ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the role of emotions in the reported experiences of second language (L2) users of Chinese in order to offer further empirical grounding for the theoretical developments vis-a-vis the symbolic and subjective dimensions of intercultural communicative competence. It is commonly accepted by many researchers and language teachers alike that the aim of L2 learning is to develop intercultural communicative competence in that L2. The rise of the intercultural communicative competence paradigm in the 1990s initially led to the claim that a key aim for L2 learners is to find or establish a so-called third place or third culture, where they are able to take an insider's view as well as an outsider's view on both their first and second cultures. The notion of communicative competence was first introduced by D. H. Hymes in an attempt to counter the overwhelming emphasis placed on "linguistic competence" by N. Chomsky and other structural linguists in the 1960s.
