intercultural education was paid more and more attention in college English teaching.However,the college English teaching is still stay in "language ability stage".So,more and more people realize that"student need a kind of intercultural communication competence,so that,they can benefit from the education of language and culture".(Byram&Morgan,1994:62).We must integrate language and culture in the foreign language classroom and optimize the atmosphere of English cultural cognition to improve the intercultural communication competence of students in college.

Intercultural Education in a Technology-Enhanced Foreign Language Learning Environment Implementing the TPACK Approach:Challenges and Possibilities

In the plurilingual and multicultural contemporary international setting,the educational systems opt for successfully meeting as well as adapting to the rapid social,economic,and technological changes.Based on the premise that intercultural communicative competence holds a significant potential for foreign language instruction,focus should throw into combining teachers’intercultural knowledge with pedagogy and technology.The prospect of introducing intercultural material within the context of teaching scenarios in the curricula of a technology-enhanced foreign language learning environment where the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge(TPACK)approach is implemented,can positively contribute to the teaching process.Under this perspective,cultural and digitally competent teachers can create a framework which will enable learners to fully develop their interactive and linguistic skills and to effectively communicate in a foreign language promoting its social and multicultural dimension whatever the intercultural context.

Cause Analysis of Sociopragmatic Failure in Intercultural Communication

With the rapid development of science and globalization,communication between people is becoming more and more convenient and flexible.However,communication breakdown still occurs occasionally in the process of intercultural communication.Pragmatics failure is one of the main causes of the bias in intercultural communication.Based on the Jenny Thomas’theory,pragmatic failure is divided into pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure,the former is defined as the lack of pragmatic knowledge,while the latter affects more fundamentally the effect of intercultural communication as sociopragmatic failure is caused by the differences in cultural dimensions,ways of thinking,value orientation between speakers.By cognizing and understanding the main causes of pragmatic failures,intercultural speakers could avoid misunderstanding between different cultures and promote their intercultural communicative competence,in order to achieve an effective result of intercultural communication.

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

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.

Chinese Overseas Students’Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Their Undergraduate Intercultural Education:A Phenomenological Study

Intercultural language education has attracted much attention in the field of foreign language teaching in China during the past decades,due to the increasing number of intercultural encounters across the world as a result of globalization.However,little is known about the effectiveness of intercultural education at Chinese universities.Adopting a phenomenological research design,this paper serves as a pilot study and sets out to explore the forms of intercultural education at universities and investigate the effectiveness of undergraduate intercultural education from the perspectives of 12 Chinese students.

Study on Tourism Workers’ Intercultural Communication Competence

Under the background of the development of Hainan tourism and con-sumption destinations to increase the reception level of international tourism in Hainan,an empirical study is carried out to investigate the intercultural commu-nication competence of tourism workers in Hainan from cognitive,operational and affective dimensions.In this study,the cognitive dimension is reflected by the knowledge of domestic and foreign culture;the operational dimension focuses on verbal and nonverbal communication abilities;and the affective dimension is represented by emotional level,which mainly focuses on the participants’ability to understand and appreciate another culture as well as their willingness to interact with people from other cultures.The results indicate that tourism workers’knowl-edge of domestic culture is the best,followed by their emotional level,which are all above average.Next are nonverbal communication ability and knowledge of foreign culture,both of which are below average.Their verbal communication ability is the lowest among thefive factors.The intercultural communication com-petence of Hainan tourism workers is not satisfactory.The analytical results also show that each factor among the three dimensions is positively correlated with each other.

Promoting Local Culture Learning in the Context of Foreign Language Instruction

Foreign language learning is also culture learning,which is a dynamic process of bridging the connections between the local culture and the foreign culture.Based on a survey of 667 teachers of English and 278 students in colleges and universities in China,this paper first reviews the current research on the promotion of Chinese culture into the classroom teaching in the context of foreign language learning and then explores future prospects in this area of teaching.The discussion starts with the discussion on these major questions in the process of incorporating local culture in the form of telling stories about China,i.e.,“why need we tell the stories”,“who tells the stories”,“who leads in telling the stories”,“how can we tell the stories”,“what can we tell in the stories”,“where can we tell the stories”,and“how well can we tell the stories”.It continues proposing to pay attention to interdisciplinary research on discourse construction,communication modes and evaluation of communicative effectiveness,and also the design of foreign language curriculum and teaching materials.It concludes that incorporating local culture into the foreign language instruction is of great help to widen students’horizons,cultivate their language proficiency,enhance their culture awareness,strengthen their confidence,and realize shared appreciation of civilization with the people from other cultural backgrounds.

Fostering Global Citizens Through Study Abroad―A Case Study

In today’s increasingly globalized world,study abroad programs are receiving unprecedented attention as a significant part of international education.The mission of Soka University of America(SUA)is in line with the trend of producing U.S.graduates in higher education who demonstrate intercultural and international competence.SUA has joined the academic world in this growing area of interest and requires all its students to study abroad.Learning from other institutions and exploring its own path,SUA has developed a comprehensive study abroad program that seamlessly integrated in the liberal arts curricular of the university,which positively affected foreign language learning,improved students’abilities to function as global citizens,and opened various opportunities worldwide for the students.To insure students’study abroad experiences fruitful,the following aspects need to be considered:1.systematic institutional support;2.designated staff to work on study abroad affairs;3.advising students about the courses to take while abroad;4.students need support from the entire home institution;and 5.connect study abroad with a given institution’s broader goals.