Study Of Intercultural Communication Research Articles

A new model of intercultural communicative competence: bridging language classrooms and intercultural communicative contexts

ABSTRACT This study aims to open up a new avenue for the study of intercultural communication in higher education, through exploring the structural relationships among eight individual differences factors that affect intercultural communicative competence (ICC). A group of Japanese university students participated in the study by answering a questionnaire addressing these factors. Willingness to communicate (WTC) was introduced into the ICC model for the first time to connect the field of second-language acquisition to the field of intercultural communication. Constructive conflict resolution, was integrated for the first time into the ICC model, reflecting Hoff’s [(2014). ‘A Critical Discussion of Byram’s Model of Intercultural Communicative Competence in the Light of Bildung Theories.’ Intercultural Education 25 (6): 508–517. Doi:10.1080/14675986.2014.992112] argument that disagreement and conflict could potentially be beneficial situations for enlightening individuals through profound discourse between self and other. The model presented new perspectives, and the pedagogical implications are discussed.

문화간 커뮤니케이션에 대한 기호 현상학적 재해석: 문화간 커뮤니케이션학의 새로운 방법론적 패러다임을 찾아서

문화간 커뮤니케이션에 대한 기호 현상학적 재해석: 문화간 커뮤니케이션학의 새로운 방법론적 패러다임을 찾아서

Applying a Delphi process towards assessing the status and conceptualization of intercultural communication studies in china

Aiming at pooling the opinions of internationally and nationally known intercultural experts on the status and conceptualization of intercultural communication studies in China, this research project adopted a Delphi process. Exploratory questionnaires were sent to an identified set of experts (N = 45) via email for the first stage, responses (N = 34) compiled, evaluated, and questions edited; a more focused questionnaire redistributed to experts for the second stage (N = 20); and a summary of findings was checked and confirmed for the third stage (N = 15). Themes and theoretical issues were formulated through each stage, compiled, and where possible integrated. This research process has generated the following findings: (1) leading topics related to intercultural communication are identified; (2) major research methodologies adopted in each related field are examined; (3) highly cited authors and theories most applied in intercultural communication studies are ranked; (4) emerging trends in the field are listed; and (5) assessments and recommendations for the ongoing development, significance, and relevance of intercultural communication studies in the Chinese context are highlighted. Strengths and weaknesses of the results and this study are then noted toward future development of the field.

Postcolonial remembering in Taiwan: 228 and transitional justice as “The end of fear”

ABSTRACT This essay examines the contested dynamics of postcolonial remembering in Taiwan. Focusing on the long-suppressed 228 massacre in particular and the White Terror period in general, we bring Taiwan’s postcolonial remembering into international and intercultural communication studies by analyzing two contemporary sites: Taipei’s 228 Memorial Museum and the Cihu Memorial Sculpture Park. As our case studies demonstrate, Taiwan’s postcolonial remembering offers unique indications of how public memory work can help move a culture toward a sense of reconciliation, thus promoting what one of our collaborators called “the end of fear.”

On Not Being Lost in Translation: Creative Strategies to Approach Multiculturalism in Esperanto

This article examines translation practices into Esperanto, a constructed language with 130 years of existence and which is meant to serve neutral international communication. As such, one of Esperanto’s practical applications is to render works from around the world and from different times accessible to a worldwide community of speakers. We analyse the role played by translation in the development of Esperanto and in the creation of an Esperanto community. We argue that translation into Esperanto possesses a key social function and conveys values that go beyond the mere transfer of semantics. In doing so, we apply an interdisciplinary perspective and draw on approaches from translation studies, linguistics, anthropology and intercultural communication studies. Placing these approaches within a dialogue is beneficial for a deeper understanding of the various strategies employed by Esperanto translators in order to accommodate and to inform the Esperanto cultural horizon.

What Is Integration and Why Is It Important for Internationalization? A Multidisciplinary Review

Integration is a concept that is referred to very widely in relation internationalization, yet its meaning is rarely explored and its benefits are often assumed. In this article, we start by reviewing the conceptualization of integration across different fields, notably education and the internationalization of education, intercultural communication, health psychology, and organizational studies. We propose that the varying interpretations within and across these fields can be synthesized by considering the different levels at which integration can be analyzed—individual level, community level, and institutional level. We then review the multiple benefits that integration can bring at these different levels, while acknowledging their interconnections, and noting the potential risks from ignoring integration. We end by proposing a framework to help universities and all of their members (staff and students) develop their own strategies and priorities for enhancing integration.

Researching the Intercultural: Intersubjectivity and the Problem with Postpositivism

AbstractIn intercultural communication studies, the positivist preoccupation with objectivist, essentialist, solid large cultures has been replaced by a postmodern recognition that the intercultural is liquid and ideologically constructed. However, a postpositivist resistance to this paradigm change, while recognizing the dangers of essentialism, continues to be objectivist and fails to address the intersubjective nature of the ideological construction of culture. This results in a soft essentialism. This methodological failure of postpositivism is driven by a neoliberal technicalized commodification of quantitative and qualitative methods that does not address the subjective implicatedness of researchers. It therefore prevents an understanding of the liquid nature of the intercultural and sustains the neo-racist implications of essentialism. An example of this is commodifying international students as culturally problematic to serve a quantifiable notion of intercultural competence. The methodological flaws of postpositivism can only be avoided by means of an approach to researching cultural groups in which large culture concepts such as nation are viewed as one of many possible, emergent, ideologically constructed variables rather than as the starting point for research.

The need to transform Science Communication from being multi-cultural via cross-cultural to intercultural

Abstract. When dealing with issues that are of high societal relevance, Earth sciences still face a lack of acceptance, which is partly rooted in insufficient communication strategies on the individual and local community level. To increase the efficiency of communication routines, science has to transform its outreach concepts to become more aware of individual needs and demands. The “encoding/decoding” concept as well as critical intercultural communication studies can offer pivotal approaches for this transformation.

A literature survey of conceptions of the role of culture in foreign language education in China (1980–2014)

ABSTRACT The nature of culture and its place in foreign-language teaching (FLT) have been explored at considerable length in Western scholarly literature. These topics have also received the attention of FLT scholars in China, which, with its vast educational system and increasing involvement on the international stage, has the potential to provide an instructive contribution to the debate. The Chinese literature is, however, largely unknown outside the Mandarin-speaking world. We therefore conducted an extensive survey of the relevant literature in China, from its inception in 1980 through 2014. Our aim is to provide a relatively comprehensive overview of the main themes and research perspectives, and the development and current state of culture teaching and intercultural communication studies in that country. This paper presents the main findings of that survey, against the background of the history of Chinese EFL syllabi. The survey indicates that culture is principally perceived from an anthropological or sociological perspective as the way of life. Culture learning is predominantly viewed as static knowledge of products, practices and perspectives rather than a dynamic process of meaning making. There has been a gradual transition in pedagogical theory and practice from the transmission of knowledge about culture and cultures to the development of intercultural communicative competence. Some innovative and empirically based ideas have been proposed, but our findings suggest that the question of culture teaching in FLT has not yet been explored in a thorough-going and systematic manner.

Research on Perception Diversity in Intercultural Communication —With Guasha Treatment as a Case Study

This paper aims at depicting the phenomenon of perception diversity and its negative impact on intercultural communication (hereafter referred to as IC), as well as trying to offer a corresponding solution. Perception, according to its definition, is a process by which we make what we sense into a meaningful experience by selecting, categorizing and interpreting internal and external stimuli to form our worldviews. Guasha Treatment, a movie which provides the readers with a real intercultural context, is regarded as a classic in English learning and intercultural communication study. With detailed analysis, this paper illustrates that perception diversity will hinder successful IC by causing misunderstandings in communication. Then, based on Berger and Calabrese’ Uncertainty Reduction Theory and Gudykunst’s Anxiety/Uncertainty Management Theory, empathy is chosen as a solution to reduce the negative impact perception diversity has on IC.

On the issue of teaching a foreign language in high school according to the new federal state educational standard 3++

The article deals with the question of teaching a foreign language in high school according to the requirements of the new federal state educational standard 3++ according to which the emphasis in training is on business and professional communication. The potential of using a foreign language as a means of forming universal competences declared by the Federal educational standard of the new generation is also studied. The article describes the methods of teaching a foreign language and the likely area of knowledge and skills obtained as a result of training. It is mentioned the importance of international cooperation and special attention to the development of skills and abilities of oral speech, as well as the task of taking into account intercultural differences in the process of communication with representatives of other cultures. In order to simulate academic and professional communication in the classroom the article offers a wide range of exercises for training, which stimulate authentic intercultural business communication study, which is designed to help graduates in their professional activities.

A Value System through the Perspective of Culturally Oriented Lexicography

The article focuses on the analysis of the Value System which constitutes part of a cultural code from the perspective of culturally oriented lexicography. The analysis is based on the comparison of the Russian and Mongolian languages. The authors of the article discuss a number of closely connected theoretical and practical issues, which include: the essence of the Value System from the point of view of linguistics, culture studies and psychology; the functioning of this system; its influence on the formation of speech behavior and communicative competences; the possibility of using the knowledge about the Value System in the teaching of foreign languages and cultures. The article also touches upon the issues of linguistic lexicography aimed at compiling dictionaries, which explain the culture-specific meanings of its units. The authors give a survey of a culturally-oriented dictionary of Russian language and culture for the citizens of Mongolia where the material will be presented on a comparative basis. The core of dictionaries of this kind will be the Value System as a linguocognitive phenomenon. The idea is illustrated by the analysis of the semantics of three basic human values: health, family and education. The research provides an opportunity to state both similarities and differences in the meaning of the verbalized value orientations in the Russian and Mongolian languages and cultures. The analysis allows us to emphasize the significance of mapping the dynamics of the linguistic worldview as part of the ethnic mentality, which reflects both its cognitive and emotional components. The research develops basic postulates of cognitive linguistics, cultural linguistics, intercultural communication and culture studies.

Conceptualizing the Other in Intercultural Encounters: Review, Formulation, and Typology of the Other-Identity

Acculturation’s impact on migrating individuals’ cultural identity is one of the foci of intercultural communication research. Many intercultural communication studies deliberately place ethnic identity at the core of identity research to avoid using racial identity. Influenced by the difference-as-problem viewpoint, sojourners’ and immigrants’ Other-identities are often viewed as abnormal, deviant, and alien and therefore should be managed, reduced, and even eliminated. However, critical scholarship has revealed that the sense of being the Other is the main theme of sojourners and immigrants. Drawing upon postmodern, postcolonial, and hermeneutic approaches, sojourners’ and immigrants’ 3 types of Other-identities are conceptualized in this review, and their embeddedness in asymmetric power structures is explained. These ideas emerge from social categorization processes that use both phenotypic and cultural markers as primary categorizing criteria. Consequently, the view held by biculturalists is refuted, and elaboration is presented about the ways migrating individuals—in intercultural encounters—enrich their sense of Self through integrating their Other-identities into their Self-identities, producing fused identities.

Issues of intelligibility in world Englishes and EIL contexts

AbstractThis article examines Larry Smith's work on intelligibility issues in English as an International Language (EIL) contexts. In his seminal articles and books, Smith describes how intelligibility can be problematized in both intra‐/inter‐national contexts in relation to cross‐/inter‐/intra‐cultural communication purposes. As one of the guiding/founding scholars of the world Englishes paradigm, he is one of the first to describe the functions of English as an International Language in inter‐/intra‐/cross‐cultural communication in world Englishes. His views on intelligibility influenced various fields of study – including the English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) paradigm – ranging from its connection to comprehensibility to interpretability in national and international contexts in intercultural communication studies to its implications for an EIL‐aware pedagogical practice.

Silk Road Influences on the Art of Seals: A Study of the Song Yuan Huaya

Song Yuan Huaya (the Huaya of the Song and Yuan Dynasties) is a type of seal featuring figurative patterns and sometimes decorated with ciphered or ethnic characters. Their origins are the Song and Yuan Dynasties, although their influence extends to the Ming (1368–1644 CE) and Qing (1644–1912 CE) Dynasties. Although it is based on the Chinese Han seal tradition, Song Yuan Huaya exhibits various elements from the influence of the Silk Road. This is thought to be the first time in Han seal history that the Steppe culture can be seen so abundantly on private seals. This paper takes an interdisciplinary approach to analyse, probably for the first time in the field, some cases of Song Yuan Huaya, in which a dialogue between the Han seal tradition and Silk Road culture occurs. The findings will hopefully advance the understanding of the complicated nature of the art history, society, peoples, and ethnic relationships in question, and will serve as the starting point for further studies of intercultural communication during specific historical periods.

Translation spaces

AbstractThis article addresses the relationship between translation, intercultural communication and international development practice as encountered in the field. Through tracing parallel developments in the academic fields of translation studies and intercultural communication studies, it highlights the move from static concepts of language, nation, and culture to the fluid exchange spaces of multilingual and intercultural encounters. In-the-field examples of international development challenges are examined and discussed in the light of these theoretical shifts. We propose (a) that both fields of study can learn from each other, (b) that translation training should account for the messy intercultural spaces of contact zones, and (c) that guidance on intercultural practice be further developed to benefit those working in the field.

Introduction: Intercultural Studies within Central States

The study of intercultural communication (IC) has a long history in the Central States Communication Association (CSCA). Some of the earliest work in IC has come from universities in the CSCA region, such as Indiana University (William Starosta) and University of Minnesota (Vernon Jensen and Rosita Albert). Since the inception of the Intercultural Communication Interest Group within CSCA in the early 1990s, IC scholars have contributed immensely to the discipline by studying different aspects of the relationship between communication and culture. Several active IC scholars present their recollections of the development of IC research in this issue.

Critical Discourse Analysis and the ecological turn in intercultural communication

ABSTRACTIntercultural communication and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) have formed a fruitful partnership over the last decade. However, both stand at a juncture with exciting possibilities and imperatives for growth as the fields reflect on their overwhelming emphasis on deconstructive critiques and largely anthropocentric inquiry. In a recent work, S. Lily Mendoza and I argued that (critical) intercultural communication must go beyond its exclusive attention to anthropocentric concerns and begin to approach identity, culture, and intercultural communication from an ecologically grounded perspective. One part of this move is the need for examining culture, communication, and interculturality with critical eyes on the ways anthropocentrism shapes and organizes them, and another part is engaging and exploring alternatives. Building on this argument, this essay will discuss the potential of CDA in playing an integral role in the ecological turn in the study of intercultural communication. With rapidly deteriorating ecological health as an urgent context, CDA has already begun to take an ecological turn as marked by the articulation of ecolingustics as CDA. This essay presents a discussion of ecolingustics as a promising lens through which to examine intercultural communication.

Deaf Queer world-making: A thick intersectional analysis of the mediated cultural body

ABSTRACTNyle DiMarco, a Deaf, sexually fluid celebrity, helps audiences reimagine ways of being through mediated representations of his cultural body. Within the framework of a critical intercultural communication study and through a thick intersectional approach, we analyze DiMarco’s personae as texts across three TV shows: America’s Next Top Model, Dancing with the Stars, and Difficult People. First, we attend to his moments of sexual fluidity. Next, we attend to his moments of Deaf Gain. Finally, we attend to his character’s denouncing of the hearing homonormative. Through each performance, a Deaf Queer world-making is conjured, offering discursive possibilities beyond the normative.

국제 클리닉에서의 문화간 의료 커뮤니케이션의 민족지학적 연구 : 환자 심층 설문 면담을 중심으로

국제 클리닉에서의 문화간 의료 커뮤니케이션의 민족지학적 연구 : 환자 심층 설문 면담을 중심으로