“Bridging Cultures With Love”: Spirituality in Fostering Intercultural Effectiveness. The Effects of Language

Research yields contradictory results on the relationship between an individual’s spirituality, i.e., the relationship with God/the Transcendent, and their cultural development. To address this gap, we conceptualize a model that investigates the effects of two spirituality dimensions, namely felt love for God and love for others, on the behavioral aspect of intercultural competence, i.e., intercultural effectiveness (IE), through ethnocentrism. This model undergoes testing using a sample of 144 international students who self-identify as Christians, Muslims, belonging to other religions, and non-religious. The results confirm the positive impact of spirituality on IE by reducing ethnocentrism. We establish suppressing effects of both love for God and love for others, suggesting intricate dynamics of different spirituality dimensions within the intercultural communication model. Furthermore, we identify direct effects of host language and English as a lingua franca proficiency on IE. We also define the mitigating effect of host language proficiency on the adverse impact of ethnocentrism on IE. This study underscores the importance for higher education institutions to nurture students’ relational spirituality, supporting them in overcoming ethnocentric perspectives.

现有研究针对个体灵性（spirituality）——即与上帝/超越性存在的联结——与其文化发展之间的关系，得出了相互矛盾的结论。为填补这一研究空白，本研究构建了一个理论模型，探讨灵性的两个维度：对上帝的感知之爱与对他人的关爱，通过民族中心主义对跨文化胜任力的行为层面，即跨文化有效性（Intercultural Effectiveness, IE），所产生的影响。本研究以144名自我认同为基督教徒、穆斯林、其他宗教信徒及无宗教信仰的国际学生为样本，对该模型开展实证检验。研究结果证实，灵性可通过降低民族中心主义，对跨文化有效性产生正向影响。本研究发现，对上帝的感知之爱与对他人的关爱均存在抑制效应，这表明跨文化传播模型中不同灵性维度间存在复杂的作用机制。此外，本研究还揭示了东道国语言与英语（通用语，lingua franca）的熟练程度对跨文化有效性的直接影响。同时，本研究明确了东道国语言熟练程度对民族中心主义负面影响跨文化有效性的缓解作用。本研究强调，高等教育机构应注重培育学生的关系型灵性，助力其克服民族中心主义视角。