Intercultural Communication Course Research Articles

Revisiting Whiteness Pedagogy: Examining the Discursive Practices of Diverse Students in an Intercultural Communication and Conflict Course

ABSTRACT Our study explores discourses of whiteness amongst a diverse group of undergraduate students within the context of critical intercultural communication pedagogy. Through a qualitative analysis of two sets of student essays, we look across discourses of students who primarily identify as white and students with nondominant identities to identify convergences and divergences. We found that many white-identifying students used strategic rhetorics to maintain the invisibility of their whiteness and/or enact white privilege even while expressing awareness of it. Many students with nondominant identities expressed tensions in defining those identities within the liminal spaces constructed by whiteness. Some challenged the constraints of whiteness by drawing from complex histories, highlighting the potential of hybridized identities as cultural bridges, and using their privilege towards deeper learning.

Problem-based service-learning project in an intercultural communication course: Collaboration with a nonprofit refugee resettlement agency

A service-learning (SL) version of the Intercultural Communication course was designed in collaboration with a nonprofit refugee resettlement agency. Through the collaborative discussions prior to the start of the semester, the instructor and community partner identified the needs and possible ideas for problem-based SL projects. In the SL course, students were asked to create and improve cultural orientation materials and to review and improve sections of the agency’s website. The students working in groups reviewed the options, took the initiative to explore specific issues, and applied their knowledge to the projects. At the end of the semester, students presented their cultural orientation materials and proposals for new content for specific sections of the agency’s website to the members of the agency and refugees. By completing this semester-long course in the SL Intercultural Communication course, students were given opportunities to review American culture in comparison to other cultures, learn about the world refugee crisis, refugee resettlement, and cultural integration processes, and apply course concepts to their SL project assignments. The benefits of problem-based SL assignments and insights from collaborating with a community partner are discussed. Courses Intercultural Communication

Teaching Procedures in Speaking for Social Intercultural Communication during Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract - This research article discussed the procedures of teaching speaking class during pandemic. In this case, the speaking class was purposed for social intercultural communication or lately called speaking 3. It was designed for 3rd semester students in English Department, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education in Mayjen Sungkono University of Mojokerto. This article was aimed to explain descriptively the steps for various topics in speaking class, especially in speaking for social intercultural communication course. 

Case Study: Partnering Intercultural Communication Students with Campus Co-Cultural Student Groups to Develop Intercultural Competence, Allyship, and Curiosity

The question I analyze in this case study is how might one use civic engagement to foster campus/community relationships in this polarized era? I describe a teaching challenge in intercultural communication. Students have consistently reported that they arrive to this university from rural, majority-White communities where they have not experienced opportunities to communicate with culturally diverse groups. To address this challenge, I developed a semester-long assignment that provides a structured partnership between students in my Intercultural Communication course and campus co-cultural student groups. To assess this assignment’s benefit to the pedagogy surrounding polarization across cultural differences, I qualitatively analyzed themes in students’ reflection papers (N = 128 papers) from the last five sections of the course (2016–2020). Students addressed how these partnerships helped them develop (1) intercultural competence, (2) acceptance or appreciation through allyship, and (3) curiosity about other cultures. I conclude with implications, including how colleagues might use this assignment in other rural, land-grant public university settings.

Exploring students' perceptions about intercultural communication education: Rethinking the design and facilitation of a course in Japan

Researchers and intercultural educators have put forward various theoretical principles and pedagogical ideas related to the design and implementation of intercultural communication (IC) courses. Recently, researchers have called for curriculum development to include students’ voices about their intercultural communication education (ICE). This paper reports on a study which examined 42 students’ perceptions of an intercultural communication course taught over one semester at a university in Japan, focusing in particular on motivations for students’ intercultural learning and their strategies for maintaining or further developing their IC competence upon completing their studies. Students were also asked to consider the significance of ICE in terms of their life experiences. Survey results revealed that participants enrolled in the IC course to reflect on their study abroad experiences, develop tangible skills for their vocations, and effectively manage IC interactions. They also claimed that learning about perceptions and IC transitions contributed to their understanding of their own experiences and broader intercultural issues. The study contributes to understanding of what students who choose to enrol in an IC course potentially seek from such a course in this context and how they interpret its significance in terms of their own goals and anticipated life trajectories. It also offers some implications for the design of future IC courses.

The development of Emirati university students' intercultural sensitivity

PurposeThis study investigated the effects of an intercultural communication (IC) course on Emirati university students' intercultural sensitivity (IS).Design/methodology/approachThe participants were 89 Emirati students. The course required student involvement in a variety of tasks and activities, both inside and outside the classroom. The development of the students' IS was tracked using two instruments: the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS) and a reflective writing task.FindingsThe difference between the students' overall pre-test and post-test scores was at a statistically significant level. The data from the reflective writing papers showed that the course developed the students' IS with a particular effect on their awareness of other cultures, barriers to effective communication and self-confidence.Originality/valueIn an increasingly globalized world, the findings of this study highlight the importance of a course designed to enhance university students' IS and therefore intercultural competence. They also indicate the need for more experiential learning to bridge in-class and out-of-class experiences which facilitate the development of students' intercultural competence.

Reimagining Engagement

This article explores how to successfully adapt simulations developed for traditional classrooms for synchronous platforms. Acknowledging the importance of the co-construction of knowledge and the impact of active learning in classrooms, this article explores instructional design approaches, logistical issues, and pedagogical considerations for translating successful in-person simulations to online synchronous learning environments. An example from a graduate level intercultural communication course is described as a platform for addressing lessons learned and sharing best practices. By reimagining five areas of adaptation, including materials, technology, grouping students, communication, and the role of the facilitator, faculty can examine critical junctures at the intersection of content knowledge, technology know-how, training pedagogy, and instructional design to conduct successful synchronous simulations.

Promoting international learning outcomes during a study abroad: the moderating role of internationalisation at home

PurposeThe authors examine the role of internationalisation at-home activities and an international classroom at a home institution to promote intercultural competence development during a study abroad.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use large scale longitudinal data from the global mind monitor (GMM) (2018–2020) to examine change over time in both multicultural personality (MPQ) and cultural knowledge (CQ) among students in Dutch higher education institutions. The authors analyse the moderating effect of the preparation in the home institution by looking at the added value of both intercultural communication courses and international classroom setting for intercultural competence development during a study abroad.FindingsThe results show that particularly courses on intercultural communication significantly promote intercultural competence development during a stay abroad. Frequent interactions with international staff also seem to be beneficial for this development.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was conducted in the Netherlands, in one of the most internationalised educational systems in the world. Therefore, it is difficult to generalise these findings to other contexts before any further empirical research is conducted.Practical implicationsBased on the findings, the authors formulate practical advice for higher education institutions that aim to get the most out of the international learning outcomes of a study abroad.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to assess the moderating effect of preparatory internationalisation at home initiatives on the intercultural learning effects of international experiences later on in a study program. Other studies have proposed that these effects will exist but have not tested them empirically with longitudinal data.

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM STUDENTS’ WRITTEN REFLECTIONS IN AN INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION THEORETICAL COURSE?

The implementation of intercultural communication (IC) courses has been excitedly scrutinized particularly in multicultural education and training environments. However, little has been talked about such courses as a compulsory theoretical subject at tertiary institutions, especially where communicating across cultures is not a mandatory daily practice. Inspired by the researched merits of reflective thinking, this paper investigates what a lecturer of such a course can learn from her students' assigned written reflections. The analysis, both quantitative and qualitative, of the reflections of eight classes of third year students at a language education university in Hanoi throughout an IC theoretical course has revealed informative implications with respect to: (1) the students' interest and critical thinking in particular issues and/or frameworks in IC; (2) the students' self-regulation in studying such a theoretical subject; (3) the students' reflection levels and their conceptualization of the knowledge and their own learning. This analysis also attempts to discover the effectiveness of reflective writing in an IC theoretical course at the investigated institution, thereby proposing some recommendations to the reflection pedagogy currently employed at the university.

Introduction of Intercultural Communication Studies into the Curriculum of Pedagogical University

The article presents the results of the performed research of implementing the intercultural communication studies into the future teachers’ professional training. The relevance of the research is proved by the strong need to prepare today’s youth for reaching mutual understanding and avoiding barriers in communication. The purpose of the research is to substantiate the need of introducing the intercultural communication studies into the curriculum of future teachers training for enhancing their intercultural communication competence. The analysis of the structure of the intercultural communication competence is carried out, based on which the content of the intercultural communication course is developed. The research includes three stages. The methods which are applied in the research are theoretical methods for analysing the literature, modelling for substantiating the course content, and interpretive methods for assessing the research results. The article covers the main topics of the course, aimed at gaining culture knowledge and developing intercultural skills, behaviour abilities and attitude. To enhance future teachers’ intercultural competence, two methodological approaches are used: social scientific approach and interpretive methods. The effectiveness of the course is proved through measuring the level of language skills, assessed by Standardised test Cambridge English First, and behaviour abilities, assessed by a number of direct and indirect methods.

Analysis of Factors Influencing Intercultural Communication Competence Based on Big Data

The cross cultural communication is an important part of cultural communication and language learning. Based on the method of big data analysis, 400 college students are divided into three groups to test their intercultural awareness and intercultural communicative competence. The test paper covers cross-cultural awareness, communication culture and knowledge culture. The results show that Chinese college students’ deep intercultural communication awareness is generally weak. Intercultural communication course can effectively improve the level of cross-cultural communication. The main mistake in cross-cultural communication lies in the negative transfer of culture. The results of this paper have a certain reference value for the analysis of the factors influencing intercultural communication competence under big data.

언어경관의 교재화와 수업 실천 -이문화커뮤니케이션 교과목에서 비디오 교재・교과서 활용-

언어경관의 교재화와 수업 실천 -이문화커뮤니케이션 교과목에서 비디오 교재・교과서 활용-

НЕМЕЦКИЙ ЯЗЫК КАК ВТОРОЙ ИНОСТРАННЫЙ ЯЗЫК ДЛЯ РОССИЙСКИХ СТУДЕНТОВ – ДИЛЕММА ВЫБОРА: КЛАССИЧЕСКИЙ ИЛИ ПЛЮРИЦЕНТРИЧЕСКИЙ НЕМЕЦКИЙ ЯЗЫК?

The article raises the problem of teaching German as a second foreign language within the framework of a pluricentric approach. Its relevance for the Russian undergraduate and graduate students is dictated by the modern needs and opportunities to obtain further education in the Common European higher institutions of Germany (D), Austria (A), the German-speaking part of Switzerland (CH), as well as the opportunity to participate in various international student exchange support programs of these countries. The aim of this article is to assess the willingness of the bachelor’s and master’s students undertaking the Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication course not only to study the classical German language but also to get familiar with the features of the standard German language in Austria and Switzerland. The pluricentric approach is based on the generally recognized theory of pluricentrism, according to which the German language is considered as a single language incorporating the national linguistic specifics in the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking part of Switzerland. The article conveys the main ideas of the pluricentric theoretical research studies and covers the linguodidactic and methodological foundations in teaching pluricentric German developed by a special research group and described in the so-called ABCB theses. The readiness of students to learn German in the diversity of the linguistic and cultural national specifics of the DACH-Länder is one of the basic requirements of the pluricentric approach. The conducted research allowed assessing the readiness of the bachelor’s and master’s students to study the classical German language, taking into account the existing distinctive linguistic features of the standard German language in Austria and Switzerland. The research was based on the questionnaire method in the form of a written poll. Given the results of the research, students of the bachelor’s and master’s programs are equally willing to learn the standard Austrian and Swiss German vocabulary in the German language classes. Among bachelors, 70% prefer the vocabulary of the Austrian version and 65% of the Swiss version of German; among master’s students, 75% want to learn the vocabulary of both the Austrian and the Swiss versions of German. Besides, knowledge of the features of the standard German language DACH-Länder is considered as a prerequisite for traveling and further education in these countries. These statistics confirm the high motivation of the bachelor’s and master’s students to study German applying the pluricentric approach. The students also demonstrated the thoughtful choice of the Second Language Country Studies as a discipline for studying German, taking into account the diversity of the linguistic and cultural national specifics of DACH-Länder.

Discourse Analysis for Intercultural Competence Development

This article aims to explicate the connection between discourse analysis and interculturality in intercultural-communication education. Although communication researchers and students have been using discourse analysis as a method to investigate conversations in intercultural situations for decades, interculturality as a concept has been largely untapped in analysis and applications. Drawing from interdisciplinary insights, this article will discuss how the concept of interculturality and the lens of discourse analysis contribute to the study and teaching of intercultural communication. As examples, two different types of intercultural-communication courses serve to illustrate how educators can apply discourse analysis to facilitate development of intercultural competence. Learning outcomes of the two tested courses indicate that cultural discourse analysis, along with critical discourse analysis and ethnography of speaking, promises to be a useful pedagogical approach for facilitating the development of the competence required for dealing with interculturality.

Food for thought: An exercise in third-culture building

Teaching intercultural communication presents many challenges, particularly at predominantly white institutions (PWI). Individuals who hold majority identities may have difficulty seeing their own culture or race and, relatedly, the value of intercultural communication for their lives. Additionally, students who hold marginalized or minoritized identities can feel the burden of being cultural ambassadors in classroom discussions, creating an inequitable labor burden. Moreover, students of all identities may experience discomfort related to conversations about culture. This semester-long assignment seeks to address those challenges by contextualizing culture in a way that can be applied to all students, regardless of the identities they hold. The Food for Thought assignment is a third-culture-building exercise designed to teach students about culture and intercultural communication through a communal dining experience. Courses Any full-semester intercultural communication course of approximately 40 students, but can be adapted for any course with a cultural component (e.g. interpersonal communication or the basic/foundational course) by limiting dining to one or two class periods. Objectives The activity aims to help students learn about and foster community through third-culture building, to develop intercultural sensitivity and respect for cultural differences, to recognize and introspect on one’s own culture, and to connect lived experience to theory.

Developing Students’ Intercultural Competence among Moroccan EFL students: Focus on raising their Cross-cultural Awareness

The goal of this paper is to consider alternative ways to incorporate an intercultural communication course as an integral part of the curriculum designed for Moroccan learners of EFL. Some aspects of what comes to be dubbed as ‘deep culture’ should find room in the contents of the EFL course so as to alert Moroccan learners about the potential intercultural barriers they are far more likely to face. It is proposed that for an effective intercultural communication to take place, the English course should help foreign language learners explicitly understand what target linguistic forms might be and how their meanings may differ across cultures. The analysis of some instances of intercultural misunderstandings may surely give more credence to the vital importance of implementing a multicultural approach to education. This paper offers some teaching strategies to assist Moroccan learners of EFL overcome these intercultural barriers.

Fostering critical thinking skills in ELT through video-based reflection

As a product of Council of Europe's initiatives to promote intercultural dialogue, the 'Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters through Visual Media (AIEVM)' was published as a tool to help learners reflect on their intercultural encounters. This study aims to investigate whether the AIEVM can be used as an educational tool for English language learners in order to foster their critical thinking skills in a higher education context. Fifteen students taking an Intercultural Communication course at a state university in Turkey participated in the study. For the purposes of the study, videos were used as the type of visual media during the pedagogical treatment which took four weeks. The videos were chosen among ones which had the theme of stereotyping and prejudice. After reflective classroom activities by using the videos, students were given reflective writing assignments based on the AIEVM. Data were collected from weekly reflective writing samples, field notes and an interview conducted at the end of the pedagogical intervention. Bloom's Revised Taxonomy was used to identify the categories of critical thinking found in the data. The study revealed that the students displayed higher-order cognitive skills at the Applying, Analysing and Evaluating levels of the taxonomy, while the Creating category was not addressed in the reflections. It is concluded that the AIEVM can be used as an effective educational tool to foster critical thinking skills by using videos in English language teaching.

Indonesian Students’ Awareness of Verbal and Non-Verbal Intercultural Differences at the Global Workplace

The aim of this paper is to describe Indonesian students’ awareness about cultural differences happens in the global workplace. The students followed 600 minutes of Intercultural Communication course in six weeks. The research involved 36 students of English Education Department, who filled out 12 questions of questionnaire about cultural awareness. The result showed that most students had proper verbal and nonverbal awareness related with the intercultural differences at the global space. The result was supported by Hanvey (1979) statement who stated that the level of most students at level three. They were aware of significant and subtle cultural traits that contrast markedly with one’s own but can be understood cognitively. This research suggests that the next researcher can dig more perspective not only from students but also from other occupations. Besides that, another instrument like interview or participant observation also can be applied to get more information.

Theoretical and practical considerations in the design of an intercultural communication course

AbstractThe aim of this article is to highlight theoretical and practical considerations in design of an intercultural communication course. The first part of the article considers intercultural competence, and uses Bourdieu’s notions of education to frame the design of an intercultural communication course. This is followed by discussion of general principles of intercultural course design; the concepts of backward design and constructive alignment as they relate to an intercultural communication course; and finally, the importance of including active and collaborative learning/teaching activities within course design. The remainder of the article draws on a case study of an existing Australian undergraduate course in intercultural communication to highlight how this course may be redesigned in line with the pedagogical principles discussed in the first part of the article.

Toward Being Inclusive: Intentionally Weaving Online Learning, Reconciliation, and Intercultural Development

AbstractThis chapter describes the development and impact assessments of an online, co‐curricular intercultural communication course that weaves together material addressing reconciliation with Indigenous communities in Canada with material about cultural difference and communication across cultures. Considerations for inclusive online course design and for the sequencing of core intercultural communication concepts are described.