Developing and validating perceived intercultural communication anxiety/apprehension scale

Intercultural communication research has highlighted the significance of intercultural communication apprehension/anxiety measurement and instrument development in diverse sociocultural contexts. This study embarked on developing and validating a scale, the Perceived Intercultural Communication Anxiety/Apprehension Scale (PICAS) in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context. By drawing upon the review of the literature and expert judgment, a Likert scale with 52 items was developed for assessing the construct of intercultural communication anxiety/apprehension, which was subjected to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with 760 Iranian EFL learners. The ultimate results of exploratory factor analysis evidenced 17 items with a stable five-factor solution, comprising L2 proficiency, prejudice and stereotypes, significant others' attitudes, status, and context familiarity factors. The subsequent CFA confirmed the five-factor model. The five-factor PICAS was found to be psychometrically reliable and valid. Potential applications, future directions, and limitations are finally addressed. The Perceived Intercultural Communication Anxiety/Apprehension Scale (PICAS) is comprised of five psychometrically sound subscales/factors that can assess intercultural communication apprehension/anxiety in English as a foreign language learners. The validation demonstrated good internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the PICAS. L2 educators and school counselors can benefit from the information gained through this scale to help students reduce intercultural anxiety and negative or prejudicial perceptions of the target language group.