Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in an Intercultural Communication Competence Research Name: Jing Zheng Student No.: 1904139 Abstract: This article aims to discuss the feasibility of using quantitative and qualitative method to investigate the impact of the foreign teachers on developing and improving intercultural communication competence (hereinafter referred as ICC) of business English major students in China. On the bases of a comparative study of quantitative and qualitative methods, the strength and weakness of both methods are explicitly presented. After the analysis of the intercultural communication competence research context and the detailed explanation of research purpose, methodology and procedure, the article states the possibility of doing the research with the qualitative method. The compatibility of qualitative method to the ICC research may prove the positive effects of foreign teachers in intercultural classes and therefore promote the improvement of students’ ICC as well as teachers’ teaching model. Key Words: intercultural communication competence (ICC), quantitative method, qualitative method, foreign teacher 1 Introduction 1.1 The Context of ICC Research With the rapid development of globalization and information technology, cultural diversity and international economic exchange have involved more and more people into intercultural communication. This trend causes corresponding changes in education orientation and strategy. Nowadays Chinese universities are witnessing a rapid growth of cultural diversity on campus and in a need of studying abroad among students. While language teachers of the past had the role of teaching their students how to speak correctly and thus acquire language competence in the respective foreign language, nowadays they take more and more the role of cultural mediators developing intercultural communication skills with their students (A. Hamburg, 2011). 1.2 The Significance of ICC Research Business English major in China was established to educate and train university graduates with high level English language ability, professional business backgrounds and good intercultural communication competence. The education authority calls for great importance of ICC course to business English major curriculum. Some courses relevant to intercultural communication are brought into the curriculum. The basic and essential courses include Intercultural Communication, International Business Culture and Etiquettes, Western Culture and International Negotiation. The benefit of studying abroad have been surveyed and researched by many scholars in recent years, which promote the international exchange of students in universities in China. The current economic and social condition in central and west area in china are not equipped well with enough funds and facilities to exchange students with universities in foreign countries. The utility of foreign teachers have not been explored completely to improve students’ intercultural competence at junior and senior grade. Andrea Hamburg, in her article The role of foreign language teachers in developing students’ intercultural communication skills, presents a research of studying the roles of foreign language teachers roles in developing students intercultural communication ability. She also proposes some useful class activities such as simulation games to promote the effect of foreign teacher in intercultural class. The future study this article wants to probe into is to test the impact of foreign teachers on developing ICC of Business English major students in central China. In developing intercultural competence one has to go through different stages from awareness, through acquiring knowledge and skills, up to being motivated to apply intercultural skills when dealing with foreigners. The first stage refers to the state of being conscious of the fact that people from different cultures might think, react and live differently from what one is accustomed to. This awareness combined with acceptance shows that one has passed the ethnocentric phase (Bennett, 1986). Therefore, the future study of my ICC research will focus on the three dimensions, namely cognitive, affective and behavioral aspects. 1.3 The Structure of the Paper The paper is to review the strength and weakness of the quantitative method and qualitative method and then discuss their application into a case of ICC research. The ICC research object, content and methodology of the case are to be analyzed in details for evaluating the compatibility and validity of the qualitative or the qualitative method. A selection of the specific research method will be determined in the conclusion part to sum up the feasibility of the method to be adopted in further study of the case. 2 Quantitative and Qualitative Methods 2.1 Quantitative Method 2.1.1 Definitions Quantitative strategies or quantitative methods have often involved complex experiments and variables. In natural and social sciences, and sometimes in other fields, quantitative research is the systematic empirical investigation of observable phenomena via statistical, mathematical, or computational techniques ( Given, Lisa M, 2008). Survey research and experimental research are typical quantitative methods. Quantitative research is “explaining phenomena by collecting numerical data that are analysed using mathematically based methods (in particular statistics).”Qualitative research seeks to answer questions about why and how people behave in the way that they do. It provides in-depth information about human behaviour. 2.1.2 Strengths and Weaknesses The quantitative method is widely applied in scientific and social research due to its obvious strengths. The first advantage of quantitative method is that it can provide descriptive data, which allow researchers know the overall situation. With the development of computer technology and innovation of statistics analysis software, a large number of qualitative analysis can be conducted by computer, which reduces the cost of labor. The second advantage is the result concluded from quantitative method is concise and general. It adopts empirical paradigm, which utilizes quantized methods to represent phenomenon with statistical and numerical facts. The purpose of quantitative method is to look into the relationships between the variables, cause and effect in the phenomenon. It helps researchers to gain macro information. The subjective statistics ensure the reliability of quantitative method. Thirdly, quantitative method has a potential to pursue larger number of samples, more significant difference and larger totality in order to realize objectivity and reliability of repetition. Fourthly, the result of the quantitative method is oneness. It has low risk getting a different result. The design and process of quantitative method will ensure the same result of the research, even if the research is conducted by different researchers. The facts measured are usually the objective numbers, and researchers can be independent to do the research as outsiders. The objects in the research may get less influence from the researchers and process. By increasing the number of samples of quantitative research, researchers can increase the effect of the research. However, there is a limit amount for researchers to make explicit, above which the result will make no sense. On this condition, you need to know the limit and its relation with the research result. The test of the limit will cause more time and other input. The second weakness lies in its objectivity. The research environment is controlled by researchers, and it cause difficulty in communication between researchers and participants because researchers try to stay away from the participant to get a relatively un-interfered atmosphere. Third disadvantage is the process of the research process. Quantitative research process is linear. The linear is a stubborn process, which is direct, single and lacking in flexibility. Finally quantitative method does not tell you why, because the statistics cannot tell you the reasons. For researchers it is a big challenge to conduct quantitative method. The analysis and interpretation of a large amount of data require researchers to understand the nature of the statistics. 2.2 Qualitative Method 2.2.1 Definition Qualitative research is a scientific method of observation to gather non-numerical data (Babbie, Earl, 2014). There are viable ways to conduct qualitative research: ethnography, grounded theory, case studies, phenomenological research, and narrative research. Qualitative researchers seem particularly vulnerable to the tendency-and urge-to go beyond reporting what is and to use their studies as platforms for making pronouncements of what ought to be. The more the problem seems to call for systematic data collection, reporting and analysis, the more the research would seem to call for a quantitative approach (Herry F. Wolcott, 113). Qualitative method is opposite strategy to quantitative method. With qualitative method, researchers aim to find out the trend from the statistics instead of analyzing the features of statistics. Its objective it to expositive elucidate, interpret and predict the truth of the real world. Namely, it is to use the data and material obtained from interview, documents and participant-observation to experience and explain social phenomenon. It often works with induction approach. The emphasis of quantitative method lies in the understanding and description of the reality then the opinions come out from the observation, which is vise verse to controlling the variables and then figure out the answers to the hypothesis. Researchers need to verify continually the statistics from successive qualitative researches. You need to justify the number of participants for a qualitative study. It depends on: research approach chosen, recommendations made by qualitative researchers, homogeneity of participants’ background, accessibility of participants, attainability of saturation, availability of time and resources, adequacy of the potential data to address the research questions. 2.2.2 Strengths and Weaknesses The qualitative method is conducted in the uncontrolled environment, what the researchers undertake is field experiment, interview, observation, documentation and case study. These activities are characterized as long time and deep perspective study. They are convenient to carry on and provide opportunities for close communication between researchers and participants. The advantages of qualitative method include the rich and vivid material from the research. Another advantage is it spares a space for researchers to interpret the phenomenon and stimulate their creativity. Qualitative method crate opportunities for researchers to have close observation on participants, which is beneficial to researchers for they can observe and understand interpretation. Therefore, the design of the research methods can be diverse and flexible. The process is subjective and repeatable. There is a large space for exposition and illustration. Personnel in the research play vital roles of data generating and collecting, which stimulate the innovative and creative spirit of the researchers. Qualitative method also bears some limitation. First, it cost high human labor to record and transfer the data due to its direct data collecting mode such as participant observation and interview. It is hard to be duplicated or repeated. The major tool of qualitative method is actually the researchers themselves; therefore, the result of the research is highly affected by the researchers. Second, the data collecting is made by certain specific researchers and participants are chosen within certain scope, which cause a relatively limited recognition of the research field. Furthermore, the subjective description and interpretation made by the researchers increase the hardship of being accepted by wide public. Fourthly, under qualitative condition, the result varies according to different researchers. The representation and validity of the research will gain more doubt from the public. The data obtained from the qualitative method is not processed and analysed by statistic models, therefore, the result form the data unable to offer quantitative information. 3 Research Design 3.1 Research Topic and Title The research is to be carried on in the business English major in Jiangxi Science and Technology Normal University. The university is located in the central area of China. The city around the university is a second line city. Its economy and international level is still developing. Business English major was founded in the university in the year of 2016. Teachers and researchers are working on the teaching modes and methods to develop and improve students’ intercultural communications competence. In the course of Intercultural Communication in year three, a foreign teacher is going to teach the lesson, which is given by a local Chinese teacher. My future study is to investigate and study the impact of the foreign teacher on students’ ICC improvement. The title of the research is: on the Impact of Foreign Teachers on ICC Improvement of Business English Major Students. 3.2 Research Purpose The research objectives are to know, analyze and evaluate the impact of foreign teachers on the development of ICC of business English major students. The aim of the research is to promote the improvement of students’ ICC and help teachers modify and improve teaching mode and method. 3.3 Research Question and Hypothesis The research attempts to answer the following three questions: (1) Can the foreign teachers make a positive impact on students’ ICC improvement? (2) How do foreign teachers make impact on students’ performance? (3) In what aspects do the students are influenced? (4) What can be done to enhance foreign teachers influence on students’ performance? The design and execution of the research is based on the hypothesis that the roles and functions the foreign teachers plays in course lead to a favorable effect on students’ ICC improvement. 3.4 Research Theory 3.4.1 Definition of ICC Intercultural communication competence is a range of cognitive, affective, and behavioural skills that lead to effective and appropriate communication with people of other cultures. There are three dimensions of ICC. Cognitive skills refer to the knowledge of different cultures and acquisition skills of culture related knowledge in and out of class. Affective competence is the ability to manage one’s attitudes and control one’s emotion. We choose the definition which is proposed by William B. Gudykunst (2007): “intercultural communication competence involves the knowledge, motivation and skills to interact effectively and appropriately with members of different cultures”. On the base of above theory and recent studies, in this research, the three components of ICC are clarified as intercultural attitudes, intercultural knowledge and intercultural behaviors. 3.4.2 Objectives of Teaching Mode by Foreign Teachers The specific teaching objectives of foreign-teacher-oriented classes should be clarified in the following five aspects: Firstly, students enhance their listening ability through inputting given by the foreign teacher, who is the native English speaker; Secondly, students learn authentic oral expressions in the interaction with foreign teacher such as some slang, which will benefit them a lot in improving their spoken language; Thirdly students realize the cultural difference between target culture and Chinese culture and understanding the reasons of the culture difference when they learn and discuss in the class; Fourthly students develop and improve intercultural awareness when they exposed to the typical English teaching style which enhance their knowledge gained from the text materials; Finally students improve their skills of intercultural communication during their interaction with foreign teachers as well as the learning instruction process given by the foreign teacher. 3.5 Research Methodology The survey is conducted in the form of observation and questionnaire. Observation is to be executed by research in the course of Intercultural Communication. Therefore, a qualitative approach is utilized to explore students’ reflection on their learning experience in Intercultural Communication class given by a foreign teacher. This approach is provided in this research to give a straight way to show students feeling and gaining. By this approach, we may get a descriptive result to show and prove the positive effect of foreign teachers’ role in class. 3.5.1 Questionnaire When designing the questionnaire, keep in mind when we ask students to complete the questionnaire, what we will get is a pile of data but certainly the kind of data we want and need in order to answer our research questions. When using questionnaire, keep in mind what data do I want my questionnaire to give me; that is, which of my research questions should it answer? The key is which questions do aim at answering my research questions? Remember to use open versus closed questions and multiple item responses. In this research, the questionnaire is divided into three parts, respectively responding to the intercultural attitudes, intercultural knowledge and intercultural behavior. It totally has 30 questions. In the survey part, 40 questionnaires are to be distributed. All participants are anonymous subjects. 3.5.2 Observation The researcher observes ongoing activities in class. First advantage is that it allows the researcher to get a holistic view of what language is used and how communication is conducted in an interactive context. Another advantage of observation is that it is comparatively easy to administer. You need not to control or direct the process. Indeed, by using prerecorded or broadcast material, you can avoid many of the practical difficulties of data collection (Wray, A, 187). Be sure of precisely what you are looking for from what you are going to observe. Try to ensure that you are looking for something that is likely to occur reasonably often. The selection of the observation time, the pre communication with the participants, and preparation of the observation are to be well organized. Remember you are the observer. Do not try to control and manipulate. The teaching and learning process is to be designed and controlled by the foreign teacher. In this research, observation is conducted by researcher for three times: at the begging of the term, in the middle of the term and at the end of the term. A observation list is produced to record students attitudes and behaviors during teaching and learning interaction. Teachers’ tactics concerning intercultural communication are the emphasis for observation. Videos are to be made during observation for further study and double checking of the hand notes. 3.6 Ethical Considerations Ethical application will be preceded by the researchers with the authority in the university. Confidentiality and anonymity of the questionnaire are to be assured. Observation is to be conducted by researchers who have not taught and assessed participants’ academic performance. Participants’ rights and privacy are protected against any risks arising from participating in this research. 3.7 Research Procedure 3.7.1 Questionnaire Designing a questionnaire is the first step of the research. Designing a questionnaire plays vital role in doing this qualitative research. When framing the questions of the questionnaire, researchers should keep in mind five basic principles. First, questions must be simple and unambiguous. Be careful not to embed more than one point in a question. It is possible for each point to get a different answer and puzzle the respondents of the questionnaire. Second, when providing choices of the answers, make sure that the choices cover all the possibilities. Try to image that you are the respondent and you may try to find an answer that meet your situations. Third, remember to begin the questionnaire with easy questions, so that the respondents may feel very well to getting on the questions. If there are some hard or time-consuming questions, tick them out. Otherwise, you would better put a statement before the question such as: The following two questions require slightly more detailed answers. This indicates to the respondent the nature of the new task and how much of the answer the researcher needs. Four, there is one technique to design one or two cross-referencing questions, in which you ask in different words or expressions for the same information as in the previous question. By this way, the reliability of the response to the questionnaire can be improved. Finally, make sure all relevant questions are included. Too few or too many questions are to be avoided. Be clear about the information you need for the research. In this research, there are three parts of the questionnaire. The first part is to evaluate participants’ intercultural communication attitudes. The questions will be designed to know participants’ willingness and expectation of intercultural communication, such as: Do you have strong will to have intercultural commutation experience or Do you have strong will to have abroad experience. For these questions, four different levels of options are given to the participants: strong will, want to have, refuse to have and not sure. The second part is about participants’ intercultural knowledge, which covers the basic knowledge of traditions, literature, religion and politics of other countries and regions. For example, there is the question: Do you have a good understanding of western non-verbal communication and the four options include having good understanding, knowing a little, knowing nothing, and not sure. The third part is used to investigate participants’ behaviors of intercultural communication. In this part, some questions to self-assess students’ competence in using English can be listed, such as Do you have confidence in speaking to a foreigner and the four options are strong confidence, lack of confidence, no confidence at all and not sure. The class size is 40 students of Business English major. The students are seniors who are at an advanced level of English proficiency. Questionnaires are to be distributed to the same group of 40 students at the end of the semester. Enough time will be given to participants for them to complete the questionnaire. Researchers will explain the significance of answers they reply to the questions. The foreign teacher will be invited to give extra explanation on the questionnaire to the students, which may arouse more careful attention from the students to responding to the questions. 3.7.2 Observation There are some important tips for observation. Make sure how many sessions you want to observe during the experiment and ensure the length time for each session. During each observation, make notes of your feelings and response to participants’ performance. The audio is to be made for each session for documentation. Devise a checklist to frame the intercultural elements. For each element, produce a table or a gram to show and represent the differences among three different sessions. The design and production of table will influence the result of the observation. The table for observation would include the elements of intercultural competence in the three dimensions: cognitive level, affective level and behavior level. The following is a draft table for observation used in each session: Table 1: Observation Checklist Cultural Elements Answering Questions Group Discussion Proposing Questions Pair Work Individual Task Cognitive aspects: cultural knowledge Affective aspects: attitudes Behavioral aspects: involvement At the stage of data analysis, the tables got from the three observations can be merged into one table. Table 2: Observation Summary Sheet Cultural Elements Sessions Answering Questions Group Discussion Proposing Questions Pair Work Individual Task At the beginning of the term Cognitive aspects: cultural knowledge Affective aspects: attitudes Behavioral aspects: involvement In the middle of the term Cognitive aspects: cultural knowledge Affective aspects: attitudes Behavioral aspects: involvement At the end of the term Cognitive aspects: cultural knowledge Affective aspects: attitudes Behavioral aspects: involvement 3.8 Data Analysis Facts, answers and texts from the table and questionnaire are sorted and induced to form a report to represent the result of the research. The report should be a descriptive analysis of the phenomena and relation of ICC. The report should explain in three major parts to prove the relationship of teachers’ roles with the students’ performance. The three parts are: knowledge of ICC, attitudes of ICC and behavior of ICC. The significant performance of students’ improvement may prove the successfulness of the teaching mode by foreign teachers although it needs further investigation in a wide range with a combination of quantitative method and qualitative mehhod. 4 Conclusions The study will hopefully conduct an experiment in Jiangxi Science and Technology Normal University on the participants of 40 Business English major students. Qualitative method is the most desirable research method for this research. The data from questionnaire and observation are to be collected and analyzed to know students attitudes and behaviors of the intercultural communication competence. By doing this we may know the impact of the foreign teachers on the development of students’ intercultural communication competence. Due to the number of the participants, the result may not comprehensive enough to generate a universal and national level applicable strategy. However, for the universities located in central and west areas in China, it is a feasible strategy for them to assign more foreign teachers to teach in classes in order to solve the problems caused by the less opportunities of students to have international experiences. References [1] Babbie, Earl (2014). The Basics of Social Research (6th ed.). Belmont, California: Wadsworth Cengage. 303–04. [2] Bennett, M. (1986). A developmental approach to training intercultural sensitivity. in J. Martin (Guest Ed.), Special Issue on Intercultural Training, International Journal of Intercultural Relations. Vol 10, No.2. 179-186. [3] Given, Lisa M. (2008). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications. [4] Hamburg, A. (2011) Cultural Mediation as Part of Foreign Language Teaching for Business Purposes, Annals of the University of Oradea, Fascicle of Management and Technological Engineering, 5108-5115. [5] Herry F. Wolcott (2009). 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