Exploring the development of intercultural communication skills of language students in universities based on big data

With the development of globalization, people’s communication becomes more and more frequent. China urgently needs to cultivate talents at the international level and strong foreign language communicative ability to participate in international affairs and follow the international development trend. Based on the data analysis method and machine learning method in big data analysis, this article explores the current situation of intercultural communication ability and competence cultivation of language students in colleges and universities. The article summarizes the existing problems of language students’ intercultural communication ability in Chinese universities based on questionnaires conducted in four universities in southwest, northeast, east, and South China. Secondly, based on the current problems in the intercultural communication competence of language students in Chinese universities, the article further proposes teaching inspirations for the cultivation of intercultural communication competence of language students in Chinese universities. The survey results show that the highest total number of respondents who chose A and B answers, i.e., they think they have strong intercultural communication ability, was 689 from Zhongshan University, accounting for 33.62%, followed by 615 from Shanghai University, accounting for 30.1%; the lowest was 240 from Guizhou University, accounting for 11.7% only, and the level of intercultural communication ability of language students in these four universities can be ranked as follows. Zhongshan University > Shanghai University > Heilongjiang University > Guizhou University. This study can suggest highly rigorous and practical strategies for cultivating language students’ intercultural communication ability in Chinese universities.