Pixel International Conferences

Efficient communication is the basis for person’s satisfaction with mutually beneficial relationships in personal, academic and professional fields. To be efficient in today’s global cross-cultural encounters citizens need plurilingual and pluricultural communicative competences which include not only linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic domains but intercultural awareness and skills. However, students who aim at developing their plurilingual competences at higher education institutions often exhibit communication apprehension, fear of speaking, anxiety of public speaking, fear communication breakdowns, miscommunication and failure in general and thus face difficulties in using languages in real life situations. The study aimed, firstly, at identifying if intercultural communication apprehension is a hindrance for efficient plurilingual competence acquisition and development and, secondly, if conscious and planned attention to affective domain during the language learning classes and employment of five categories (receiving, responding, valuing, organizing and characterizing) of affective domain, as discerned by Bloom, can assist language learners in developing their higher self-confidence and defeat of fear, thus ensuring the acquisition of fluent and accurate plurilingual and pluricultural communication skills which, consequently, lead to more successful communication. The study used quantitative and qualitative research methods: two research instruments (Communication Apprehension Survey (Neuliep, 2012) and Intercultural Communication Apprehension Survey (Neuliep & McCroskey, 2000)) were employed to identify students’ communication apprehension. The research respondents (n=114) were students of English for Intercultural Communication (C1 level according to CEFR, 2001) who studied the course in 2018-2020. The analysis of students’ narratives (n=67) on their fear of public communication, anxiety and lack of self-confidence as well as the impact of open discussions and inter-cultural communication awareness raising provide promising results in favor of acknowledgement of fears of communication and explicit communication apprehension defeat training during the language classes. The conclusion is drawn that recognition of intercultural communication apprehension as a natural human feature which can be managed and explicit training in how to deal with intercultural communication breakdowns can lead to more successful acquisition of plurilingual and pluricultural competences and ensure higher motivation and learning satisfaction of language learners.

Keywords: Plurilingual and pluricultural competences, intercultural communication apprehension, affective domain.

References:

[1] Coopman, S. J., & Lull, J. (2012). Public Speaking: The Evolving Art (2nd ed.) Wadsworth.
[2] Coste, D., Moore, D. & Zarate, G. (2009). Plurilingual and Pluricultural Competence. Language Policy Division, Strasbourg.
[3] McCroskey, J. C. (2001). An introduction to rhetorical communication. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
[4] Neuliep, J.W. (2014). Intercultural Communication. A contextual approach. (6th ed.). SAGE Publications,
[5] Neuliep,J.W & McCroskey, C. J. (1997). The development of inter-cultural and interethnic communication apprehension scales. In Communication Research Reports, 14, pp. 385-398.