Does Intercultural Communication Competence Really Matter Among Malaysian Undergraduates?

Abstract

Positive social interaction is a crucial facet in maintaining a harmonious state among multicultural society in Malaysia. There is no doubt that Malaysians play an important role in reducing conflict among ethnics, fostering unity among their own ethnicity and others as well. Understanding and accepting the differences are the vitals intercultural integration process. Huge responsibility is being placed on universities to ensure the cultivation of intercultural unity among multiracial students. Thus, it has become an important task for the universities to educate students to be interculturally competent. Individuals with intercultural communication competence possess high consciousness about themselves and high desire to learn as much as possible about individuals who speak different language and have different values and habits. Hence, the importance of intercultural communication competence among undergraduates cannot, and should not be undermined. Incorporated by Anxiety/uncertainty management (AUM) theory, the present study intends to investigate the impact of three factors, anxiety, uncertainty, and ethnocentrism which could possibly hamper the attainment of intercultural communication competence. Data collected from 457 respondents were analysed using SPSS software using online survey design. The study revealed a moderate negative correlation between all three independent variables and the dependent variables. Anxiety, uncertainty, and ethnocentrism negatively affect intercultural communication competence among Malaysian undergraduates. Higher the anxiety, uncertainty, and ethnocentrism, lower the level of intercultural communication competence.