【正文】 confusing terms actually all concern the study of problems caused by the impact of culture and munication, but from a different standpoint. Intercultural munication involves munication between people from different cultural backgrounds. Crosscultural munication is usually concerned with the contrastive study of patterns of munication between speakers from two cultures. The typical approach of research is a parison of cultural behavior or municative patterns among people from the same culture with interactions between people from another culture. While intercultural munication involves interactions among people from different cultural backgrounds in more general terms, crosscultural munication involves a parison of interactions among people from two cultures on an aspect of specific interest. The term International munication refers to munication between people from different nations. Since nations are political entities, this term is most often used in discussing international problems in the political arena and not monly adopted in cultural studies. It is munication between nations and government rather than between individuals. A Description of Related Empirical Studies Many Chinese scholars contribute their efforts in the study area. Early as Lin 湖南涉外經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)院本科生畢業(yè)論文（設(shè)計） 6 Yutang and Yan Fu, who gave much extraordinary ments on this thinking styles, professor Hu Wenzhong and Jia Yuxin has published many books on intercultural munication which involved patterns of thinking, beliefs and values: Professor Yuan Ying gave a parison of Chinese and American patterns of thinking in her article On the differences of the Eastern and Western Thinking Mode in Intercultural Communication. Chen Xinxia thinks that Patterns of thinking cover knowledge, concept, method, intelligence, emotion, will, language and habit. By interacting with each other, these elements form a dynamic and plex system. Thus, the nature, type, characteristic, and differences of thinking patterns are all regulated by the integrated elements. Western scholars, starting from Dr. Stanford University, first described Karl Pribram, professor of neuropsychology at patterns of thinking as something that vary according to different culture situation. People from different culture background tend to have different patterns of thinking. Different thinking styles in turn make people municate quite differently with each other。 therefore, the author attempt to write this essay about patterns of thinking and intercultural munication, which may provide some inspiration for municators and researchers. 湖南涉外經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)院本科生畢業(yè)論文（設(shè)計） 3 Chapter 1 Literature Review With the world globalization, intercultural munication has been being more and more often in many fields. in order to have good intercultural munication, many scholars made many efforts in research on relevant knowledge about it. Successful study of intercultural munication demands a good Understanding of some terms concerned .In this chapter, these terms such as culture, intercultural munication, thought patterns and so on will be defined so as to set a foundation for the further exploration of the different thought patterns between Chinese and Americans and their influences on munication. The Definition of Culture What is culture? How can this broad concept be defined? Although we carry it with us wherever we go, and it influences how we respond to the people we meet, it is still the one of the two or three most plicated words in the English language(Williams, 1983: 45). As many researchers note, it is a vague notion, lacking any unanimous definition. While despite the lack of clarity, the vast arrays of anthropological definitions have been put forward. For example, in 1952 Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn (John H. Bodley: 1994:35), American anthropologists, published a list of 160 different definitions of culture. Although simplified in the brief table below, their list indicates the diversity of the anthropological concept of culture. The specific culture concept that particular anthropologists work with is an important matter because it may influence the research problems they investigate, their methods and interpretations. Perhaps in all the definitions proposed, the broadest one is by E. Adamson Hoebel and Everett Frost, who see culture in nearly all human activities. They define culture as” an integrated system of learned behavior patterns which are characteristic of the members of a society and which are not the result of biological inheritance (Hoebel amp。 20 Bibliography 15 Chapter4 Suggestions to Improve Intercultural Communications 5 Chapter 2 Different Thought Patterns between Chinese and American 5 A Description of Related Empirical Studies I 摘 要 跨文化交際涵蓋了各個領(lǐng)域：教育、商務(wù)、醫(yī)療、政治、旅游、文化、外交、新聞媒體以及娛樂業(yè)。 II 摘 要 當(dāng)今世界最顯著的特征便是不同語言文化背景下的人們之間的聯(lián)系愈加密切。 but most of them focus on culture and intercultural munication。s speech act and behaviors are all determined by patterns of thinking。 the Chinese believe that nature and humans are inseparable. Only through cooperating with nature, can humans survive, which explains the fact that for so many years, the Chinese have preferred to coordinate with nature rather than manipulated it. The issue of the relationship between knowledge and action concerns the relationship between knowledge about moral matters and doing what the knowledge calls for. Traditionally, Chinese thought in general maintained that once one acquired knowledge, one should do one