Correlation between College Students’ Pragmatic Competence and Intercultural Sensitivity

Abstract—This study explored the intercultural sensitivity of a group of students from Dalian University of Technology, China. The purpose of the exploratory study is to discover the correlation between intercultural sensitivity and pragmatic competence. The investigation consisted of quantitative analysis of a group of 200 college students and qualitative analysis with the experiment tools of two independent questionnaires-- intercultural sensitivity scale and pragmatic competence scale. After the collection of the questionnaires, the correlation analysis and regression analysis were done by SPSS17.0. In the qualitative analysis, interviews of 20 respondents were carried out with 10 students of low level of ISS and PC and 10 from high level. The result of the quantitative analysis was positive. Intercultural sensitivity and each factor of it were related to pragmatic competence. For regression analysis, interaction engagement, interaction enjoyment and interaction confidence influence pragmatic competence positively. In the qualitative analysis, the attitudes and opinions toward language learning strategy and pragmatic competence of the respondent were collected. The result is shown that high level of ISS and PC respondents were more likely to get involved into the communication activities with foreign people. The findings of both quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis proposed a number of important implications for the development of students’ intercultural sensitivity and pragmatic competence.

Index Terms—Correlation analysis, intercultural sensitivity, pragmatic competence, regression analysis.

Jin Qian is with the School of Foreign Languages, Dalian University of Technology, Liaoning, China (e-mail: qianjin@dlut.edu.cn).
Zhongmei Li and Shuang Wang are with Dalian Polytechnic University, Liaoning, China (e-mail: 821856333@qq.com, Wsdawn2000@163.com).

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Cite: Jin Qian, Zhongmei Li, and Shuang Wang, "Correlation between College Students’ Pragmatic Competence and Intercultural Sensitivity," International Journal of Culture and History vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 159-163, 2016.