An Empirical Study on the Current Situation of Intercultural Communication Competence in English Reading Teaching in Secondary Vocational Schools

Abstract

With the economic globalization, intercultural communication is becoming more and more frequent. To communicate with people of different cultural backgrounds effectively and appropriately, people need intercultural communication competence. The National Medium and Long-Term Plan for Education Reform and Development (2010-2020) points out that it is necessary “to train a large number of international talents”; English Curriculum Standards for Secondary Vocational Schools (2018) makes it clear that “one of the tasks of English course for secondary vocational school is to equip students with intercultural communication competence in daily life and professional situations”. Most studies on intercultural communication competence are aimed at college students and senior high school students, and there are few studies on secondary vocational school students. In addition, there are few empirical studies on intercultural communication competence training in English reading teaching in secondary vocational schools in China. So, it is necessary to take this as a starting point to conduct empirical study on intercultural communication competence training in secondary vocational schools. This study adopts a combination of quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods to investigate the current situation of intercultural communication competence among secondary vocational students. Questionnaires and student interviews are adopted to collect and analyze data.