Intercultural Identity Research Articles

Navigating affective and sensory fluidity in plurilingual and intercultural pedagogies in English language and literacy classrooms

This article examines the transformation of Australian EAL/D (English as an additional language/dialect) classrooms, transitioning from a monolingual focus on Standard Australian English (SAE) to embracing plurilingual and intercultural approaches in English language and literacy teaching and learning. Employing hermeneutic phenomenological and narrative analyses, the study reflects on the lived experiences of 16 English teachers who learned English as an additional language and migrated to Australia. The research highlights the significance of fluid affective processes, cultural responsiveness, plurilingualism, and intercultural identity development in language and literacy classrooms. Findings emphasise the central role of affect in EAL teaching and its implications for cultural responsiveness and linguistic diversity. The lived experiences of these teachers underscore the transformative potential of diverse teaching strategies that resonate with students on affective and cultural levels. Implications include fostering plurilingual literacy and identity development, promoting global identity, and cultivating intercultural capabilities among learners and educators. Ultimately, the article highlights the paradigm-shifting power of English language and literacy education when enriched with empathy, creativity, and a commitment to linguistic and cultural diversity. This approach not only enhances EAL/D education but also offers valuable insights and implications for other areas of the curriculum and pedagogical practices, promoting a more inclusive and responsive educational environment across disciplines.

DEVELOPMENT OF INTERLINGUAL AND INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCES IN DIGITAL AND STUDY ABROAD CONTEXTS WITH FOREIGN LANGUAGE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

This article explores the development of interlingualism and intercultural competence in foreign language learning within digital and study abroad contexts. It compares cultural contexts and the transformation of intercultural identity in a foreign-language modern world. The study examines the concept of intercultural competence, encompassing the ability to function effectively across cultures, think and act appropriately, and communicate with people from diverse backgrounds .The research involved collaboration between Polish Master's students of English, Business, and Translation, and non-language majors from the University of Houston Downtown (USA), using the TAPP online platform. The project also included ERASMUS study abroad experiences. Drawing on Interaction Hypothesis, the article highlights the significance of interaction in language acquisition. It identifies common language problems faced by non-native English speakers and native Polish students translating English essays. The study further explores the transformations in student self-identity judgments, including a rise in foreign language competence, trust, openness, self-authorship, and self-understanding. Digital challenges posed by automation and the need for adaptable language policy are addressed. The article explores the use of language corpora for clarifying synonyms and introduces digital tools like the SKETCH ENGINE KAZAKH CORPUS and Qazcorpora.kz. The research emphasizes the importance of intercultural and digital skills, including translation and localization as identity-shaping tools. It highlights the growing role of technology and individual agency in a globalized world. The article concludes by advocating for a shift from analog to digital language practices, and underscores the need for educational policy to prioritize digital skills and intercultural contacts for professionalization and employability.

A Study of Youth's Engagement Behavior in Transnational Media in an Intercultural Context: Taking Volleyball in China and Japan as an Example

In the era of globalization, intercultural communication studies have emerged as a focal point of research. Analyzing interactions and exchanges across cultures offers deeper insights into the intricate dynamics of cultural and social evolution. Sports, especially volleyball, serve as a bridge between nations, facilitating mutual understanding and cooperation. The significance of volleyball exchanges between China and Japan is unmistakable, representing a crucial aspect of bilateral sports diplomacy. Against this background, it is imperative to delve into the identity sentiments of youth towards their engagement with Chinese and Japanese volleyball media in an intercultural context. This exploration not only provides insights into the values and cultural leanings of the younger generation but also clarifies the intricate influence of these factors on cultural dissemination. The findings reveal that youths' enthusiasm for sports and their individual attributes directly impact their participation in Japanese volleyball media. Moreover, this influence is modulated by a sense of intercultural identity, reflecting a complex interplay between personal attributes, cultural affiliations, and media engagement. Additionally, the widespread use of social media emerges as a key factor, intersecting with intercultural identity to shape youths' engagement with volleyball media. By exploring this topic, this paper can help gain a deeper understanding of the intricate relationships between personal identity, cultural affiliations, and media consumption among young individuals, specifically within the realm of volleyball media in China and Japan.

The theory of international student development

ABSTRACT Current student development theories are mostly grounded in the experiences of domestic students in North America. The increasing portion of the international students in the post-secondary student population has created a glaring gap for a unique theory of international student development. A unique theory for international student development, with a focus on their intercultural learning experiences, will serve as a necessary theoretical foundation for international student programmes and services that are offered in most hosting universities of international students as an overlay on top of general student services. Through a critical review of existing literature, this paper endeavours to develop a coherent theory of international student development that endorses a critical and post-structural approach to the key issues of intercultural identity, intercultural competence and intercultural adaptation for international students.

The relationship between Iranian EFL learners’ socio-psychological distance and intercultural identity: Gender and learning experience in focus

This study explored the relationship between Iranian EFL learners' intercultural identity and their socio-psychological distance from the culture of people from English-speaking countries. The participants were within the age range of 15–31 with varying learning experiences. Specific questionnaires were used to measure their socio-psychological distance and intercultural identity. The results revealed a significant positive relationship between learners’ socio-psychological distance and their intercultural identity as well as its components, namely intercultural knowledge, intercultural learning practice, and attitude toward the culture of people from English-speaking countries. However, no significant relationship was found between either gender or language learning experience with either socio-psychological distance or intercultural identity, suggesting that socio-psychological distance and intercultural identity may not have much to do with gender and language learning experience. The implications of the results of the study have been discussed.

Atmosfera dialogu w klasach I–III pogranicza zróżnicowanego kulturowo

The Polish school is constantly changing, which is associated with rapid economic and political changes. We observe very intense population movements taking the form of mass migrations. For these reasons, in the paper, we present the essence of the borderland and its typology, the formation of the intercultural identity of a person from the borderland. It is on the border of cultures that children going to school exchange information, learn about other customs, values, learn respect and tolerance. It depends to a large extent on the teacher/educator, who should build a good atmosphere of cooperation between the educational team of the multicultural borderland. The subject of interpretive research was the ways of defining the work of teachers in grades I–III of the multicultural borderland, indicating the tasks carried out at that time, the meanings given to them by teachers of grades I–III in the Lubuskie Province using non-standardised interviews. The research showed a positive picture of the situation. The respondents’ statements indicated a great need to introduce intercultural education to the school reality.

The Impact of Chinese Language Learning Motivation on Intercultural Identity Among International Students at a Private University in Henan Province

Purpose: Chinese language learning motivation and the Chinese cultural identity of international students in China, as important influencing factors of second language learning, is a research topic of great practical value and actual significance. International students' Chinese language learning motivation affects intercultural identity to some extent. This study aims to explore the impact of Chinese language learning motivation on intercultural identity among international students and to provide experiences and reflections for the teaching and daily management of international students in the later stage. Research Methodology: Based on a questionnaire survey of 85 international students from an independent university in Henan Province, this paper uses SPSS26. software to analyze the overall degree of international students' Chinese language learning motivation and intercultural identity, the influence of different factors on motivation to learn Chinese and intercultural identity, and the impact of different Chinese language learning motivations on intercultural identity. Findings: There were significant differences in intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and intercultural identity by nationality, length of Chinese language study, and length of time in China for international students, and no significant differences by gender. International students' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations substantially positively affect intercultural identity. Students' overall Chinese language learning motivation and intercultural identity were high.

Critical Pedagogy and High Order Thinking Skills in a Classroom Discourse

The main aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of critical pedagogy and high-order thinking skills in upgrading values-based education and intercultural understanding. Critical pedagogy is a transformational approach that aims to embrace educational values, intercultural identity, the commonality of beneficence and the value of individual freedom in today’s globalised world. In this regard, the teacher’s role is to help learners to aggrandize their intercultural and critical cultural responsibility for acceptance of otherness, that is, self-reflection, essentialism, and cosmopolitanism in a value based educational system. This article used EFL teaching materials that drew on critical literacy (two culturally based units and a short story analysis) stemming from the critical pedagogy lens (praxis pedagogy). The data of this study were analysed qualitatively through the three stages of disciplinary Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis: description, interpretation and explanation; it is an approach that considers language as a form of political and social practice. The findings revealed that critical pedagogy and high order skills developed values-based education as well as intercultural understanding.

Education and Intercultural Identity: Review of Significant Monograph

Education and Intercultural Identity: Review of Significant Monograph

Strategie adaptacyjne młodzieży z pogranicza – komunikat z badań pokoleniowych

The conducted discussion is embedded in pedagogy of youth, Robert Merton’s theory of social adaptation, the concept of intercultural education and the concept of “intercultural identity” by Jerzy Nikitorowicz. In the article, the strategies are presented of the adaptation of young inhabitants of the Polish-Czech borderland to school conditions and the requirements of social life. The results of some diagonal studies among secondary school learners, conducted 13 years apart, indicated two dominant strategies of conformism and innovation, revealed a slight decrease in the average value of conformism (3%) and a significant increase in the average value of innovation (22% change). In that context, the features of permanent socialization taking place in the conditions of the Polish-Czech borderland were indicated: dynamism, bidirectionality, functioning/being “in-between”, cultural pattern, the principle of continuum. Empirically determined adaptation strategies of youth show how young people handle a complex reality and how they can join the mainstream of social life.

The intercultural experiences of Chinese international students in the UK

This paper aims to investigate a group of Chinese students’ intercultural encounters studying in two articulation programmes in one British university and analyses the barriers that seem to exist between them, home and other international students. This research is qualitative in nature. Thematic analysis of sixteen Chinese students’ interviews and reflective narratives were adopted. A core finding is that the power of the ‘Chinese circle’ provides this group with a comfortable zone but also presents a barrier to engaging in intercultural communication and developing more intercultural identities. Contributing factors to this pull of the Chinese circle include changing attitudes to English and Chinese language, negative intercultural experiences, and a lack of awareness of intercultural identity. It is suggested that universities should diversify their international recruitment, enhance intercultural education and training provided for all international students before and during their studies abroad.

Perceptions of In-service English Language Teachers Involved in Erasmus Exchange Programs on Culture and Teacher Identity

This study was conducted with the participation of five in-service English language teachers and aimed to find out how in-service English language teachers with overseas intercultural experience evaluate the effects of this experience on their language teacher identity. The data of the study were collected through semi-structured interviews and metaphor elicitation. Content analysis procedure was employed to explore the obtained qualitative data. The results of the study showed that the participants all regarded Erasmus Exchange Program as an opportunity in their personal and academic life. They all mentioned that interacting and negotiating with people from different cultures changed their “opinions and attitudes” about the people and culture of other countries. Also, they all stated that this experience raised some “cultural awareness” about their own culture and the culture of other countries. Also, they said that this experience improved their “language skills” specially speaking and listening. They also said that Erasmus experience also affected their “intercultural identity”. They all confirmed that their teacher identity has influenced after their experience as an Erasmus student.

The Importance of the Inclusion of Intercultural Diversity

The key issue is how to build an educational system that respects individual diversity while ensuring that diversity is included as much as possible in accordance with our conditions and capabilities. Searching for the structure of commitment, we wanted to diagnose the current state of variables that determine the current predictors that encourage and facilitate the inclusion of intercultural diversity of individuals as well as predictors that prevent equal approach for all cultures in the educational system. The interculturalism limited only on supporting or respecting diversity, will not yield significant results if it does not try to find the conditions for the development of this diversity. Social distance as a product of confrontation might have bad influence on the power of individual consciousness, an important prerequisite for intercultural identity, which is fundamentally built only by communication between two different parties - representatives of different cultural identities, who strive to become an intercultural community. This paper aims to present and point out the importance of the development of consciousness as a prerequisite for intercultural identity and inclusion of intercultural diversity, as well as to point out that it is necessary to communicate regardless of the differences among us, because here lies the beauty of an intercultural identity that is hidden in diversity.

Structural barriers and processes of defunding of funds of identity of refugee-background children

ABSTRACT Drawing insights from an ethnographic study with two young refugee-background children, this paper examines the multiple contexts that influence their identity negotiations during their first three years of resettlement to the United States. The analysis aims to expand the growing literature on funds of identity (FOI) with specific attention to structural barriers that defund their FOIs. The findings are categorised in three intersecting themes: 1) transnational and translinguistic funds of identity, which are challenged by xenophobia, monolingualism and social class barriers; 2) funds of intercultural identity, which are jeopardised by racial and religious exclusion; and 3) funds of academic identity in the home which are threatened by social class challenges. The paper concludes with the implications of the analysis for theory and practice.

How to Improve the International Communication of Sanxingdui Culture: A Contrastive Analysis of the Two Videos on You Tube – With the Inspiration from an Intercultural Anti-Tobacco Advertisement

Objectives: Anti-tobacco has been an international consensus for a very long time, and even all the countries in the world attempt to produce the thrilling advertisements to warn the smokers to quit smoking, but the stereotype is reducing its deterrent power now. So, a relaxing, intercultural anti-tobacco commercial appears to be effective, which inspires the author to think about the cross-cultural communication of a certain item. With Sanxingdui, the hottest cultural event in China, being a case, the article attempts to explore how to improve the international communication of a certain culture item. Methods: With data collection and comparison to demonstrate the actual effectiveness of Sanxingdui culture, the article proceeds from the “extension of man” theory in intercultural identity to propose several suggestions on how to promote its international communication from the perspective of “extension of culture” adapted from “extension of man”. Results: In the English-speaking world, Sanxingdui is faced with the insufficient quantity and poor quality of the propaganda products. Conclusions: Sanxingdui culture should take the intercultural perspective to redesign its overseas propaganda for the intercultural identity, as inspired from the intercultural anti-smoking advertisement.

The Life and Death of a Child: Mortuary and Bodily Manifestations of Coast–Interior Interactions during the Late Formative Period (AD 100–400), Northern Chile

Camelid pastoralism, agriculture, sedentism, surplus production, increasing cultural complexity, and interregional interaction during northern Chile's Late Formative period (AD 100–400) are seen in the flow of goods and people over expanses of desert. Consolidating evidence of material culture from these interactions with a bioarchaeological dimension allows us to provide details about individual lives and patterns in the Late Formative more generally. Here, we integrate a variety of skeletal, chemical, and archaeological data to explore the life and death of a small child (Calate-3N.7). By taking a multiscalar approach, we present a narrative that considers not only the varied materiality that accompanies this child but also what the child's life experience was and how this reflects and shapes our understanding of the Late Formative period in northern Chile. This evidence hints at the profound mobility of their youth. The complex mortuary context reflects numerous interactions and long-distance relationships. Ultimately, the evidence speaks to deep social relations between two coastal groups, the Atacameños and Tarapaqueños. Considering this suite of data, we can see a child whose life was spent moving through desert routes and perhaps also glimpse the construction of intercultural identity in the Formative period.

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.

Sign names in an intercultural classroom space: practices and perceptions of sign language teachers and students

ABSTRACT This study investigates practices around the bestowal of personal sign names to adult New Zealand Sign Language learners, from both teachers' and students' perspectives. Key findings include that, (1) learners receive similar types of sign names to deaf signers but in different proportions; (2) getting a sign name is regarded as a significant milestone and a valuable commodity in constructing an intercultural identity as a `new signer'; (3) deaf teachers experience pressure of student expectations and cultural sensitivities in negotiating sign names in a classroom context. These findings can inform teacher practices and learner expectations regarding sign name acquisition.

INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE IN SECONDARY-SCHOOL EFL STUDENTS IN SERBIA

Language competence alone is not sufficient for successful intercultural encounters and communication in diverse cultural contexts. These also require intercultural communicative competence, which represents a synergy of positive intercultural attitudes, knowledge and skills. Developing intercultural competences is a lifelong process and its intensity and dynamics are subject to constant change, as is the case with cultures themselves. The aim of contemporary intercultural education is to build an intercultural identity, namely a person’s critical intercultural awareness, sensitivity and intercultural resourcefulness. Intercultural education is based on the fundamental tenets of human dignity and equality, the capacity to comprehend, accept and to respect cultural differences. The aim of this paper is to determine whether (and to what extent) secondary-school EFL students in Serbia possess intercultural competences and sensitivity, as well as whether there are significant differences in intercultural competences depending on gender and the length of learning English. A quantitative study has been carried out with the use of a questionnaire as a research instrument. The results of the study have shown that the students possess developed intercultural competences, sensitivity and awareness of the fact that accepting cultural differences is a prerequisite for establishing successful intercultural links. Research of this type is significant because the students’ intercultural perspective is an important factor in determining the direction taken by their lives, work and further specialisation in a multicultural society.

Foreign-born Chinese students learning in China: (Re)shaping intercultural identity in higher education institution

With the trend of globalization, promising development in China has attracted a growing number of descendants of Chinese immigrants who choose to return to China to pursue higher education. Furthermore, the cultural pluralism that accompanies economic globalization is increasingly changing the pattern of world civilization. However, this leads to new issues of conflict, integration, and symbiosis between different cultures among international students. To address a gap in the literature, this study explored the trajectory of how international students of Chinese origin transcend their identities and build intercultural identities during their higher education study in China. The study investigates 13 participants from different countries, focusing on the process of (re)shaping identity under multiple cultural backgrounds and how they understand this process. These findings show that for students to adapt to Chinese culture it is crucial to encourage them to mitigate language barriers, awake cultural memories, consolidate values, expand educational exchanges, and continue to improve international understanding and broad recognition from an intercultural perspective.