An Ethnographical Study on the Intercultural Communication Competence (ICC) of Migrant Workers in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Jung-Hsiu Liu, 劉容秀
• Other Authors: I-Chung Ke
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/05738951894425945650

碩士 === 元智大學 === 應用外語學系 === 99 === Intercultural communication competence (ICC) is an increasingly important competence in the 21st century since people have more opportunities to study, work, or live with people from a different cultural background. ICC involves a communication process that communicators usually have awareness in nature of cultures, positive attitudes to other cultures, and then have sufficient background knowledge about different cultures. This research attempts to explore the development of ICC of five migrant workers in Taiwan (three Vietnamese migrant workers and two Thai migrant workers) using participant observation. Intercultural communication process of migrant workers was observed regularly in the work place. In addition, researcher attended their gatherings on Sundays; their intercultural communication process after work was accessed by informal conversations. Semi-structured interviews were used to understand their growth backgrounds and personal experiences; some questions occurred during the observation phase were clarified through these interviews. Results of this research showed that the factors influenced their development of ICC were: internal factors (personality, motivation), target language ability, and external factors (personal experiences, others’ attitude). Internal factors played an important role in the beginning of the development, since personality would influence their development of ICC. Target language ability was a turning point in the development. After migrant workers’ target language ability allowed them to communicate with others in the daily life, their development of ICC would speed up. Further, they dare to communicate with others and explore the outside world more often; they could accumulate their personal experiences and enrich their cultural background knowledge. Finally, local people’s attitude toward these migrant workers would affect their development of ICC. In conclusion, others’ attitude influences ICC very huge. Therefore, this study suggests that: (1) Agencies of introducing migrant workers to Taiwanese employers should offer target language courses to migrant workers before they came to Taiwan. Companies should offer these courses to them in the beginning phase after they came to Taiwan to help these migrant workers pass the turning point quickly. (2) Taiwan’s government should promote esteem for other ethnic groups. (3) For pedagogical implications, the ICC should be cultivated in children. Teachers should help students to understand their own culture, to develop identification about their own culture, and to accept an idea that everyone has different values and norms.