INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Enhancing EFL Teachers' Awareness of Intercultural Communication Training in EFL Classrooms in China



Abstract

English language is an international language, learning it has become a need for everyone in the world. This is especially important for this age of rapid globalization and information and technology wherein people have a completely altered interaction pattern and a growing need for communication with people from other parts of the world. However, the students in China or any other speakers of different language find it difficult to grasp the proper flow of the language. These speakers, especially students, face problems due to the language gap and other such factors. They do have the ability to progress but due to some of the factors they face problems in learning and writing due to this language issue. This prevent them from effectively communicate their thoughts and opinions verbally as well as in writing. The place of English in the foreign countries like China is an eminent one. Acquisition of English is viewed as a desirable end since it is seen as the language of wider international communication and of business and technology. Despite extensive use of English as a means of communication locally, many students in China experience difficulties in the learning of English. This is the reason why intercultural communication training is significant for the EFL teachers as well as the EFL students.

Enhancing EFL Teachers' Awareness of Intercultural Communication Training in EFL Classrooms in China

Introduction

Education in the broadest sense is a purposeful process of the formation of intelligence, physical and spiritual strength of personality, its preparation for life, active participation in the workforce. Education in the narrow sense of the word is a systematic and purposeful influence on pupil teacher in order to create their desired relationship to people and events around the world. The concept of communication skills is inherently reductionist inasmuch as it proposes that complex behavior such as conducting a consultation or building a relationship can be atomized into component skills. This is questionable. For example, producing a behavioral coding scheme to quantify communication skills for research or assessment is a struggle that entails a long process of formulating objective definitions for communication behaviors; elements of communication that, although important, cannot be recognized reliably, must be omitted. Education is achieved by deliberately conveying knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another. It is said to be one of the fundamental building blocks for human development.

In the era of internationalization and globalization, the communication between different cultures is becoming increasingly important. It presents a local level with an increasingly multicultural, a regional multinational institutions and cooperation in international organizations with transcontinental -world, as well as in cyberspace. The term intercultural communication has been widely used in many different areas, and fields (Samovar et al, 2005, pp. 236). There are numerous EFL students and teachers everywhere around the world. Language is the bridge which creates easy communication between individuals. If the teacher and student do not understand each other language then, the ...