The influence of clothing style on student perceptions of lecturers: A cross-cultural extension of the Room-Product-Effect.

English has become a global language essential in education, diplomacy, and intercultural communication. Effective communication in English is increasingly dependent on intelligibility, the ease with which a listener can comprehend speech, rather than adhering to native-speaker norms. This study examines the intelligibility of Thai-accented English, focusing on four Thai English teachers at a kindergarten in Sadao, Thailand, as perceived by four non-Thai listeners, specifically Indonesian student teachers participating in a teaching practicum (PPL). Data were collected from audio recordings of the teachers’ speech and semi-structured interviews with the listeners. Using a qualitative case study approach, the findings indicate that segmental features, such as the substitution of /r/ with /l/ (for example, rice pronounced as lice), and difficulties in reading passages were observed to lead to misunderstandings. Intelligibility was also influenced by both the speakers’ pronunciation and the listeners’ familiarity with Thai-accented English. This study contributes to the field of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), highlighting that intelligibility rather than native-like pronunciation is key for effective intercultural communication.

Impact of task-driven blended learning on cultural intelligence and intercultural communication competence in nursing students: A quasi-experimental study.

Systematic review of motivational orientation in English for specific purposes: Insights from a decade of research (2016-2025).

ABSTRACT This paper examines how cultural values of power distance and uncertainty avoidance influence students’ identities and receptivity toward global competence (GC). We developed identity grafting (IG) theory and measures to study these processes, characterizing them in diverse and manageable ways: blending, balancing, reversing, and repressing identity formations involved in negotiating differences. We collected data from 556 university students in Hong Kong to identify attributes and processes that influence their GC receptivity toward intercultural communication, perspective taking, and adaptability. Structural equation modeling revealed that power distance had direct negative associations with blending and GC. Students with higher power distance tended to use reversing IG, but this did not significantly affect their GC receptivity. By contrast, GC receptivity was positively associated with blending, followed by balancing. However, students with higher uncertainty avoidance were more inclined toward balancing than blending, and uncertainty avoidance positively influenced GC receptivity. Calculating the total effects, balancing supported students’ GC more than blending. Significantly, GC receptivity was positively associated with repressing. The findings underscore the need to sharpen the conceptual tools of current GC approaches, differentiate between power-distance values and reversing responses, and consider uncertainty-avoidance values when deciding whether to promote blending or balancing. While existing GC approaches support those inclined toward blending identities, they also promote identity repression. Instead of telling students what they need to manifest to be globally competent, we can use IG to support students in negotiating such ethical dilemmas, equipping them with tools to make informed decisions about how to live with diversity.

ABSTRACT This study investigates how language learning engagement is associated with sociocultural adaptation among international students enrolled in Chinese language education programmes, focusing on the potential mediating role of intercultural communication competence and the moderating roles of perceived institutional support and cultural distance. Drawing on intercultural adaptation theory and models of communicative competence, a moderated mediation model was tested using structural equation modelling (AMOS) on data collected from 395 international students through a multi-wave survey design. The results indicate that language learning engagement shows significant direct and indirect associations, with intercultural communication competence serving as a significant mediator. Perceived institutional support positively moderates the relationship between language learning engagement and intercultural communication competence, whereas cultural distance negatively moderates the link between intercultural communication competence and sociocultural adaptation. These findings provide support for a more comprehensive understanding of how individual engagement, communicative mechanisms and contextual conditions interact to shape adaptation experiences in Chinese language education settings.

ABSTRACT This article explores migrants’ English language ideologies, focusing on their views about preferred English varieties in intercultural communication in Australia, specifically, on their concerns about the use of (non)native or (non)standard English in different interactional settings. Drawing on the Southern theory, it re-explicates several concepts of cosmopolitanism in relation to English and suggests that people’s ideologies about language use in cosmopolitan contexts can align with three main forms of cosmopolitanism: Northern cosmopolitanism, Southern cosmopolitanism, and entangled cosmopolitanism. Interviews with migrants of different ethnic backgrounds are the main source of data. Findings suggest that the participants’ views on practicing different English varieties reflected their ideas about engaging with each of the three cosmopolitanism orientations. The participants’ varied positions in relation to English and cosmopolitanism were an example of language ideological assemblage. Their alignment with different forms of cosmopolitanism could be a manifestation of ideological tensions about traditional/modern Australia associated with different English-speaking styles. In addition, ideas of Northern, Southern, and entangled cosmopolitanism in relation to English should not be understood as binary or trinary terms, but as a way to depict the complexity of interactions among people in cosmopolitan contexts where any varieties and practices of English are made possible.

Cultural identity in crisis: Exploring student ambiguity and reflexivity in intercultural communication learning

Erasmus in undergraduate nursing students: A scoping review of mobility experiences.

ABSTRACT In this paper we conceptualise AI as belonging to a continuum of technological progress that we trace from the mechanical reproduction of the work of art progressing to the pervasiveness of media in mediating and alienating our relationship with the world within a capitalist world system. In doing so, we situate the development of AI within broader social and historical processes which recognise the ways AI has developed as a product of capitalist political economy. The paper aims to provide a reflection on the implications for knowledge inequalities in the field of intercultural communication.

ABSTRACT Teamwork is a central component of engineering education, particularly within UK programmes where project-based collaboration is widely embedded. Despite the large presence of Chinese students in these environments, limited research has examined how they interpret and navigate teamwork in intercultural settings. This study investigates how Chinese engineering postgraduates understand and adjust to collaborative practices in UK universities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 Chinese students, and the data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings reveal four interconnected patterns: students encountered general teamwork challenges such as uneven contribution and unclear expectations; they experienced language-related barriers that constrained participation; they navigated differences between Chinese and UK educational norms that shaped communication and role positioning; and they gradually developed better collaborative competence over time. The study highlights the need for engineering programmes to provide clearer guidance on teamwork expectations, scaffold intercultural communication, and create structured opportunities to promote their engagement. By foregrounding the perspectives of Chinese engineering students and drawing on an insider-informed interpretive approach, this research contributes to ongoing discussions about diversity, inclusion, and non-technical skill development in global engineering education. The findings reveal four interconnected patterns: students encountered general teamwork challenges such as uneven contribution and unclear expectations; they experienced language-related barriers that constrained participation; they navigated differences between Chinese and UK educational norms that shaped communication and role positioning; and they gradually developed better collaborative competence over time.

ABSTRACT Drawing on the three dimensions of social capital (bonding, bridging, and linking), this study examines how food sharing in the workplace facilitates intercultural engagement among employees from diverse cultural backgrounds. Based on interviews with public relations practitioners representing a range of ages, positions, and levels of professional experience, the findings indicate that food inclusivity fosters workplace relationships, supports the accommodation of dietary restrictions, and serves as a medium for conveying cultural knowledge that enhances intercultural interactions beyond the workplace. Collectively, these findings offer meaningful contributions to professional practice.

With increasing immigration, the likelihood that nurses will provide care to individuals from diverse cultures has increased. To deliver ethically appropriate care, nurses must consider diverse cultural characteristics. Therefore, it is important to assess nurses' attitudes toward individuals from diverse cultures in relation to the quality of care provided. The study aimed to investigate the relationships among nurses' intercultural communication apprehension, levels of xenophobia and caring behaviours. This is a descriptive, correlational and cross-sectional study. Data were collected from nurses using the Personal Information Form, the Caring Behaviors Inventory-24, the Intercultural Communication Apprehension Scale and the Xenophobia Scale. Descriptive statistics, exploratory analyses and linear regression analysis were applied. Ethical approval and informed consent were obtained from all participants. Participants' levels of intercultural communication apprehension and xenophobia were moderate, and their perceptions of care behaviours were high. It was determined that age, gender, education, knowing a second language, having experience abroad, having friends from different cultures, Xenophobia Scale scores and Caring Behaviours Inventory-24 scores explained 38.1% of the change in Intercultural Communication Apprehension Scale scores. Conducting the study at a single centre limits its generalizability. Because interacting with different cultures can reduce intercultural communication apprehension and xenophobia, practices that facilitate nurses' interaction with people from other cultures should be developed.

Taking offense in ELF dyadic intercultural communication

The globalization of world economy has made intercultural communication an indispensable and increasingly important component of contemporary society. Consequently, the demand for intercultural communication talents across various industries has grown significantly. Meanwhile, the rapid development of modern information technology has provided unprecedented opportunities for foreign language education. College English teaching plays a crucial role in cultivating students' intercultural communication competence. Therefore, it is imperative to investigate and analyze the current status of intercultural communication competence cultivation among non-English major college students, and to explore effective approaches utilizing the U-campus platform for intercultural competence development.

ABSTRACT Cross-border exchange is commonly examined through regulation, compliance, and institutional alignment, with uncertainty treated as a temporary disruption to be resolved. This article addresses a different condition in which uncertainty persists and circulation continues without settlement. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2019 and 2024 at the Lao Cai–Hekou crossing along the Vietnam–China border, the study examines how small-scale traders, intermediaries, and logistical actors sustain interaction where formal law remains present yet unevenly activated. Rather than stabilizing through alignment, exchange proceeds through sequences in which articulation is withheld to avoid binding commitment, temporal intervals are extended without shared endpoints, and material pressures accumulate unevenly across positions. Within these sequences, intercultural communication operates not as a means of achieving mutual understanding but as a practical mechanism that modulates when and how interaction becomes consequential, allowing actors to remain engaged without forcing resolution. The analysis shows that coordination does not emerge from convergence but persists as a temporally bounded capacity to sustain interaction under conditions of non-decision. This capacity depends on the ability to defer closure while redistributing exposure to risk, and it ceases when delay can no longer be absorbed and continuation becomes more costly than termination.

This study explores the multicultural awareness of Sociology Education students toward social and cultural diversity in higher education contexts. Multicultural awareness has become an important issue in the digital and globalization era due to increasing social interaction, cultural exchange, and challenges related to intolerance, stereotypes, and social polarization. Sociology Education students play a strategic role as prospective educators and social agents who are expected to promote inclusive and democratic values in society. Therefore, understanding how students perceive and experience multiculturalism is essential in strengthening social harmony in multicultural academic environments. This study employed a qualitative phenomenological approach to explore students’ lived experiences regarding diversity and intercultural interaction. The research was conducted from March to May 2026 at the Sociology Education Study Program of Universitas Megarezky involving seven participants selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, observation, and documentation, and analyzed using Jürgen Habermas’s communicative action theory. The findings revealed that students generally demonstrated positive multicultural awareness reflected in tolerance, respect for differences, empathy, and openness toward intercultural communication. Interaction with peers from different cultural backgrounds contributed to the development of inclusive attitudes and social understanding. However, challenges such as stereotypes, communication misunderstandings, and the negative influence of social media were still identified. The study concludes that communicative interaction and multicultural learning significantly contribute to the development of students’ multicultural awareness. This research provides insights for higher education institutions in strengthening multicultural education and inclusive academic environments.

ABSTRACT Cultural exchange through the arts can take forms that either flatten or energise artistic heritage. The genres of encounter through which such exchanges take place are vital to their success. This paper examines encounters between the Algerian theatre troupe Istijmam and the French troupe GENA as they worked to produce an Algerian play based on the tradition of halqa, or marketplace storytelling. An ethnographic account of the troupes’ rehearsals considers how their textual ideology, translation practices, and participant structure worked to attenuate rather than foreground cultural differences. Their encounters are contrasted with a cultural exchange tour that Istijmam previously undertook in the United States, in which cultural differences were highlighted in ways that precluded more balanced collaboration. In the end, genres of encounter may prove more vital than cultural content in promoting intercultural exchange.

ABSTRACT In recent decades, the field of intercultural communication has been shaped by an enduring debate between two competing paradigms: essentialism and non-essentialism. While essentialism can be useful for identifying relatively stable cultural patterns, there is a risk of stereotyping and reification. By contrast, non-essentialism foregrounds fluidity, context and agency, but may struggle to account for continuity and macro-level regularities. This paper uses Zhuangzi’s Qiwulun to reconsider this opposition. It argues that Qiwulun not only advocates the balanced use of both paradigms, but also reveals the epistemic, linguistic, and discursive conditions through which their dichotomy is constructed. Through the concepts such as Chengxin, Yiming, Deyiwangyan, Shiyushangxing and Liangxing, this paper offers a meta-paradigmatic pathway for moving beyond rigid dichotomous thinking. Rather than eliminating categories altogether, Qiwulun enables their reflexive and provisional use, allowing essentialist and non-essentialist insights to operate within their respective valid domains without being absolutised. In this way, the paper presents Qiwulun as a unique philosophical resource for achieving a more critical, reflexive, and holistic understanding of intercultural communication.

ABSTRACT Globalisation has increased international assignments, making expatriate adjustment and development central to global business. This study examines associations between intercultural communication, mental well-being, and skill development among 133 expatriates in Taiwan, drawing on the Job Demands – Resources (JD – R) framework. We also test the mediating roles of learning orientation and social support. Results indicate that limited host-country language proficiency is associated with weaker intercultural communication, whereas higher learning orientation and stronger social support are linked to more adaptive communication and more positive attitudes towards the host environment. In turn, intercultural communication shows positive associations with mental well-being and with self-reported skill development. As the design is cross-sectional, findings are correlational and should not be interpreted causally. The study suggests that psychological and social resources are related to work-relevant outcomes during expatriation and offers implications for HRD practice.