Intercultural Collaboration in Group Work at Chinese Universities

摘要

The empirical work on intercultural communication issues at university settings have mainly focused on the minority cul-tural groups and the majority groups are usually neglected. Most Chinese scholars are engaged in the development of cross-cultural communication competence of the Chinese EFL learners, the few researches on intercultural relations in Chinese universities are al-so on the international students. To compare the attitudes and motivations of both the International Students in China (ISCs) and the Chinese Home Students (CHSs) in intercultural collaboration (IC) in the group work, group discussion and questionnaire survey are employed. Survey of the 445 CHSs and 87 ISCs show that the IC environment at Chinese universities is far from satisfactory. Those who have IC experiences find they have encountered difficulties in adapting to each other's language, race, religion, agenda, etc. Chinese students'language difficulty is regarded both groups as the first obstacle in their collaboration, but personality is the first concern in their choice of a workmate. Neither language proficiency nor IC courses are significant factor in their motivation for IC involvement. What they want most is the real collaboration opportunities and programs. The findings may provide some reference for Chinese universities in their construction of international and intercultural campus environment.