Influence of Chinese International Students’ Intercultural Communicative Competence to Their English Proficiency in the U.S.

Abstract

With an increasing number of Chinese international students who come to study in the United States (U.S.), they inevitably meet problems or difficulties related to language barrier, educational experiences, cultural adaptation, and social interaction. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perspectives and understandings of Chinese undergraduate international students about their English proficiency in the U.S., as well as examine in what ways do their intercultural communicative competence influence their English proficiency in the U.S. To serve the purpose of this study and to address the research questions, individual interviews, public document analysis, and photo analysis were applied in this study. Three themes were identified from the data, which included being courageous to start or join the conversation, finding common interests or topics during the communication, as well as being respectful to the social norms and avoiding disputes. This study is relevant to Chinese undergraduate international students in the U.S., professors who interact with Chinese international students in the U.S. universities, college and language preparation programs, student affairs colleagues, as well as policy-makers for this issue.