Nghiên cứu nhận thức của sinh viên tại một trường đại học ở việt nam về năng lực giao tiếp liên văn hóa

Hanoi - 2019VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THU TRANG AN INVESTIGATION I

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL

STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

NGUYỄN THU TRANG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION

về năng lực giao tiếp liên văn hóa)

M.A MINOR THESIS (Type 1)

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Hanoi - 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL

STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

NGUYỄN THU TRANG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION

OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE

AT A VIETNAMESE UNIVERSITY

(Nghiên cứu nhận thức của sinh viên tại một trường đại học ở Việt

Nam về năng lực giao tiếp liên văn hóa)

M.A MINOR THESIS (Type 1)

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Prof Nguyễn Hòa

Hanoi - 2019

I declare that this research paper entitled “An investigation into students’ perception

of intercultural communication competence at a Vietnamese university” wascomposed of myself except as cited in the references The thesis has not beencurrently submitted in candidature of any other degree or processional qualificationexcept as specified

Signature

Nguyễn Thu Trang Hanoi, June 26 th 2019

I would like to dedicate my warm thanks to my supervisor, Prof Nguyễn Hòa, forhis academic, specialized and creative guidance He has been my source ofcomprehensive knowledge and great inspiration throughout my postgraduatestudies

I would also like to show my gratitude to all the students for their participation inthe survey who supported my work and helped me get results of reliable and betterquality

I am also indebted to my friend, Linh, who was always there for me during my hardtime of carrying out this thesis Thank you for continuously encouraging me toovercome obstacles to fully complete this study

Last but not least, I would like to express my special thanks and love to my family,

my parents for supporting me spiritually throughout my writing of this researchpaper

This study investigated the students’ awareness of intercultural communicationcompetence at a Vietnamese university I used mixed method (quantitative andqualitative method), which includes a survey questionnaire and semi-structuredinterviews to identify students’ perception toward ICC The results of the studysuggested that the majority of students of the research do not have enoughawareness of the importance of intercultural communication competence

Keywords: intercultural communication competence, perception, Vietnameseuniversity…

Table of Contents

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF TABLES vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Objectives of the research and Research question 2

1.3 Research methodology 3

1.4 Significance of the research 3

1.5 Thesis structure 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Definition of perception 5

2.2 Definition of culture 6

2.3 Definition of Communication competence, Intercultural competence, Intercultural communication competence 8

2.3.1 Definition of Communication competence 8

2.3.2 Definition of Intercultural competence 9

2.3.3 Definition of Intercultural communication competence 10

2.4 Model of Intercultural communication competence 12

2.5 Previous studies 13

2.6 Chapter summary 18

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 19

3.1 Context of the study 19

3.2 Design of the study 20

3.3 Participants 21

3.4 Data collection 21

3.4.1 Questionnaires 21

3.4.2 Semi-structured interviews 23

3.5 Data analysis 25

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 26

4.1 Results 26

4.1.1 The result of questionnaire 26

4.1.2 The result of interview 34

4.2 Discussion 38

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 42

5.1 Recapitulation 42

5.2 Implications 43

5.3 Limitations 45

5.4 Suggestion for further research 45

REFERENCES 47 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 V APPENDIX 3 VI

negative statement)Table 2 Measure students’ intercultural awareness

Table 3 Measure students’ ICC (Using positive statements)

Table 4 Measure students’ ICC (Using negative statements)

Undoubtedly, the role of culture and intercultural communication in Englishlanguage education has not always been well-acknowledged Gonen and Saglam(2012) pointed out that: “teachers in different classrooms in different parts of theworld still ignore the importance of teaching culture as a part of language study” (p.26) Teachers focus only on promoting learners’ language proficiency rather thanintegrate it with intercultural communication in order to perform effectively andappropriately in multicultural situations In the context of Vietnam, interculturallanguage teaching is not also a current practice in English language educationsince the integration of culture in teaching and learning is usually ignored Suchsituations can trigger the phenomenon that foreign language learners may have the

tools for fluency, but they may not be effective and appropriate interactants inmulticultural situations

For all the time I studied at the university, I was attracted by the culturaldifferences The attention I have for it got stronger when I was exposed tointercultural communication I believed that culture and language must be together,for whatever the level of language learner is However, it seemed that not manystudents share my thought They might be all agree about the importance ofintercultural communication competence, but they do not really take that factseriously Therefore, I would like to carry out a research to see the current situation

of students and then, raise the awareness for us, especially for the foreign languageeducator of the necessity and momentousness of intercultural communicationcompetence

1.2 Objectives of the research and Research question

I aimed at figuring out students’ understanding of intercultural communicationcompetence The research clarified the actual situation of Vietnamese universitystudents’ awareness of what belongs to inter-culture After that, I took a closer look

at the background of language learning situation of Vietnam and then, pointed outthe importance of raising awareness of intercultural communication in both learningand teaching process They are used to look for the answer to the question: What isstudents’ perception of intercultural communication competence at a Vietnameseuniversity?

1.3 Research methodology

I used the mixed method which includes quantitative and qualitative method fordata collection and analysis The research consists of questionnaire and semi-structured interview

Twenty students from one class that already passed a course named “Interculturalcommunication” of a Vietnamese university participated in this study Three studentswere chose to be interviewed for having unreliable answers on the questionnaire

1.4 Significance of the research

With the increase of globalization and international trade, English has been used as

a means of communication among people of multicultural backgrounds in the 21st

century Integrating cultures in English language learning is crucial andindispensable for learners in order to enhance their intercultural communicativecompetence

Although the significance of ICC has been recognized by a number of researchersand a myriad of studies worldwide, the position of ICC in Vietnam has not alwaysbeen well recognized and the concept of ICC has still remained vague to mostforeign language learners Moreover, the restriction of popularizing interculturalcommunication course at universities has exacerbated this situation

It is undisputed that ICC is a vital skill for language learners to achieve effectiveand appropriate communication in the globalized community Today, ICC is morethan just being able to speak the native language in the communication process It israther to know as much as possible about the culture in order to increase theefficiency of international communication This requires knowing the background

of the people, where they are grown up, their habit and tradition, what they care for,how they react and so on Dealing with people from different cultures requires more

than just a language Hence, in this research I will explore foreign languagestudents’ perception of ICC, and then implicate the importance of incorporatingICC in English language learning and teaching.

This study pointed out the students’ awareness of intercultural communicationcompetence How they understand about ICC’s importance and whether they thinkthey need to take it more seriously to improve their skill to survive in this globalizedand migratory age

1.5 Thesis structure

The research paper contains five main chapters Each chapter discusses the content

as follows:

- Chapter 1: The introduction reveals the rationale of the study, the objectives

of the research, the research questions and methodology, the scope, theresearch significance The chapter ends with the structure of the thesis

- Chapter 2: The literature review explores the relevant literature in an attempt

to develop the theoretical framework for the study It consists of thedefinition of perception, culture, communication competence, interculturalcompetence, intercultural communication competence, the models ofintercultural communication competence and several previous studies

- Chapter 3: The research methodology presents the method of the research Italso declares the information of the research participations, instruments,method of collecting data and method of analyzing data

- Chapter 4: Data analysis, findings and discussion provide the details of theanalysis which consists of general description, data analysis and findings,and discussion

- Chapter 5: Conclusion and implications

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, a brief review of the literature related to the interculturalcommunication will be presented The review will cover a brief discussion ofdefinition of perception, culture, intercultural communication competence, model ofintercultural communication competence and several previous studies

2.1 Definition of perception

The first notion in this study that we need to clarify is perception Perception is theprocess by which organisms interpret and organize sensation to produce ameaningful experience of the world (Lindsay & Norman, 1977) In other words, aperson is confronted with a situation or stimuli The person interprets the stimuliinto something meaningful to him or her based on prior experiences However, what

an individual interprets or perceives may be substantially different from reality(Pickens, 2005)

A person’s awareness and acceptance of the stimuli play an important role in theperception process Receptiveness to the stimuli is highly selective and may belimited by a person’s existing beliefs, attitude, motivation, and personality (Assael,1995) Individuals will select the stimuli that satisfy their immediate needs(perceptual vigilance) and may disregard stimuli that may cause psychologicalanxiety (perceptual defense) (Pickens, 2005)

According to Pickens, on the one hand, because of limited capacity, a person mustprocess information selectively; hence, when they are exposed to information fromtwo different channels (methods of delivery such as visual and auditory), anindividual’s perceptual system processes only that which it believes to be mostconnected However, perceptual defense creates an internal barrier that limits theexternal stimuli passing through the perception process when it is not congruent

with the person’s current beliefs, attitudes, motivation, etc This is referred to asselective perception Selective perception occurs when an individual limits theprocessing of external stimuli by selectively interpreting what he or she sees based

on beliefs, experience, or attitudes (Sherif & Cantril, 1945)

The literature recorded efforts in defining different concepts related to the humancognition With regard to the definition of the term “perception”, Hornby (2000) put

it in the form of a countable noun and defined it as “an idea, belief, or an image thatyou have as a result of how you see or understand something” (p 977)

2.2 Definition of culture

Before coming into discussion of students’ awareness of ICC, it is requisite first toanalyze and highlight key issues involved in ICC definition Culture is definitely thevery first component that is extremely elaborate and need to be interpreted Thereare countless elucidation of culture worldwide, and each convey divergentstandpoint concerning culture As claimed by Goode, (2000), researcher of theNational Center for Cultural Competence, is that culture implies both visibleand invisible aspects which are shared among group members, and it is not limited

in one generation, nor is it changeable However, it can be passed from onegeneration to the others, and is quite active because of social variations: “…anintegrated pattern of human behavior that includes thoughts, communications,languages, practices, beliefs, values, customs, courtesies, rituals, manners ofinteracting, roles, relationships, and expected behaviors of a racial, ethnic,religious or social group; the ability to transmit the above to succeedinggenerations; is dynamic in nature” (Goode, 2000)

In Apte’s words (1994), culture is captured in following definition: “Culture is afuzzy set of attitudes, beliefs, behavioral conventions, and basic assumptions andvalues that are shared by a group of people, and that influence each member’s

behavior and his/her interpretations of the ‘meaning’ of the other people’sbehavior.”

In another exposure, the meaning of culture specified by Lugstig and Koester(2000) presents the vital bond between culture and communication: “Culture is alearned set of shared interpretations about beliefs, values, norms, and socialpractices, which affect the behaviors of a relatively large group of people.” (Lugstigand Koester, 2000)

Nguyen (1998) gives us a view of culture, which is “a shared background (forexample, national, ethnic, religious) resulting from a common language andcommunication style, custom, beliefs, attitudes, and values Culture in this text doesnot refer to art, music, literature, food, clothing styles, and so on It refers to theinformal and often hidden patterns of human interactions, expressions, andviewpoints that people in one culture share The hidden nature of culture has beencompared to an iceberg, most of which is hidden underwater! Like the iceberg most

of the influence of culture on an individual cannot be seen The part of culture that

is exposed is not always that which creates cross-cultural difficulties; the hiddenaspects of culture have significant effects on behavior and on interactions withothers”

From the fundamental apprehension of culture, we can refer to many othercomplicated terms such as IC (Intercultural competence), CC (Communicationcompetence) and ICC (Intercultural communication competence)

2.3 Definition of Communication competence, Intercultural competence, Intercultural communication competence

2.3.1 Definition of Communication competence

With reference to the term of CC (Communication competence), Hymes (1972) saidthat CC is the ability to apply grammatical competence appropriately in socialinteractions Canale and Swain (1980) explained CC in the context of foreignlanguage education, which was combined of grammatical, sociolinguistic, andstrategic competence

Communication is the interaction of individuals with each other for sharinginformation to achieve a common understanding Besides, communicationcompetence is also defined by Chen (1990) as “the ability to effectively andappropriately execute communication behavior to elicit a desired response in aspecific environment” The definition implicates that communication is two sidesfor a competent individual, which is both transferring ones ideas and fulfillinghis/her own communicative goals In an intercultural communication process, thesender and receiver hold diverse cultural background differing in their values,beliefs and attitudes which affect their selection, categorization, organization andperception of messages (AsuncionLande, 1977)

According to J Richards (1985), communication competence includes the followingcomponents:

- Knowledge of grammar and vocabulary of the language

- Knowledge of rules of speaking (e.g: knowing how to begin and endconversation, knowing what topics may be talked about in different types ofspeech events, knowing address forms should be used with different peopleand in different situations)

- Knowing how to use and respond to different types of speech acts, such asrequests, apologizes, thanks, and invitations

- Knowing how to use English appropriately

He also claims that: “When someone wishes to communicate with others, they mustrecognize the social setting, their relationship to the other person, and the types oflanguage can be used for a particular occasion They must also be able to interpretwritten or spoken sentences within the total context in which they are used”

As a result, we can see that communication competence is a crucial aspect inintercultural communication process

2.3.2 Definition of Intercultural competence

Byram (1997) and Bennett (2004) see intercultural competence as the ability tocome into contact effectively and appropriately with other people from differentcultures IC includes elements as attitudes, knowledge, skills of interpreting andrelating, skills of discovery and interaction, and critical cultural awareness/politicaleducation

On the other hands, Sinicrope, (2007) mentioned that IC can be simply defined

as the “ability to step beyond one’s own culture and function with otherindividuals from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds” (p 1)

Intercultural competence, which is the capacity to change one’s knowledge,attitudes, and behaviors so as to be open and flexible to other cultures, has become acritical issue for individuals to survive in the globalized society of the 21st century(Alred and Byram, 2002) Taylor (1994) defines intercultural competency as atransformative process whereby the stranger develops adaptive capacity, alteringhis/her perspective to effectively understand and accommodate the demands of thehost culture A person who has the ability of intercultural competence can developrelational competence with people from different cultures, manage to solvecomplicated conflicts by moving around alternatives that arise as a result of cultural

differences and improve the ability of doing business with counterparts fromdifferent cultures (Huang, 2003).

Learning to deal with different cultures effectively requires cultural awareness,communicative competence, personal attitudes including empathy and flexibility,self-awareness and understanding others values, norms and beliefs

2.3.3 Definition of Intercultural communication competence

It is necessary in addition to distinguish between Intercultural Competence andIntercultural Communicative Competence According to Byram (1997), theintercultural competence refers to people’s “ability to interact in their own languagewith the people from another country and culture,” while interculturalcommunicative competence takes into account language teaching and concentrates

on “the ability to interact with people from another country and culture in a foreignlanguage” (p 71) ICC is the ability to interact with other people but the interactiontakes place between people from different cultures and countries using a foreignlanguage, the knowledge of the participants of another culture is linked to theirlanguage competence through their ability to use language appropriately and theirawareness of the specific meaning, values and connotations of the language(Aguilar, 2010) Furthermore, ICC is composed of linguistics competence,sociolinguistics competence, discourse competence, and intercultural competence(Byram, 1997) In Byram’s (1997) point of view, a person who has developed ICCwill be able to build relationships while speaking in the foreign language; takinginto consideration his own and the other person’s viewpoint and needs;communicating effectively with people of different backgrounds

Intercultural communication competence is defined by Chen and Starosta (1998) as

“the ability to effectively and appropriately execute communication behaviors that

negotiate each other’s cultural identity or identities in a culturally diverseenvironment”.

Wiseman (2001) suggests that intercultural communication competence iscomprised of knowledge, skills, and motivation needed to interact effectively andappropriately with persons from different cultures In this definition, motivation isconsidered as a unique element which is not included in some of the otherdefinitions of intercultural competence and is further defined as “the set of feelings,intentions, needs and drives associated with the anticipation of or actualengagement in intercultural communication” (p 4)

Byram (1997), in his model of intercultural communicative competence, highlightsthe importance of language (linguistic competence) and also includes identity andcultural understanding in his conceptualization He argues that a comprehensivedefinition of intercultural communicative competence should include the socialcontext and non-verbal dimensions of communication Byram (1997) indicates that

“when persons from different languages and/or countries interact socially, theybring to the situation their knowledge about their own country and that of theothers” (pp 32–33) Additionally, he notes that “part of the success of suchinteraction will depend on the establishing and maintenance of human relationships,something which depends on attitudinal factors” (pp 32–33)

ICC can be perceived as the ability which helps one to effectively and properlyinteract in a language other than one’s native language with others fromdifferent linguistic and cultural backgrounds ICC comprises languagecompetence (linguistic competence, sociolinguistic competence, & strategiccompetence) and IC (attitudes, knowledge, skills, & awareness) that help one

to be able to successfully integrate in a multicultural society (e.g., Bennett &Bennett, 2004; Byram, 1997; Fantini, 2001; Sinicrope et al., 2008)

2.4 Model of Intercultural communication competence

From dissimilar frame of reference on ICC, different models of IC/ICCdevelopment have been suggested in order to promote learners’ IC/ICC However,the model of ICC which is adapted from model of ICC development suggested byByram (1997) materialized to be one of the most inclusive and pertinent model to

be used in the context of English language education

As stated by Galante (2015, p.33), “Byram’s model of ICC is one of the mostinfluential and widely cited models that guide language teachers interculturality inthe classroom” This model begins from the perspective of language and culturewhich are in close proximity It has two main components: language competenceand IC The former is composed of linguistic competence, sociolinguisticcompetence and discourse competence; the latter embraces four elements:attitudes, knowledge, skills, and awareness They are expanded to include followingelements:

- Linguistic competence: the ability to apply knowledge of a language toproduce and interpret spoken and written language

- Sociolinguistic competence: the ability to give to the languageproduced by an interlocutor – whether native speaker or not – meaningswhich are taken for granted by the interlocutor or which are negotiated andmade explicit with the interlocutor

- Discourse competence: the ability to use, discover and negotiatestrategies for the production and interpretation of monologue ordialogue texts which follow the conventions of the culture of aninterlocutor or are negotiated as intercultural texts for particularpurposes

- Intercultural attitudes: curiosity, openness, and readiness to learn about othercultures, and relativize one’s own.

- Intercultural knowledge: conscious and unconscious knowledge of socialgroups and their products and practices, and the general processes ofsocietal and individual interaction in one’s own and in one’s interlocutor’scountry

- Intercultural skills: abilities to acquire new knowledge of a culture andcultural practices, and apply the knowledge and attitudes to interpretdocuments/events in the target culture and relate them to one’s own

- Intercultural awareness: ability to be critically aware of culture and culturalpractices in one’s own and in one’s interlocutors

2.5 Previous studies

A research titled “Intercultural Communicative Competence in Foreign LanguageClassroom” was conducted by Saeideh Ahnagari and Jafar Zamanian of EnglishLanguage Department, College of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages -Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch, Tabriz, Iran This study presents ananalysis of viewpoints in the development of intercultural competence in theEnglish as foreign language teaching classroom in Iran The research problem wasformulated: do English as foreign language learners’ attitudes become more positivedue to the impact of intercultural learning and how they benefit from the impact ofintercultural learning in their attitude and overall language proficiency? Based onthe study carried out in two intact classes at Iran Language Institute with 48intermediate language learners, the results indicated that practices in interculturalcompetence develop their positive attitudes about their culture and target languageculture and it motivates them to develop their overall language competence Thefindings of this study have some implications for second language teachers sincethey would be aware of the positive impact of intercultural communicative

instruction in intermediate level In addition, they will know different techniques forapplication of these instructions especially in classroom context Moreover, theresults of this research can have implications for material developers It helps themdesign tasks to provide opportunities for focusing on the most effective approach.JianJun Liu, MSc in Applied Linguistics, the University of Edinburgh researched onthe topic: “An Investigation on Intercultural Communication among ChinesePostgraduate Students at the University of Edinburgh” This study was toinvestigate the intercultural communication among Chinese postgraduate students atthe University of Edinburgh The research specifically explored the socialfriendship networks of Chinese postgraduate students, their interculturalcommunicative competence after one-year abroad study and the perceived and realcommunication problems they come across in intercultural interactions The resultsrevealed that, though Chinese students involved actively in English networks andtheir intercultural communicative competence was improved in the one-year abroadstudy, most of Chinese students (97%) still had difficulty in communicating withstudents from other cultures It was reported that the problem of Chinese students’language proficiency and the problem of culture were the two major groups ofcommunication problems in Chinese students’ intercultural encounters Thefindings suggested that more emphasis should be placed on interculturalcommunication knowledge in China’s English Language Teaching By comparingthe perceived communication problems in questionnaires and the discourse analysisresults of six actual conversation recordings, it was found that the problem ofChinese students’ language proficiency and the problem of culture were two majorgroups of communication problems which blocked successful communicationbetween Chinese students and students from other countries It also verified thatthese two major communication problems were important factors influencinginternational friendship formation The findings of these communication difficulties

not only indicated the shortcomings of China’s English education, but also raisedour awareness of the importance of intercultural communication education as a part

of English teaching in China It called for the improvement of China’s Englishlanguage teaching, for example, more emphasis should be placed on fosteringstudents’ language proficiency and imparting of cultural knowledge

Another thesis titled “How to cultivate Intercultural Communication Competence ofNon-English Major Students” conducted by Wei Sun of School of ForeignLanguages, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, China Thisthesis aimed at presenting the concept of intercultural communication competence,focused its importance on foreign language teaching, and indicated how to cultivatestudents’ intercultural communication competence The writer emphasized therelationship between culture and language, communication and culture, she brieflyintroduced the situation in foreign language teaching in the past and today In thispaper, the author tried to illustrate how to cultivate students who are not Englishmajor to understand the cultural meanings of language, and tried to help them useEnglish properly, especially in special context The findings of this study pointedout that the significance of the cultivation of intercultural communicativecompetence is obvious It also provided some useful ideas for English teaching.Apparently, it is important to note that although culture of human thinking modeand behavior pattern are the dominant factors, but race, personality, ethnicity, age,gender, economic status, religious and other aspects also affect its understanding.Culture is dynamic, the world has a tendency to form collision to the compatibility,and the frequent communication between different cultures is unavoidable.Therefore, the content of the intercultural communicative competence should also

be dynamic, it helps put forward the intercultural communication competencetraining effectively

Jiajun Shen from College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University and HongweiHuang, Department of Geotechnical Engineering College of Civil Engineering,Tongji University, Shanghai, China together researched on the topic: “FosteringIntercultural Communication Competence of University Foreign AffairsAdministrators” They discussed several issues relating interculturalcommunication, intercultural communication competence and finally give somestrategies about fostering intercultural communication competence of foreign affairsadministrators They mentioned the importance of the foreign affairs administrators

in facilitating the cooperation and exchange between universities They need tocommunicate with students and teachers from different cultures all over the world

It is important to foster their intercommunication competence to achieve successand efficient communication There are 6 ways to foster their intercommunicationcompetence: to have a good grasp of foreign language, to obtain culturalknowledge, to master communication skills, to increase intercultural awareness, topay attention to the non-language communication competence training and to be agood observer and seeking advices from others Each of these components alone isnot sufficient to achieve intercultural communication competence Successfulintercultural communication requires much enthusiasm and a willingness toovercome cultural barriers It is a two-way process The ways different culturesapproach communication is one of the most important things to take intoconsideration when planning a collaborative effort that bridges multiple cultures.This cross-cultural collaboration is becoming more widespread as the dawn of theInternet Age brings the world closer and closer

Justin C Velten of the University of Texas at Tyler, USA and Carley H Dodd fromAbilene Christian University, USA studied on the topic: “The Effects ofIntercultural Communication Competency-Based Instruction on InterculturalCommunication Competence” The research explored the effects of a competency-

based adaptive learning approach in intercultural communication education onintercultural communication competencies (ICCs) targeted for students preparingfor a university summer abroad program Applying a pretest-posttest-control groupdesign, the study assessed participant ICCs using the multivariate Go CultureAssessment The treatment group received adaptive group coaching in ICC whilethe control group received no additional tailored or adaptive preparation Treatmentgroup results revealed significant paired test comparison increases in 11 of the 17GCA factors, while control group participants increased only in 3 of the GCAfactors The study included a comprehensive literature review of interculturalcommunication competency and indicated the need for more measurable outcomesregarding intercultural communication competencies The findings pointed out thatpersonal growth and development related to ICC factors The review of literaturepointed out the need for curricular internationalization leading to personal andsituational global awareness However, the literature and this analysis extend thatneed to underscore for communication educators how intercultural competencyexceeds global awareness or internationalization When we heightencommunication education by adding ICC qualities, we enlarge the conversation tothe skills necessary for host culture engagement This study provided evidence that

a tailored extra-curricular approach alongside minimal classroom interculturalpreparation resulted in comparative intercultural communication competencyintensification This study also pivoted interest toward scholarship not only fortheoretical conceptualizations but for revised intercultural communication educationmodels and assessment In an era of educational scrutiny, communication educatorscan provide evidence for enhancing global awareness through interculturalcommunication competency education

2.6 Chapter summary

This chapter gave a brief review of the literature related to interculturalcommunication which is its definition and its model This very first chapter alsomentioned some previous studies that concern similar topic This review would beused for building the questionnaire in the next chapter The following chapter alsorevealed the findings of this research and compared it with previous studies.

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter justifies the selection of methodology for the study First, it presentsand discloses philosophical viewpoints along with the choice of the mixed method

(qualitative and quantitative method) and the rationale for the employment of thismethod After that, it describes setting of the study including participants,instruments for questionnaire and semi-structured interview Finally, researchprocedure is displayed detailing data collection process and data analysis.

3.1 Context of the study

The study investigated students’ perception of intercultural communicationcompetence from one class in a Vietnamese university Their major was Englishlanguage and culture There were 18 females and 2 males in the class They were in

a normal class, not high quality one They came from different provinces All ofthem have studied English as a second language for 12 years before they entereduniversity At the time of the data collection, they were in their third year In thefirst two years of the university, they had about 20 hours per week to study Englishproficiency In the third year, they did not spend time studying English proficiencyanymore They studied English culture, society, politics, economics, geography,linguistics They have also passed an Intercultural communication discipline Their teachers were qualified enough for university teaching They also completedsome courses abroad Their lowest academic qualification was Master in EnglishTeaching Methodology

The learning environment was very positive and dynamic The university organized

a number of contests and extracurricular activities for students to develop theirEnglish proficiency and encourage them to practice English

3.2 Design of the study

This is a survey research using mixed method whereby a questionnaire was used togather data about students’ awareness of intercultural communication competence.

An interview was also conducted to double check the reliability of students’answers and explore widely their perspective regarding ICC

Uzma (2018) gives us a general overview about the mixed method (quantitative andqualitative methods) In his paper: “Quantitative researchers may view qualitativeresearch as suspect, or only as a means to generate hypotheses to test in quantitativeanalyses According to this view, qualitative research is but an intermediate outputsupporting “empirical” regression analysis On the other hand, qualitativeresearchers often view quantitative work as too reductive They may only includequantitative data for rhetorical purposes, recognizing that they are outnumbered (nopun intended) in a world dominated by scholars untrained in qualitative methods.”There are numerous definition of the words “qualitative” and “quantitative” Fromhis point of view, qualitative research is any analysis based on words (e.g., texts,interviews, or field notes from observations), and quantitative research as anyanalysis using numbers, either descriptively or in regression analysis (Uzma, 2018)

He also stated the relationship between qualitative and quantitative: “Amongst themost traditional views of the relationship between qualitative and quantitativeresearch is the use of the former to generate hypotheses and constructs to bemeasured and tested in the latter That is, there is an outcome that is puzzling (such

as heterogeneity in incumbent organizations’ responses to technological change ordifferences in team learning), existing explanations are not satisfactory, andscholars use qualitative evidence to identify potential alternative explanations thatare more complete or resolve tensions that exist.”

Considering the fulfilment of the mixed method rather than just quantitative orqualitative approach, I decided to use the mixed method to enhance the reliability of

my research

3.3 Participants

Twenty students in one class from the English Language Teaching Department of aVietnamese University participated in this study At the time of data collection,participants were in their 3rd years and have surpassed an Interculturalcommunication discipline

University students have been exposed to inter-culture by some interculturalcommunication courses, which is opposite to secondary and high school studentswho have rarely been heard about the concept of culture when learning foreignlanguage Therefore, I believe that carrying out the research on university studentswould be more reasonable than on lower grade students

agreement There are six positive items and two negative items The second oneinvolved 20 statements to indicate students’ intercultural communicationcompetence, basing on Ş, N., Penbek, E., Ş, D Y., Ahin, N., Gü, A., & Cerit, L.(2012) study There are 13 positive items and seven negative items.

The questionnaires was also modified based on the model of interculturalcommunication competence that I mentioned in the Literature review chapter (Seethe full questionnaire in Appendix 1)

The questionnaire was conducted at a university in Hanoi Participants wereselected on voluntary basis and they answered the questionnaire through a surveypaper I assured that their identity would be kept confidential and provided acomfortable atmosphere in all process of the research so that they could freely andhonestly answer the questionnaire The data gathered during the research was keptsecurely and used only for the study purposes

To ensure that students fully understand the questions’ content, I implemented thesurvey on five students first to check their understanding Participants were in theirthird grade of university, they had accumulated and developed a sense of Englishlanguage understanding, hence, they could figure out easily the questionnaire’smeaning since the vocabulary and grammar used in the questionnaire were simple.After that, I did the survey on twenty students from one class to gather the result.The students in that class answered the questionnaire through a survey paper form.Before gave them the survey, I already explained that this questionnaire was usedfor my research purpose only It did not affect their grade or involve any assessmentrelated to their study results

3.4.2 Semi-structured interviews

Furthermore, an interview was carried out to show the actual situation of students incommunicating with foreigner and their perception of intercultural communicationknowledge that they receive at the university The interview contained two parts.The first part was used to double check their answer in the questionnaire Thesecond part included two questions, which is students’ intercultural communicationexperience and the need for enhancing their intercultural knowledge at theuniversity By using the first question regarding students’ interculturalcommunication experience, I aimed at discovering students’ exposure to realintercultural communication situation, to see what the effect on students’ perception

of intercultural communication is The second question pointed out the students’thought regarding the need for keep improving their intercommunicationcompetence

For the semi-structured interviews, three students that had the ambiguous answers

on the questionnaire were chose to be interviewed The majority of their answer wasone option (all agree, all disagree or all neutral option) For example, student Achose one option for all statements The same situation happened with other twostudents Therefore, I need to interview them to double check the reliability of thequestionnaire answer I invited them one by one to a coffee shop I interviewed inVietnamese since the purpose of this study is not about testing students’ Englishproficiency I wanted to use mother tongue so that the atmosphere would be muchmore comfortable and they would be free to express their true nature andperspective regarding my questions I also recorded the interview content andtranscribed it in the Appendices of this study

There are a number of statements in the questionnaire (28 statements) Hence, Icould not interview for all 28 statements That would cause frustration and

uncomfortableness for students I decided to choose some important statements thatclarify students’ perception of intercultural communication the most Thestatements were used as follows:

- Trong quá trình hiện tại em đang học, em có gặp khó khăn khi giao tiếp vớingười nước ngoài không? (Do you encounter difficulty when you interactwith foreigner?)

- Khi tiếp xúc với người nước ngoài, em có tôn trọng cách họ ứng xử, thể hiệnkhông? (Do you respect the way people from different culture behave?)

- Khi nói chuyện với người nước ngoài, em có cố gắng get idea nhiều nhất cóthể từ họ không? (Do you try to obtain as much information as you can wheninteracting with people from different culture?)

- Em có né tránh hay không muốn tiếp xúc với người nước ngoài không? (Doyou avoid the situation that you will have to deal with people from differentculture?)

- Em đã bao giờ gặp trường hợp misunderstanding khi nói chuyện với ngườinước ngoài chưa? (Have you ever experienced misunderstanding wheninteracting with foreigner?)

- Em nghĩ sao về kiến thức liên văn hóa trong môn Giao tiếp liên văn hóa đó?

Em có thấy học 1 môn giao tiếp liên văn hóa ở trường là đủ không? Có cầnhọc thêm khóa học về liên văn hóa nào không? (What do you think of yourintercultural communication knowledge that you’ve learnt at the university?

Is it enough? Do you need to take any more courses regarding interculturalcommunication?)

During the interview, I tried to confirm one more time with participants to be veryclear about their answers For example, when being asked: “Do you respect the waypeople from different culture behave?”, after participants gave their answer, I asked

them one more time to check my understanding of their response The conversationwas as follows:

- Khi em tiếp xúc với người nước ngoài, em có tôn trọng cách họ ứng xử thểhiện không? Ví dụ như người Ấn Độ hay ăn bốc tay chẳng hạn, hay là lúcnói chuyện họ hay lắc đầu thay cho đồng ý, khác hẳn với mình là khi mìnhđồng ý thì mình gật đầu Em có thấy khó chịu hay như nào không? (Wheninteracting with foreigner, do you respect the way they behave? For example,Indians usually use their own hands for eating Or they usually shake theirhead for agreement, which is different from our culture Do you feelunconfortable for that?)

- Khó chịu thì chả đến nỗi, nó cũng chả ảnh hưởng gì mình, em thấy cũng bìnhthường, không sao cả (Not really, I’m ok with that.)

- Thế là mình cũng tôn trọng họ đúng không, không có ý gì là miệt thị hay chêbai khó chịu gì hả? (So it means that you also respect them? Without anydiscrimination?)

3.5 Data analysis

Quantitative and qualitative data analysis proceeded in two phases In the firstphase, the data obtained from the learners’ use of questionnaire was analyzed usingdescriptive statistics for the total group After that, the semi-structured interviewwas analyzed by their answer for each question

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This section is divided into two subsections: the former presents the quantitativedata derived from the questionnaires while the latter displays the qualitative dataobtained from the interviews Finally, it will provide a discussion of the findings

4.1 Results

4.1.1 The result of questionnaire

4.1.1.1 Students’ intercultural awareness

After considering data analysis, I decided to apply descriptive statistics to find theparticipants’ intercultural awareness Based on the self-developed cut-off points toassess participants’ awareness (Table 1), the scores were considered “High” if theywere in the upper third of the distribution, “Moderate” if they were in the middlethird, and “Low” if they were in the lower third This criteria was applied forpositive statement

Table 1a: Criteria of assessing students’ intercultural awareness (for positive statement)

Intercultural awareness Points Options

Moderate 3 Neither agree or disagree

1 Strongly disagree

For negative one, the criteria would be opposite The scores were considered

“High” if they were in the upper third of the distribution, “Moderate” if they were inthe middle third, and “Low” if they were in the lower third

Table 1b: Criteria of assessing students’ intercultural awareness (for negative statement)

Intercultural awareness Points Options

4 DisagreeModerate 3 Neither agree or disagree

1 Strongly agree

This study sought to investigate students’ perception of intercultural communicationcompetence at a Vietnamese university This section presents the results of thestudy in terms of statistics

As we can see in the table 2 below, the results of analysis demonstrate thepercentage of students’ answer for each question The questions in below tablereflect students’ awareness of intercultural aspect The questionnaire focuses onhow students think about the importance of culture and language integration