A Reexamination of Swedish and American College Students’ Communicative Attributes

Abstract

This study examines the extent to which Swedish (n = 103) and American (n = 113) college students’ cultural background influences their communicative attributes. Students’ communication apprehension, self-perceived communication competence, willingness to communicate, out-of-class communication with instructors, in-class participation, and motives for communicating with their instructors were examined. Results of MANOVA tests indicate that American college students are more willing to communicate, perceive themselves as more communicatively competent, participate more in class, and are more motivated to communicate with their instructors for relational, functional, excuse-making, participatory, and sycophantic reasons. However, students’ communication apprehension and out-of-class communication with their instructors did not differ between the two cultures.