Intercultural Conflict Research Articles

SG-ACCORD: Designing Virtual Agents for Soft Skills Training in the School Context

This study focuses on the behavior of interactive agents and how to ground their implementation in psychology and cognitive modeling to capture fundamental psycho-pedagogical elements to deliver an effective competency-based training and assessment tool for teachers, trainers, and educators working in the school context. The study describes the design and implementation of a Serious Game, “Attain Cultural Integration through COnflict Resolution skill Development” (SG-ACCORD), to develop and assess soft skills that are pivotal in educational working contexts (i.e., negotiation, effective communication, intercultural conflict management). The SG-ACCORD has been developed by applying a tailored methodology, namely the Educational Technology-enhanced Role-Playing, addressing two main facets: psycho-pedagogical (theoretical frameworks) and technological (production of artificial worlds based on computer-simulated models). The game is a single-player virtual role-play offering a series of scenarios reflecting the real-life experiences of teachers in which the role of interactions and human factors is crucial. It focuses on the simulation of a dialogue between two characters (an avatar controlled by a human player and a BOT computer-controlled counterpart), enacting interethnic conflicts between teacher and students within realistic school context scenarios. The SG-ACCORD represents a free, easily manageable, and flexible educational tool that can be used as a stand-alone resource and envisages an automatic feedback and debriefing system.

English in Bilingual Promotional Material of Chinese Maritime-related Exhibition Publicity: A discourse Analysis Study

In recent years, the numbers of bilingual advertising texts have increased in China’s international maritime exhibitions. Nevertheless, the shortcomings in wording and phrasing, usage of translation strategies and intercultural communication in these China English texts are not only contrary to the Plain English Movement which advocated a more concise and economical use of words and sentences in the late 20th century, but also adversely affect the Belt and Road Initiative as well as intercultural communication. In this paper, various promotional material collected from major maritime-related English exhibitions in China over the past three years will be taken as examples. This paper will adopt the discourse analysis theory to summarize the problems of redundancy, Chinglish, misuse of translation strategies and mismanagement of intercultural conflict in relevant bilingual advertisements. The paper then suggests a series of ways for improvement in order to improve the quality of China English texts as well as promote intercultural communication.

Teachers’ multicultural personality traits as predictors of intercultural conflict management styles: Evidence from five European countries

This study explored the influence of five multicultural personality traits (i.e., Cultural Empathy, Open-Mindedness, Social Initiative, Emotional Stability, Flexibility) in predicting management styles (i.e., Integrating, Obliging, Compromising, Dominating, Avoiding) adopted by teachers from five European countries (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain) to deal with intercultural conflict that may arise within classes with and between students. Potential differences according to socio-demographic characteristics (i.e., Gender, Age, Working Seniority, Country of belonging) were also examined. Data from 589 secondary school teachers indicated that teachers who were more open-minded reported greater adoption of Integrating and Obliging styles when managing intercultural conflicts with and between students; while teachers who were less culturally empathic and flexible were more likely to adopt the Dominating style, and those who possess lower social initiative and flexibility were more likely to adopt the Avoiding style. Teachers who possess lower levels of emotional stability showed greater adoption of the Obliging style. Differences across socio-demographic characteristics were also found. Findings provided evidence to develop interventions aiming to foster effectiveness in classroom management of intercultural conflicts by underlining how multicultural personality may influence teachers’ ways to act and adjust to the educational demands of the increasingly multicultural school environment.

Структура межкультурной компетенции обучающихся

One of the main goals of foreign language teaching is the development of students’ intercultural competence. At the same time, researchers have not come to a consensus in determining the methodic content of this term. Often the emphasis is on teaching students intercultural com-munication in the context of a “dialogue of cultures”, however, the modern multicultural world is also characterized by situations of cultural conflicts and cultural discrimination. The modern edu-cational model does not prepare students for communication in such conditions as “non-dialogue” of cultures. The purpose of the study is to consider the structural content of teaching intercultural competence, characterized by situations of “dialogue” and “non-dialogue” of cultures. The following definition of the concept of “intercultural competence” was proposed: “the ability to effectively interact with representatives of other cultures without losing their cultural identity, as well as to find the best strategies in resolving intercultural conflicts”. Based on the analysis of the structural content of the intercultural competence of students in the works of Russian and foreign researchers, the filling of this competence was proposed. Intercultural competence includes the following three components: knowledge, skills and attitudes. The “knowledge” component includes: a) knowledge about the characteristics and types of cultures, as well as the ways in which they re-late to each other; b) knowledge of various models of actions during intercultural interaction. “Skills” include: a) the ability to initiate intercultural interaction and adequately respond to an at-tempt to initiate contact by another communicator; b) the ability to maintain a dialogue in an at-mosphere favorable for both communicants; c) the ability to act as a representative of one’s cul-ture; d) the ability to act as an intermediary between one’s own and another culture; e) the ability to predict intercultural conflicts; f) the ability to find and apply the best strategies in a situation of intercultural conflict; g) the ability to interpret and evaluate the facts or events of one culture from the position of another; h) the ability to critically evaluate different cultures from the position of ethnorelativism. The “attitude” component includes: a) readiness to reject stereotypes and preju-dices towards other cultures; b) acceptance of other cultures from the position of ethnorelativism.

Functions of the precedent artifacts and precedent names in the nowels “For whom the bell tolls” and “Spanish diary”

Progressed globalization in the world provokes increased interest of some nations to others, which, in turn, leads to inevitable dialogue of cultures. Language, as a mirror of the soul of a nation, is able to reflect national and cultural features and demonstrate the specifics of the national picture of the world of a particular ethnic group. Language is also a key means of forming images of some nations in the linguistic consciousness of others, which cannot be avoided during intercultural conflict. Science is successfully adapting to global challenges and development trends, creating the latest scientific directions, such as: linguoculturology, theory of communication, intercultural communication, linguoimagology, which relevance in modern linguistics is undeniable. The creation of the image of one country in the minds of a representative of another linguistic and cultural community is done through the perception and understanding of nationally marked elements of a language, which are able to capture, preserve and reflect the ethno-national features and markers of a country which make it unique in the dialogue of cultures. Such elements include precedent phenomena. Having a plan of content and a plan of expression, precedent phenomena are quite bright signs of any culture. The purpose of the article is to analyse the peculiarities of the usage of precedents of Spain in the novel by a notorious American writer Ernest Miller Hemingway and autobiographical novel by a famous Soviet Writer Myhailo Koltsov. The object of the research – fragments of the texts where the authors express their assessment and perception of Spanish precedent phenomena. The subject of the research is methods of expression of precedent phenomena in language consciousness of E. Hemingway and M. Koltsov during their stay in revolutionary Spain. The novels “For whom the bell tolls” by E. Hemingway and “Spanish diary” by M. Koltsov were chosen as the material of the research. The results of the research can be used in teaching intercultural communication, stylistics, lexicology, the history of the English language, linguoimagology in professional specialties.

An Exigent Tool to Curb Intercultural Conflicts in Nigeria

Communication is crucial to societal development and relationship building. In every developed country of the world, communication between the people is deemed a priority. However, effective communication in homogeneous states is easier compared to cultural diverse states. Nigeria is an African country famous for its fascinating cultural diversity, and has over 250 ethnic groups. However, this cultural diversity has led to unhealthy competition among the groups for superiority. The stereotypes created by Nigerians about each other remains a major impediment to effective intercultural communication. The absence of mechanisms to control ethnocentrism reveals the low level of the Nigerian government’s dedication towards nation building. Corruption and insecurity have fueled over the past couple of years due to increase in intercultural conflicts. Communication should be a substitute for violence in instances of rising tribal tensions. This study investigated the history of intercultural conflicts in Nigeria and its relationship with intercultural miscommunication. The research findings depict that Nigeria has a very weak foundation for inter-ethnic and inter-religious co-existence. Nigeria must rebuild its foundation to ensure peaceful co-existence among the ethnic groups and religions in the country, and to facilitate development and security.

Кросс-культурный менеджмент в сложившейся культуре коммуникаций

The globalization of business, promotion of economic interests in the markets of other countries, the processes of unification and creation of a common economic space require knowledge of national customs and national culture. Culture is, above all, predictability. Acquiring ability to understand and use the peculiarities of national cultures, interpersonal communications and business ethics in global business is an important task of cross-cultural management. The success of international companies in providing high-quality products and services depends, on the one hand, on growing dynamics of the economic environment and, on the other hand, on adoption of international quality standards and procedures. As the market becomes more global, the products and services offered by international companies around the world face the challenges of a multicultural environment. These issues manifest themselves not only at the level of customer relations, but also deep inside companies, at the level of employees. The paper characterizes cross-cultural management and identifies the barriers that arise in the way of its successful implementation. In the course of further work, the authors consider main directions of modern solutions in the field of cross-cultural personnel management. Intercultural management is, first of all, the creation and application of technologies for managing cultural diversity in the context of globalization, successfully operating in different cultures in order to prevent intercultural conflicts. The proposed solutions include development of intercultural competencies, training of global managers in key aspects of intercultural interaction, the introduction and active use of advanced digital technologies, as well as the construction of a knowledge management system with deployment of publicly available databases and the expansion of their analytical capabilities at the national, regional and international levels. The authors note that cultural knowledge management is crucial for success in developing and maintaining long-term business relationships in a multicultural environment. Knowledge management provides necessary technological support for cross-cultural management in terms of improving knowledge sharing in multinational companies and the effective use of knowledge in international joint ventures.

NEW MEDIA DAN KOMUNIKASI ANTARBUDAYA

The rapid development of new media has been the main force accelerating the trend of globalization in human society in recent decades. New media has brought human interaction and society to a highly interconnected and complex level, but at the same time challenges the very existence of intercultural communication in its traditional sense. It is under this circumstance that we see more and more scholars becoming involved in the investigation of the relationship between new media and intercultural communication. Emerging topical areas in this line of research mainly include three categories: (1) the impact of national/ethnic culture on the development of new media, (2) the impact of new media on cultural/social identity, and (3) the impact of new media (especially social media) on different aspects of intercultural communication (e.g., intercultural relationships, intercultural adaptation, and intercultural conflict). This paper discusses this trend of research on the relationship between new media and intercultural communication.

European multiculturalism and the specifics of modern interethnic communications (on the example of essays by Karl-Marcus Gauss «The European Alphabet»)

The study of the phenomena of multiculturalism and intercultural communication began in the middle of the twentieth century and continues to this day. The impetus for the emergence of a new scientific discipline was the development of humanism after World War II. European and American scholars have begun to study the phenomenon of multiculturalism and the need for intercultural communication, trying to find features of communication between nations, to reach an understanding between them, to find scenarios for resolving conflicts and more. Our article complements the study of the multicultural nature of the European continent, the achievement of understanding between different nationalities, the importance of intercultural communication as a science and age-old intercultural conflicts on the example of essays by Karl Marcus- Gauss «European Alphabet». Modern essay writing is designed to change the world, inspire new actions and rethink behavior. Themes of multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism and equality have become more and more common among contemporary European and Ukrainian essayists. A striking example of such works is the collection of Karl-Marcus Gauss «European Alphabet» (1997). This is the «adult alphabet» of national inequality, economic racism, migration, multiculturalism. In conclusion, we can say that the study and further development of intercultural communication should contribute to improving the policy of multiculturalism, which is implemented by countries in Europe and the Americas. Changes in the policy of multiculturalism are not only recommended, but also mandatory, because the situation now does not create fair comfortable conditions for life and development of migrants in Europe and America.

The Attitude of Teachers Towards Intercultural Education in Schools

Promoting an intercultural perspective in education must rely on a certain vision upon society. Given the special significance in educational approaches, the intercultural approach is a new way of designing and implementing the school curriculum and a new relational attitude among teachers, students and parents. The intercultural perspective opens new avenues for the manifestation of diversity and differences. Intercultural positioning is not reduced to a cumulative presentation of knowledge about the values of others, but it means cultivating attitudes of respect and openness to diversity. This attitude is born through a permanent communication with others and through a careful and optimal decentralization towards one’s own cultural norms. Therefore, the management of the intercultural conflicts made in the context of school learning experiences must be related to the dynamic perspective on the changes that characterize the educational reality in terms of educational innovation. As a consequence, a pertinent analysis of this phenomenon is required, in order to bring the necessary restructuring in order to optimize school activity and prevent conflict management between students belonging to different cultures, being known the fact that the more elaborate the interaction, the more effective and productive it becomes.

Traductology, linguistics, and culture: the contrastive function of omissions in English-Chinese translations of the intercultural collision in Little Red Riding Hood

The study examines omissions in the English version of Little Red Riding Hood in contrast to the Chinese one. The research is aimed at studying the linguistic effects of inculturation and the choice of translation strategies to convey a truthful intercultural component. The study examines the Little Red Riding Hood story by Leray (2011) translated into Englishand Chinese languages. The Chinese version of the story was edited and published by Green and Green (1953). The analysis of the translation in a cultural context is based on the omission strategy. The analysis of semantically redundant words and sentences in the English version of Little Red Riding Hood has been carried out in contrast to the Chinese one, where no omissions were found. The purpose of the study is to analyze the relationship between the versions of Little Red Riding Hood and the evolution of European and Chinese moral ideology. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that two translations are considered in the context of the Tehrani’s (2013) method using a phylogenetic approach and the strategy of omission to determine moral codes. As a result of a comparative analysis of the target translation, ten omissions were found: four brief descriptions and six complete omissions. The omission strategy reflected the cross-cultural and informative ideological features of the two cultures. Adhering to the phylogenetic concept by Tehrani, the target language of Little Red Riding Hood was identified as English because the Chinese version of the story was translated from English (Zhengzhong Bookstore, 1967). There are also some distinguishing characteristics of the initial collision: the characteristics of the protagonist, the characteristics of the villain, the methods of deceiving the future victim by the villain and the ending options. The folk European collision of the fairy tale originates from the story The Wolf and the Children. It is also found in Chinese culture—The Girl and the Tiger; however, it is described at the level of other concepts, which confirms the genetic relationship of intercultural conflict. The nature of the extended Chinese translation testifies to the flexible structure and aesthetics of the style, in which traditions and family values play an important role, while in the English version some elements of culture are omitted due to a different mentality and structure of the language. Chinese culture is characterized by respect for elders, a tribute to traditions, and respect for people who are higher in social status. Undoubtedly, greetings in the English language carry a similar semantic load, but due to the peculiarity of its grammatical structure, omitting or transferring a greeting during translation does not harm the context of communication. Thus, it has been revealed that folk tales are a joint imprint of different cultures. The linguistic progression makes them change and adopt new information in accordance with the mentality of the people. There are three clusters of autonomous versions of the fairy tale: far Eastern, African and European; all of them are based on one common ancestor that has not been yet identified.

Combating Physician-Assisted Genocide and White Supremacy in Healthcare through Anti-Oppressive Pedagogies in Canadian Medical Schools to Prevent the Coercive and Forced Sterilization of Indigenous Women

Coercive and forced sterilization of Indigenous Peoples are acts of genocide that are rooted in colonialism and white supremacy and require fundamental changes to undergraduate medical education. I (Erika Campbell) draw upon the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s 24th Call to Action, which calls for “skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism” in medical schools. Additionally, I draw upon Call for Justice 7.6 from the Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girl, which calls upon institutions and health service providers be educated in areas including, but not limited to: the history of colonialism in the oppression and genocide of Inuit, Métis, and First Nations Peoples; anti-bias and anti-racism; local language and culture; and local health and healing practice. I analyzed the responses of all 17 undergraduate medical programs in Canada to determine how they incorporated anti-racism within their medical education to meet the Calls to Action and Justice. All undergraduate medical programs include some form of cultural learning, which I argue does not directly challenge racism and colonialism. As such, I advocate for the implementation of anti-oppressive pedagogies within curricula to facilitate the unlearning of colonial rhetoric. I further argue the implementation of anti-oppressive pedagogies within education will contribute to the eradication of the ongoing genocide of Indigenous Peoples and white supremacy within our healthcare systems.

Korean Immigrant Fathers’ Perceptions and Attitudes Toward Their Parenting Involvement

This paper examines Korean immigrant fathers’ lived experiences of their parenting involvement by using interpretative phenomenological analysis of seven participants who were recruited through Korean ethnic churches in a Midwestern city. In semi-structured interviews, we explored five main areas affecting Korean immigrant fathers’ perceptions and attitudes toward parenting involvement and found the following issues to be especially salient for participants: limited acculturation progress, economic difficulties, low self-esteem, experiences of intergenerational conflict, and involvement in religious faith and church activities. This study contributes to the field’s understanding of Korean immigrant fathers’ perceptions of intergenerational and intercultural conflicts when raising their Americanized children and underlines for mental health providers the importance of providing culturally competent parenting education on the topic of positive fathering.

Preliminary Validation of the Questionnaire on Behavioral Strategies in Intercultural Conflict

Globalization, forced and voluntary migration, as well as the development of international relations result in increased cultural heterogeneity and, accordingly, increased frequency of intercultural contacts. Unfortunately, the massive clash of different cultures, ethnic groups and confessions is often accompanied by the emergence of cultural misunderstandings, prejudices and conflicts. From the point of view of scientific knowledge, intercultural conflict is a relatively new and poorly studied subject of psychology, which includes the need to create new tools for studying this kind of conflict. The article presents the results of the development and preliminary validation of The Questionnaire on Behavioral Strategies in Intercultural Conflict based on a motivational model for choosing a behavioral strategy. The development of the questionnaire took place in several stages and included a qualitative and quantitative methodology. The methodology was validated on a Russian sample (N = 256). The obtained results of approbation indicate rather high psychometric characteristics of the method as a research tool. The developed questionnaire describes behavior consistent with seven strategies: collaborating, competing, avoiding, accommodating, teaching norms, expressing negative emotions, and searching a third party. The questionnaire can be used by various specialists for the prevention and settlement of intercultural conflicts, when conducting trainings on ethnic tolerance and intercultural competence and communication, when developing recommendations for state and non-profit organizations dealing with the problems of interethnic relations, adaptation of refugees and migrants.

BLACK GIRL TRIES KOREAN MAKEUP: RACE, GENDER, AND TRANSNATIONAL PLATFORM

This study aims to theorize how YouTube fundamentally capitalizes the racial and gender identity of women of color and local culture in a way it facilitates inter-racial and inter-cultural conflicts. I specifically focus on so-called K-beauty (Korean beauty), a catchy trend on YouTube which encompasses aesthetics, cosmetic products, and beauty ideals from South Korea, characterized by pursuing glowing, dewy, and light skin tone featuring a variety of skincare products. K-beauty is now being adopted by non-Koreans in North America including Black women influencers on the borderless platform of YouTube, who created the Black Girl Tries Korean Makeup video series. By using a Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis approach, I examined YouTube videos, comments, as well as the module titled “Building a Global Channel” to analyze not only the contents and discourses around that but also the platform that might have shaped this intercultural flow on YouTube. Black women YouTubers actively critiqued the light skin preference, as well as anti-Blackness reflected in K-beauty brands through the Black Girls, Tries Korean Makeup video series. Korean viewers, on the other hand, strongly rejected these accusations of the anti-Black aspect of K-beauty, explaining distinctive Korean racial dynamic as a one-ethnic country where the light skin preference is not translated to the anti-Blackness. I argue that this inter-cultural and inter-racial conflict arguably has been shaped by YouTube’s digital infrastructure that prioritizes short, trendy, how-to-style videos, that do not require a lengthy contextualization of each culture’s beauty practices, and history of oppressions.

Discrepancies in Perception of Cultural Differences and Their Potential for Intercultural Conflicts in German-Dutch Interactions

ABSTRACT We investigated whether the conflict potential of cultural characteristics might be influenced by the importance that interaction partners attribute to them. We conducted a quasi-experiment in which we analysed the attitudes of 74 German and 75 Dutch people towards two cultural characteristics which both Germans and Dutch consider to be equally important and two cultural characteristics which they regard as differently important. We determined whether they were aware of this difference in equal measure. We found that intercultural conflicts are unlikely when people from both cultures estimate correctly how important persons from the neighbouring culture regard a certain cultural characteristic.

Narrations on intercultural experiences in South African contact zones

The study is anchored in Pratt’s theory on ‘contact zones’ (CZ) and explores CZs in Gauteng-Province in Post-Apartheid South Africa, where experiences are influenced by highly diverse and hybrid cultural and language backgrounds. This article presents autoethnographic narrations of experiences of South Africans, addressing the void of emic perspectives in CZs in South Africa.Methodologically, the study follows a qualitative research design and is anchored in the social constructivist research paradigm, using 19 narrations of individuals. Four narrations, which mirror the experience of individuals from South African minority groups (Coloured and Indian) are presented in more depth in this article. Findings are analysed through content analysis. Limitations and ethical considerations are highlighted.Findings show the described experiences in CZs with regard to four categories: intercultural conflict, intercultural identity development, intercultural communication and its barriers, and intercultural non-verbal communication. They mirror predominant themes in South African contemporary society with specific focus on CZ experiences of minority group members, present boundaries created through the experience and narration of difference and possible ways to deal constructively with diversity within selected CZs. Conclusions are drawn and recommendations for future theory and practice are given, not only for the South African context, but also for constructive intercultural relations elsewhere.

Intercultural Conflict in the French Translation of Hrant Matevosyan's Novel “Autumn Sun”: Curses and Blessings

The objectives of this article are to relive the problems of translation of “culturemes”. In our research we focus on cultural translation, especially the issue of cultural inequivalences or losses occurring in the translation of curses and blessings in Hrant Matevosyan’s novel “Autumn Sun”.

СТРАТЕГІЇ АКУЛЬТУРАЦІЇ МІГРАНТІВ У КОНТЕКСТІ МІЖКУЛЬТУРНОЇ ВЗАЄМОДІЇ

The article highlights that the phenomenon of cross-cultural interactions retains its significance and relevance during the time of rapid globalization and active migration. Intercultural conflicts often lead to social imbalance, alienation, separation, and even to the loss of national identity. Everything depends on the nature of acculturation pathways, i.e. the strategies migrants choose in order to adapt to a multicultural environment. Within the framework of cross-cultural psychology, J. Berry – an influential Canadian scholar in the field of social multiculturalism – proposed the concept in terms of intercultural relations and acculturation strategies. According to the researcher, the latter comprises two components, namely: socio-cultural attitudes and the real model of individual behavior under specific conditions, which rarely coincide. Such strategies as assimilation, separation/segregation, marginalization, and integration have been discussed in the article. By assimilation we mean the refusal from or complete loss of people’s cultural identity, traditions, language, and the consequential unification with the dominant ethnic group. Separation or segregation is defined by the absence of significant relations or contacts with the dominant ethnic group and the preservation of ethnic identity and traditions. This strategy can take the form of either segregation or separation, depending on which group (dominant or non-dominant) controls the situation. Marginalization is characterized by the feeling of alienation, the loss of the sense of identity, and the so-called acculturation stress. This strategy leads to the deprivation of cultural and psychological interactions with both the traditional and dominant cultures due to exclusion or discrimination. Integration is perceived as both the preservation of the cultural integrity of a certain group and the desire to become an essential part of a larger community. Therefore, integration can be considered the middle ground between preserving one's cultural identity and joining a dominant society. In conclusion, the integration strategy is considered the most successful. However, it should also be emphasized that such factors as a relatively low level of social prejudice, positive relationships between different cultural groups, and a wide range of cultural values within a society are vital for the effective implementation of the strategy. In further research, we intend to investigate which of the strategies mentioned international students use most during the process of their acculturation to a foreign academic environment.

CITRA DIRI INDIVIDU DAN NEGOSIASI MUKA WARGA DENGAN BUDAYA KOLEKTIVISME DI NEGARA BERBUDAYA INDIVIDUALISME

Most of the Indonesian citizens implement a collectivism culture considering that Indonesia is one of the countries that implement a collectivism culture according to Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Theory. Indonesian citizens who migrate and live-in countries that implement individualism culture will feel the differences in their culture, which has the potential to produce intercultural communication conflicts. The Face Negotiation Theory that was initiated by Ting-Toomey explains that there are various approaches to resolving intercultural conflicts that exist. This research analyses the concept of self-construal and intercultural communication conflict management approaches used by two Indonesian citizens who are migrating in the United States and Australia through interviews and literature studies. The results of the study found the fact that the difference in self-construal concepts by each informant could produce the different approaches in managing conflict in communication between cultures, even though both informants were from countries with collectivism cultures.