A Mixed Method Study of International English Major Students’ Success in Intercultural Communication Encounters

This study seeks to recognize the International English major students’successin intercultural communicative encounters, and investigates the factors influencing it. Accordingly, the study employs the paradigm of mixed-method research, in which it comprises a qualitative phase followed by a quantitative phase, in which the design of the study draws on findings of the first phase of the study. The participants of the two studies are 30 undergraduate English major students in their third year atKhorasgan University in Isfahan, Iran, and 30international ESL students in their firstyear at Gonzaga University, in Washington,U.S.A. The studies were conducted in September- December 2016. The analysis of the data includes qualitative content analysis for the first phase of the study, and descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analyses for the second phase. The results reveal that participants have diverse ideas on how to define an intercultural encounter, but they indicate similar signs of intercultural awareness in the situations they describe. Most significantly, the analysis of the narrative accounts reveals that students’ intercultural performance is greatly influenced by cognitive, affective and contextual factors. The findings of the statistical analysis indicate that the most important individual difference variables directly influencing students’ intercultural communicative competence are their communication apprehension and their perceived communicative competence. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher suggests implications for improving students’ intercultural communicative competence and defines further directions for research on the construct.