Japanese intercultural communication competence and cross-cultural adjustment

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between language and communication skills and patterns of success and failure in the cross-cultural adjustment of Japanese university students. Seven interpersonal communication skills which were selected by Ruben and Kealey as important to cross-cultural adjustment were examined: empathy, respect, role behavior flexibility, orientation to knowledge, interaction posture, interaction management, and tolerance for ambiguity. Besides these skills, language was taken into consideration as a major component influencing Japanese intercultural communication. The behavioral assessment method developed by Ruben was utilized to measure communicative performance and behaviors of Japanese university students who visited the United States for 4 weeks for their English training. In order to assess the language skills of these individuals, listening, speaking, structure and written expression, and vocabolary and reading comprehension skills were measured. At the end of their stay in the United States, the dimensions of culture shock, psychological adjustment, and interactional effectiveness were examined. Comparisons of pre- and post-test measures indicated that six out of the seven communication behaviors observed in the Japanese students did not predict success or failure in adjustment to the United States. Only ambiguity tolerance yielded correlation with culture shock. However, speaking and listening skills were closely correlated with interactional effectiveness.