A Reexamination of Swedish and American College Students’ Communicative Attributes

Abstract

This study examines the extent to which Swedish (n = 103) and American (n = 113) college students’ cultural background influences their communicative attributes. Students’ communication apprehension, self-perceived communication competence, willingness to communicate, out-of-class communication with instructors, in-class participation, and motives for communicating with their instructors were examined. Results of MANOVA tests indicate that American college students are more willing to communicate, perceive themselves as more communicatively competent, participate more in class, and are more motivated to communicate with their instructors for relational, functional, excuse-making, participatory, and sycophantic reasons. However, students’ communication apprehension and out-of-class communication with their instructors did not differ between the two cultures.

Keywords:

• Communication Traits
• Culture
• Hofstede
• Motives
• Sweden

Notes

Note

[1] The questionnaires used in this study were not translated for the Swedish sample. Several classes offered at the Swedish university where the data were collected are taught in English, and at least 20 percent of the course literature is in English. Moreover, two of the classes in which data were collected were English classes, and all students were instructed to ask the researcher for clarification in the event they did not understand the questionnaire.