English Majors’ Intercultural Competence and Chinese Cultural Aphasia

Abstract

With globalization and internationalization, the input of the target culture has become more visible in Chinese college English teaching. In contrast, the Chinese culture has not received proper attention, resulting in “Chinese cultural aphasia.” Many learners have difficulty expressing the Chinese culture in English during intercultural communication, which often causes communication barriers. Chinese English majors play a leading role in sharing Chinese culture in intercultural communication. However, English majors have not received much attention. To address this gap, the current study investigates Chinese cultural aphasia (CCA) and intercultural competence (IC) among Chinese college English majors at Hengshui University. In addition, this study explores the relationship between their CCA and IC. Adopting a quantitative approach, the study uses two research instruments, namely, the Chinese culture test and intercultural competence scale. The data of the test and scale are analyzed by SPSS 26.0. The findings show that the English majors’ CCA is below the qualifying score of 60, which shows a lack of knowledge of Chinese culture. For intercultural competence, they achieved slightly higher than the qualifying score of 84. The result also shows that they have the strongest in intercultural attitude but weakest in intercultural knowledge among the four dimensions of attitude, skills, knowledge, and attitude. Furthermore, the Pearson correlation (r = 0.401, p = 0.001 < 0.05) shows a positive correlation between English majors’ CCA and IC. This study shows that it is essential to raise more awareness of cultural aphasia among Chinese college English majors and provides a valuable reference for the need of cultivating intercultural competence among Chinese undergraduates.