Intercultural language education in China: a comparison of intercultural communication courses in two universities

Abstract

In recent decades, China has risen to prominence in the global economy and international politics. This has resulted in an urgent need to develop language learners’ intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in order to achieve more efficient intercultural interaction in the globalised world. This study investigates intercultural language education (ILE) in the Chinese higher education context and how intercultural education policies in China are implemented in intercultural communication courses for English and Business English majors in two universities. Specifically, it focuses on teaching practices, learning processes, teachers, students and programme directors’ perceptions of ICC.

This longitudinal qualitative study was conducted in Northeast China for a period of seven months and consisted of two case studies. Each case focused on a specific university, looking at one higher-ranking university and one lower-ranking university. The study used semi-structured interviews with programme directors, teachers and students, and classroom observation of intercultural communication courses and the analysis of relevant policy documents.

The findings revealed that outdated essentialist theories like Hofstede’s (1991) cultural dimension theories and Hall’s (1976) context theory, as well as cultural knowledge such as eating habits, arts and taboos, were still prevalent within intercultural communication courses and were taught using a teacher-centred approach. University teachers tended to present an essentialist view by equating culture with nation. Guided by an essentialist conceptualisation, classroom activities – such as group discussion, presentations, analysis of critical incidents in groups, as well as watching and analysing films – tend to be dominated by a superficial focus on cultural differences.

The critical discourse analysis of policy documents reveals that ILE serves the government’s aims of promoting China’s growth in a globalised world, and ICC development is seen as being connected to the country’s global engagements, economic ambitions and political concerns. The Chinese government has called for the construction of cultural confidence with the aim of engaging in globalisation without harming national unity or the dominant position of socialism. These political concerns have strengthened a monolithic culture and identity, which now poses a challenge to ICC development in the Chinese context.