Evaluating Intercultural Sensibility in Compulsory Secondary Education: The Case of Salamanca (Spain)

Intercultural Communication Competence And Intercultural Sensitivity

Because of this, it is vital to develop certain skills, such as intercultural communication competence and intercultural sensitivity.

Chen & Starosta (1996) presented five trends important for a global society in which intercultural communication competence becomes a required ability for a sensible citizenship in the 21st century (Chen, 1997): first of all, the development of communication and transportation technology links people of different cultural backgrounds all around the world, the globalization of world economy requires employees to communicate with those in other parts of the world, also, the widespread population migrations across national borders have drastically changed the “structure” of a much more culturally diverse society, that diversity is responsible for the development of multiculturalism that helps to understand people who are different in race, culture, age, gender, and language, and, lastly, the de-emphasis of nation-state had led nations people to reaffirm gender and ethnic differences inside the country.