International Students’ Intercultural Sensitivity and Intercultural Communication Competence in Malaysia

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Introduction
Malaysia, which lies in the south East Asia, has become a centre of education in the Asian region thanks to its affordable and quality education for international students (Aziz and Abdullah, 2018).
Malaysia's rich cultural diversity is something that foreign students will gain from however they have faced challenges in their intercultural communication.Intercultural communication is an important aspect of lives of many people who travel and relate with individuals from other cultural backgrounds different from their own.This aspect of communication enables people to achieve desired ambitions, accomplish tasks and also form relationships. Ameli and Molaei (2012) found that one of the main factors that affect successful communication is the idea of intercultural competence.Accordingly, intercultural competence is an essential factor in facilitating improved contact with different people from other cultures as well as strengthening close relations (Coffey, Kamhawi, Fishwick, & Henderson 2013).
Earlier studies by Hall (1959) pioneered the development of intercultural communication as a conception of communication.Futhermore, according to Chi and Suthers (2015), one must concentrate on improving and recognizing various cultures as well as maintaining a healthy learning attitude with other cultures in order to gain intercultural communication competence.In addition, a number of researchers assessed this concept from various viewpoints.From previous literature on intercultural communication being a wide scope of study however not much exists regarding intercultural communication competence and intercultural sensitivity.
As a result, this study aims to provide more information and add to this analysis by analyzing the intercultural sensitivity and intercultural communication competence of international students in Malaysia, with a primary emphasis on those at International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM).

Problem statement
The intercultural communication phenomenon has been widely studied and therefore not a very new aspect of interaction in existing research.Therefore, this study is set out to explore the connection between intercultural communication competence and intercultural sensitivity.Additionally, the current study addresses the problem of intercultural communication competence (ICC) and intercultural sensitivity of international students, in addition to the significance of the relationship between ICC and intercultural sensitivity.This study examines, whether a significant relationship exists between intercultural and intercultural sensitivity communication competence among international students studying at IIUM.Although ia inumber iof istudies ion icommunication icompetence ifound ithat iinternational istudents iare iless iwilling ito icommunicate, ifew istudies iexist ion ithe irelationship ibetween iintercultural icommunication icompetence iand iintercultural isensitivity iamong iinternational istudents iin ihigher iinstitutions iof ilearning iin iMalaysia.iAdditionally, ithe istudy iwill iexplore iif ithere iis ilow ior ihigh iintercultural icommunication icompetence ibased ion iexamining iintercultural isensitivity.

Research Objectives
1. To find out the relationship between intercultural sensitivity and intercultural communication competence among international students.2. To examine the level of intercultural communication competence among international students.
3. To find out the level of intercultural sensitivity among international students.

Research questions
1. What is the relationship between intercultural sensitivity and intercultural communication competence among international students?2. What is the level of intercultural communication competence among international students?3. What is the level of intercultural sensitivity among international students?

Significance of the study
This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge regarding intercultural communication competence and intercultural sensitivity through the framework of anxiety and uncertainty management theory.As will be noted in the literature review, much of the studies in the areas of intercultural communication competence and sensitivity are from countries outside Malaysia.
Therefore, there is minimal research on the issue of intercultural communication among International students in Malaysia.Therefore.The paper attempts to fill the gap in the area of intercultural communication competence and sensitivity among international students in Malaysia.
The study will look at the intercultural communication experiences by international students with particular attention to the perspective of gender, age, cultural and ethnic identity concepts among other things: how do international students experience intercultural opportunities while staying in Malaysia?What is happening to them, their level of education, their Malaysian friends, cultural and ethnic mentality and values?How far do they go in adapting to their new environment?
In terms of practical implications, the research hopes to provide governments and institutions of learning in Malaysia insight into how they can best handle international students upon their arrival in Malaysia and help them adapt to the Malaysian culture and norms in order for them to fit in the society.

Intercultural Sensitivity
Intercultural sensitivity is among the vital practical and cultural dimensions that are characterized by action as an outcome of encountering individuals who come from different cultures.Chen and Starosta (1997), who conceded that intercultural sensitivity is basically a deep-rooted aspect of intercultural communication competence that is supported by being receptive, self-esteem, empathy, no bias, active interaction, and self-awareness.These six components thus supported the findings of (Chen and Starosta, 1997) for individuals who have intercultural sensitivity.Furthermore, (Bosuwon, 2017) speficically identified attitude and sensitivity to have a siginifcant part in determining the interculural senstivity and intercultural competence of individuals.Bhawuk and Brislin (1992) also noticed that intercultural sensitivity is literally the behavioral way people willingly respond during interactions with persons of other cultures.Thus international students' interactive reaction is essential in order to have effective communication.
During their stay abroad, there noticeable intercultural sensitivity elements international students encounter such as the new experience staying without family, learning different cultures as well as forming relationships with other cultures (Huang 2013).
However, it is important to allow international students freedom to grace themselves naturally in different culture as well as freely be sensitive and accept new practices.Besides acknowleldging different cultures, international students inability to be communicate is due to their poor interculural sensitivity as well as poor intergration with the existing different cultures to embrace global education (Rizvi and Lingard 2010).
According to (Chen and Starosta 2000), to attain intercultural competence individuals should be having desired level of intercultural sensitivity.

Intercultural Communication Competence (ICC)
Catteeuw ( 2012) established that knowledge, attitude and skills are the three major core components of intercultural communication competence.Thus having these three elements enables improve the ability of individuals to be respectful of the existing cultural differences, handle situations with flexibility and improvement in awareness when interacting with people.
Intercultural communication greatly influences interpersonal communication and may lead to an interpersonal conflict when talking to persons from different cultures (Shupe, 2007).To avoid these conflicts that's why international students ought to improve their intercultural communication skills.
Sarwari & Wahab (2017), noticed that intercultural communication competence occurs when people have ability to freely listen and speak properly with individuals from other cultures.Furthermore, Shupe (2007) elaborated that intercultural communication competence gets better with social adaptation to foreign cultures in intercultural settings.
Similarly, intercultural communication skills symbolize an individual's behavioral trait in their intercultural competency skills; it is thus more elaborated as the ability to achieve communication goals in intercultural communications when dealing with new cultures (Chen & Starosta, 1996).
A growing significance indicates that both intercultural communication competence and indeed intercultural sensitivity are primary key factors helping people engage in successful intercultural interactions, and this is line with academic contribution to this study.

Anxiety uncertainty management theory (AUM)
Introduced by William B. Gudykunst (1985) as a move to extend Berger and Calabrese's (1975) uncertainty reduction theory, Gudykunst aimed at explaining the reduction of uncertainty in different intercultural societies as the first step in developing anxiety/uncertainty management (AUM) theory.
The itheory iproposes, ithat iefficiency iof icommunication iis ia ifunction iof ian iindividual's icapabilities ito imanage itheir ilevel iof iuncertainty iand ianxiety.iIdeally, ithe ieffect iof iuncertainty iand ianxiety ion ieffectiveness iof icommunication iis iexamined iin itwo irelationships ithat istrangers iand iclose ifriends iand iMalaysian iand iforeign istudents' icultures iin ithe ipresent istudy.i A ichapter iin iWiseman 's i(2002)  decisionmaking, getting along with strangers and behavior interactions.Neuliep ( 2012), further elaborated that in intercultural communicaton, strangers experience feeling on uncertainty and anxiety.This specifically comes from lack of ability to predict the behaviors, emotions, opinions, values and actions of strangers explains that high levels of anxiety are also felt when one worries that others will not get the response one seeks.Therefore, positive behaviors in these aspects assist reduce the uncertainty of others as well as their anxiety (Gudykunst, 2005).
Critiques like Yoshitake (2002) argue, that AUM theory has been used in a number of first-hand studies over the years (Duronto, Nishida, & Nakayama, 2005;Ni & Wang, 2011) and that after research modern measurements will be implemented on a variety of other occasions.
A number of studies show both anxiety uncertainty management (AUM) theory and uncertainty reduction theory as enablers of efficiency of communication amongst individuals from different cultural and social backgrounds.Furthermore, the theory postulates that through uncertainty and anxiety management, people can adapt to a different cultural environment (Gudykunst, 2005).This imposes a huge benefit to international students to participate in the process of sharing and knowing about new cultures.
Therefore, AUM was appropriate for this study because it has been widely tested and used in several similar studies to the present.The researcher there managed to distinguish intercultural sensitivity and intercultural communication competence using the anxiety uncertainty management theory (AUM).

H2:
There is a high level of intercultural sensitivity among international students in IIUM.

H3:
There is a high level if intercultural communication competence among international students in IIUM.

Methodology Research Design
The study particularly uses the quantitative research design using survey method to facilitate the data collection process in obtaining large sets of data in a short time.Quantitative design enables more practical approach, it's convenient, saves time and efficient (Creswell, 2009).

Population and sample
The population of the study comprised of International students in Malaysia.International students at International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) were chosen as the sample population because they are related to the subject of the study and they often practice intercultural sensitivity as well as intercultural communication competence with other students from the different cultures and backgrounds.Thus, they were appropriate to reflect the accurate results for the study.

Intercultural communication competence
A sample size of 300 responses were obtained through a convenient non-random sampling, where the population was chosen according to convence and high number of itnernsioal students the study.Permissions were sought from the respondents themselves before and after collection of the data through the survey questionnaire.

Data collection instrument
Survey questionnaire was the preferred technique for data collection.The survey was conducted in two months starting on 11 th November up to 30 th December 2019.Then the data was then computed for analysis.
The questionnaire used for data collection was divided into three sections (A, B and C).Section A features demographic information about the respondents.Section B shows intercultural sensitivity measured by Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS) adopted from (Chen & Starosta, 2000) with 14 items.Section C measures intercultural communication competence with 24 items by asking respondents how they communicate with their other international students during their daily studies and conversations both in class and outside.

Validity and reliability
A pilot study (N=30) was conducted before the actual study to measure the quality and flow and of the questions in the survey, and identifies any problems faced by the respondents.The questionnaire was also evaluated and acknowledged by an expert in the field of intercultural communication.
Reliability tests were carried out on all the items; each of items in the questionnaire was tested and verified against Cronbach's alpha of .70 to show the reliability of the variables.Table 1 illustrates that the results confirm internal cohesiveness and consistency of the research variables with Cronbach alpha values of .752. 5 iLikert iscale iranging ifrom i1 i= iStrongly idisagree, i2 i= idisagree, i3 i= islightly iagree, i4 i= iAgree, iand i5 i= istrongly iagree.i i

Demographic statistics of respondents
From the target population, a sample of 300 respondents was analyzed for this research.Table 2 below illustrates the details of demographics of the respondents.The sample comprised of international students from IIUM Gombak campus.Females were slightly more than a half of the sample (52.7%) compared to that of males (47.3%).Meanwhile 46.3 % of respondents fell in the age group of 18 and 25, closely followed by those less than 18 at 37.7 % and the least between 25 and 35 with just 16%.Most respondents had stayed in Malaysia for 2 -3 years with 43% then a close gap between those who stayed for 0 -1 year and 1 -2 years with 18.0% and 17.7 % respectively.
A slight more than a half at 51% of respondents were at master's level, 41.7% from degree and a few from PhD (7.3%).

Intercultural sensitivity
One sample t-test was run to test the level of intercultural sensitivity of international students in Malaysia.Table 3 reveals, that 87.8 % respondents interact with other people from different cultures as illustrated with item S2.1 with (M = 4.39, SD = 0.668) and the item with the lowest means being S2.15 (M = 2.1767, SD = 1.22357) meaning, that students do not feel useless when interacting with people from different cultures.However, two items were not significant, item S2.19 that says (I am sensitive to my culturally distinctive counterpart's subtle meanings during our interaction) with a t-value of 1.776(p = .077)and item S2.22 (Avoid situation where I have to deal with culturally distinctive situations) with a negative t-value of -.926(p = .355).Generally, the overall intercultural sensitivity of international students illustrates a significant t-value of 9.125 (p = .000),which means that the largest share of the sample 66.2 % (M = 3.31, SD = .58844)demonstrates a high level of intercultural sensitivity among international students.Thus, this result also indicates, that most items are positively related.Hence supporting H2, which stipulates that there is a high level of intercultural sensitivity among international students in IIUM.

Conclusion
The objective of this research was to evaluate the relationship between intercultural sensitivity and intercultural communication competence (ICC) amongst international students in Malaysia.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.A conceptual framework for intercultural sensitivity and intercultural communication competence for the study.Hypotheses H1: There is a relationship between Intercultural sensitivity and intercultural communication competence among international students in IIUM.
ibook ion iintercultural icommunication icompetence i"Handbook iof iThis study is applying AUM theory to emphasize uncertain and anxiety toward intercultural sensitivity and intercultural communication competence.In his advanced study,Gudykunst (2005)described seven factors that envisage a person's uncertainty and anxiety levels while communicating with people from other cultures for the first time; interest to communicate with strangers, self-confidence, reactions to strangers, social classification of strangers, ethical

Table 2
Demographic statistics of the respondents

Table 3
One sample t-test for intercultural sensitivity Table4below illustrates results obtained from one sample t-test for international student's level of intercultural communication competence.The highest level of response is for item S3.1 (I am comfortable interacting with people from different cultures).Here, 85.3% of respondents are in agreement (M = 4.2667, SD = 0.85518).The item with lowermost mean is item S3.6 (M = 2.44, SD = 1.29821).The general levels of intercultural communication competence of international students in IIUM have a high significant t value of 10.388 (p = .000)with an average of 67.2% of