Problems Of Cross-cultural Communication Research Articles

Intercultural approach to foreign language learning as a factor of studentsʼ personal development in the process of foreign culture studying

Positive intercultural interaction and positive changes aggravate cross-cultural communication problems in modern society, caused by contradictions between the values and lifestyles of different peoples. In this regard, the search for ways to transform cultural diversity as a factor hindering intercultural dialogue into a means of mutual understanding and enrichment, into a tool for the development of a socially active and independent personality, capable of being a full-fledged participant in the dialogue of cultures, is becoming more relevant in education. The purpose of the article is to compare the functions of speech activity and culture and show their close relationship; to demonstrate that the methodological meaning of this unity is that speech acts cannot be learned in isolation from culture, and intercultural learning is not just interaction with another culture, but the cultural development of the learner; to consider the intercultural approach peculiarity in learning a foreign language through cognition, evaluation, and comparison of the native culture with the culture of the nation whose language is studied. The research methodology consists of theoretical analysis and generalization of scientific and methodological literature, which considers the basic principles, concepts, approaches to culture, and universal and cultural features in teaching foreign languages; synthesis of modern theoristsʼ views, to demonstrate the importance of the intercultural approach in language learning and personality development. The authors consider the process of joint learning of language and culture, which involves not only the formation of intercultural competence as one of the results of language learning but also the acquisition of a linguistic and cultural picture of the world as the content of this process, as well as the formation of other competencies, abilities, and qualities of a multilingual, multicultural personality. The process of learning a foreign language can be seen as a unique potential for personal development. It is not only about the development of intellectual qualities that allow one to penetrate the mental space of people of a foreign culture and overcome their cultural isolation, but also about the rooting of value and semantic orientations that contribute to the successful self-realization of modern youth as cultural subjects in a multicultural space.

Cross-cultural communications in the digital age: relevance for the activities of journalists

Introduction. The article examines the problems of cross-cultural communications in the context of information technologies development and globalization, the influence of the media on the formation of moral and cultural systems in society. Journalism, as a socially important profession, should report all processes in a multicultural, multinational environment, considering cross-cultural interaction. Relevance of the study. The relevance of the study of cross-cultural communications in journalism is determined by the intercultural information environment, the need to take into account the ethno-cultural and socio-political differences of other countries journalists’ work, that requires developing intercultural sensitivity. The goal of the study is to consider the problems of cross-cultural communication from the point of view of journalistic activities in a transparent information environment. We need to: 1) analyze the main definitions and modern approaches to various aspects of cross-cultural interaction; 2) consider the influence of cross-cultural differences on psychological, political and social processes, on their reflection in the information space; 3) formulate the main directions of cross-cultural interaction for journalistic activities. Methodology. The methods of comparative analysis of scientific sources, hermeneutic interpretation of terms and postulates, situational modeling, monitoring of publications in Ukrainian and foreign mass media made it possible to determine reference points of cross-cultural communications for the media, to model options for the activities of journalists after the war in an information-rich world. Results. In the conditions of the development of technologies, the creation of various types of cross-media, and the popularity of social media, the role of journalistic activity is becoming more and more decisive. The development of society’s perception of the diversity, the formation of tolerance, and the understanding of the importance of multiculturalism and multilingualism for society depends on the reflection of cross-cultural differences, taking into account the theoretical background of such interaction. Conclusions. For Ukrainian journalists, the problem of underestimating knowledge of cross-cultural communications is especially acute during the war and lies in several areas: coverage of events inside the country, based on compliance with journalistic standards; coverage of the events in Ukraine to an international audience that lives in another dimension, often cannot imagine the scale of the loss and grief of Ukrainians; activities of fixers to accompany journalists from other countries coming to cover events in Ukraine.

Социально-демографические предпосылки консолидации региональных сообществ (на основе анализа статистических данных)

Introduction. In the conditions of social chaos and growing global competition, the task of forming consolidation of regional communities on the basis of their unification on common values, interests and goals becomes extremely important. Methods. For identifying socio-demographic prerequisites, an analysis was made of statistical data characterizing the development of the Belgorod, Voronezh, Kursk regions, according to the following indicators: territorial self-organization of population, demographic composition and socio-economic situation. Results and its discussion. The prospects for the consolidation of territorial communities are largely determined by their scale. It can be argued that the larger the community, the more difficult it is to solve this problem. As a result of the research, the following conclusions were drawn. Since the urban community, due to its scale and characteristics of life in an urbanized environment, is less prone to consolidation than the rural one, its predominance in the regions under study reduces the possibilities of integration. The deconsolidating factor should be considered a decrease of birth rate and an increase of natural decline of the population. The reduction in the size of indigenous population due to these trends leads to large flow of migrants, as a result of which the multiculturalism of urban communities increases and problems of cross-cultural communication arise. High level of socio-economic differentiation has a negative impact on the consolidation process.

Словарь культуры как особый лексикографический жанр

Modern lexicography is being replenished with dictionaries of a new type, which in their content combine information on the language and culture of a particular nation. The study is focused on the theoretical comprehension of such dictionaries, the identification of their most important characteristics and types based on the analysis of publications dealing with Russian culture. The article presents the analysis of the influential lexicographers’ theoretical works. As a result, the author specifies the definitions of dictionary types and determines the role of culture dictionaries in modern linguistics and language education. The article also distinguishes the subtypes (genres) of the cultural dictionary: a dictionary of concepts, linguocultural, linguistic and cultural dictionaries, a dictionary of cultural literacy. The author concludes that the dictionary of culture is a specific lexicographic genre, reflecting the achievements of modern directions of linguistics such as cultural linguistics, cognitive linguistics, and linguistic conceptology. These dictionaries combine linguistic, cultural and regional information. The dictionary has become not only a linguistic publication, but a book aimed at providing the reader with information on the culture and mentality of the nation. Dictionaries created to describe the cultural component for the purpose of understanding language and culture, their active use, and solving educational problems including problems of cross-cultural communication can be defined as culture dictionaries. As a result of the analysis of dictionaries of Russian culture, the author distinguishes the following genres: linguistic and cultural dictionaries aimed at describing a foreign language environment and culture, focused mainly on a foreign reader, containing information on geographical, social, political, ideological and other aspects of culture-specific concepts in the life of a particular country; dictionaries of cultural concepts, which are often not dictionaries in the traditional sense of the word, but collections of detailed philosophical and cultural articles; dictionaries of cultural literacy, containing information on culture, knowledge of which is necessary for successful communication; linguistic and cultural dictionaries, which popularize cultural information for a general audience and are especially useful for educational purposes.

ПРОБЛЕМА КРОСС-КУЛЬТУРНОЙ КОММУНИКАЦИИ В ЗАРУБЕЖНЫХ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯХ

Background. Intercultural interaction is the basis of positive development in the modern world. However, situations of confl icts and crises seriously disrupt cross-cultural communication. An analysis of the results of studies conducted in diff erent countries and in diff erent situations makes it possible to identify the psychological foundations for overcoming the negative consequences of violations of intercultural interaction. Objective. Present the experience of researching the problem of cross-cultural communication. Methods. Review of foreign literature. Results. An analysis of modern research on the problems of cross-cultural communication has shown that, with the unconditional recognition of the characteristics of the cultures to which the studied groups belong as the leading determinant of the study, there is no socio-psychological typology of cultures, which does not allow building a predictive analysis of the interaction of representatives of diff erent cultures. Th e studies describe various types of indirect, substitutive contact, the conditions of which allow establishing positive relationships, which is especially important in situations of protracted systemic political and economic crises. Researchers believe that objective conditions have developed for the functioning of intercultural psychology and that broad interdisciplinary cooperation is necessary to evaluate the eff ectiveness of the means of cross-cultural communication off ered by psychologists. Conclusion. Th e role of the semiotic approach in the study of cross-cultural communication is revealed. Since cultural diff erences are combined at the level of cultural codes, the semantic aspect of the combination of diff erent cultures is a source of possible misunderstandings and contradictions. Mediated, substitute, indirect contacts of people help to overcome misunderstandings and create a basis for active intercultural cooperation. In this case, conditions are created not only for understanding the representatives of contacting cultures, but the understanding of all representatives of a diff erent culture improves. Th e attitude towards representatives of cultures that do not participate in substitutive contact also improves.Th is eff ect is considered as intercultural competence.

Research on the Cultivation of Intercultural Communicative Competence in College English Teaching in the New Media Era

For modern and contemporary college students, English ability is very important, not only for exam-taking, but also for giving play to the communicative ability of English. For college English education, it is not only necessary to emphasize the depth of professional courses, but also to take into account its practical value. However, in the era of new media, most college English teaching only pays attention to reading and writing, ignoring the pragmatic function of English as a communication tool. In order to help better adapt to the new media era, achieve the goal of educating people in an all -round way, and cultivate talents for cross-cultural communication, this article analyzes the problems of cross-cultural communication in college English teaching, and focuses on the training strategies for cultivating cross - cultural communication. To promote better reform of college English teaching.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Tropical cyclone and business English cross-cultural communication based on temporal big data

Numerical simulation has always been the most important method for predicting tropical cyclone activity and has also been widely used in tropical cyclone climate research in recent years. However, the ability of numerical models to simulate tropical cyclone activities on a climate scale is still uncertain. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the modeling of the physical process of the model and strengthen the understanding of the impact of simulated tropical cyclone activities. In this article, time information is used to study the activities of tropical cyclones. Since time information is everywhere, a large amount of time information is now generated. This paper proposes a Spark-based auxiliary catalog system for managing large amounts of time data in a distributed environment. It uses a local index structure to significantly improve the query efficiency of temporal operations. Using this technology to explore tropical cyclones in the sea can improve the accuracy of tropical cyclone activity simulation and further the research on tropical cyclone climatology. In this article, we also apply tense big data to business English cross-cultural communication and use tense big data to manage a large amount of information that exists in business English cross-cultural communication, so that researchers can use relevant information to find problems in cross-cultural communication in the company language, and then study these problems. From the perspective of cross-cultural communication theory, this helps to enhance students’ phonological awareness and improve their use of business English. This paper uses a large amount of time data as the research basis and applies it to tropical cyclones at sea and business English to promote the vigorous development of cross-cultural communication.

РЕЛІГІЙНА СВОБОДА ТА ТОЛЕРАНТНІСТЬ У МІЖНАРОДНІЙ ПРАКТИЦІ ВИЩОЇ ОСВІТИ

This paper presents the recent survey results among 160 international students of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. The survey aimed to analyse the international students' opinion concerning the religiosity of Ukrainians to distinguish the existing or possible problems in cross-cultural communication in higher education. Obtained data was generalised, analysed and compared with the results of the similar surveys conducted among Ukrainian respondents. The comparison revealed that religios ity, religious tolerance and religious freedom of Ukrainians, as perceived by international students, are noticeably lower than reported by Ukrainians themselves. The authors believe that the presented Ukrainian case is representative and valid for some neighbouring countries with cultural and historical connections with Ukraine and can contribute to the establishment of good international educational practices.

Sociocultural stereotypes in cross-cultural communication

The relationship between language and culture has long been the subject of fierce debates among philosophers, linguists and social scientists. In spite of Chomsky’s theory about an innate biological basis for language and Steven Pinker’s concept of language instinct, language use, however, is social, so the idea of a biological language instinct seems to be controversial from the perspective of sociolinguistics. The concept of “linguistic worldview” refers to the cognitive function of language. Human beings have the ability to communicate with one another by means of a system of conventional signs, which refers to classes of phenomena in an extra-linguistic reality. Thus, a certain cognitive view of the world, its categorisation and conceptualisation of the identified phenomena are encoded in the human mind. People who identify themselves as members of a social group acquire common ways of viewing the world through their interactions with other members of that same group. Common attitudes, beliefs and values are reflected in the way all members of the group use language, i.e. what they choose to say or not to say and how they say it. The view of the world, established in a language, is not identical to any encyclopaedic knowledge of the world. The present paper is a general overview of stereotypes as part and parcel of the linguistic worldview that influence on cross-cultural communication. Most definitions characterize a stereotype as a schematic, standardized, constant, conventional, nationally dependant phenomenon and the last feature is especially important for cross-cultural communication. Some claim that stereotypes can cause problems in cross-cultural communication as they concentrate on generalized simplified perceptions about a certain nation. Others consider that stereotypes can play a positive role in cross-cultural communication since they help people to acquire basic knowledge about another nation. The ongoing cultural globalization, however, determines certain changes in the principles of interaction of different types of intertextual encyclopediae and reveals the necessity to reconsider the kind of cultural and sociological competence required nowadays. The author hypothesized that stereotypes of consciousness, being psychological phenomena, correlate with sociolinguistic phenomena — language cliches, linguistic specific words and expressions that manifest themselves in communication through different associations. The experiment conducted in Russia and in Italy among bilinguals clearly showed the dominance in the communicative behavior of native encyclopedic code that may be the main cause of misunderstanding in cross-icultural communication.

Uncovering Russian communication style preferences: Monological sequencing versus dialogical engagement

When we communicate with others, we usually know when we are expected to contribute to an evolving dialogue, such as during a debate, or when it is suitable to generate predictable responses, for example, at a marriage ceremony. However, in cross-cultural communication situations, communicating partners may have different assumptions in this respect. In particular, when a western communicator expects a dialogical development, a Russian participant may expect the same communication situation to progress as a sequence of predictable communication acts. This clash of implicit expectations often results in communication failure, without either party realizing that implementing incompatible approaches to information sharing is the reason for this failure. In this article, I introduce the terms ‘dialogical engagement’ and ‘monological sequencing’ whilst exploring cross-cultural communication problems between Russia and the West. I use these terms to describe mechanisms that characterize both cultures’ preferred communication patterns and which, when inadvertently deployed, cause collisions between Russian and western communicating partners. By uncovering these differences, I intend to progress beyond merely acknowledging cross-cultural communication problems between the two worlds. Besides, as in the Russian cultural setting, more communication situations are implicitly expected to develop as monological sequences than similar situations in the West, understanding this particular distinction may prevent practitioners in numerous fields from making the mistake of expecting cross-cultural communication situations to develop in line with their implicit assumptions.

National codes in cross-cultural communication

The article deals with the problems of cross-cultural communication connected with relationships of language and society. Today this aspect assumes the great importance because diversity of cultures is in the framework of contemporary civilization and they are in the constant process of interdependence and interaction. Each culture has its own language system and with the help of this system its speakers communicate not only within their native culture, but also beyond it. Thus, in the context the paper the author focuses on the national and cultural specificity of verbal and non-verbal communication between people of different ethnic groups by means of their national codes. National code is a goldmine for interpretation of the mentality of a nation, its spiritual culture, a mark of moral principles of people. Non-verbal means of communication have no small part in the process of cross-cultural communication. They expose national and cultural specific features of the ethnic proup, trace back deep into its history, represent national customs and traditions. In the course of cross-cultual communication non-verbal means juxtapose “image” of different culturs, baring an invariant and variant constituent part, they not only add the speech act, but also substitute the latter.

ÜBERSETZUNG ALS MENTALE INTERPRETATIONSAKTIVITÄT IN LINGUISTIK UND LITERATURWISSENSCHAFT

In the article the phenomenon of translation is regarded as mental interpretation activity not only in linguistics, but also in literary criticism. The literary work and its translation are most vivid guides to mental and cultural life of people, an example of intercultural communication. An adequate perception of non-native culture depends on communicators’ general fund of knowledge. The essential part of such fund of knowledge is native language, and translation, being a mediator, is a means of cross-language and cross-cultural communication. Mastering another language through literature, a person is mastering new world and its culture. The process of literary texts’ translation requires language creativity of the translator, who becomes so-called “co-author” of the work. Translation activity is a result of the interpreter’s creativity and a sort of language activity: language units are being selected according to language units of the original text. This kind of approach actualizes linguistic researching of real translation facts: balance between language and speech units of the translated work (i.e. translationinterpretation, author’s made-up words, or revised language peculiarities of the characters). The process of literary translation by itself should be considered within the dimension of a dialogue between cultures. Such a dialogue takes place in the frame of different national stereotypes of thinking and communicational behavior, which influences mutual understanding between the communicators with the help of literary work being a mediator. So, modern linguistics actualizes the research of language activities during the process of literary work’s creating. This problem has to be studied furthermore, it can be considered as one of the central ones to be under consideration while dealing with cultural dimension of the translation process, including the process of solving the problems of cross-cultural communication.

Socio-linguistic innovations in education: productive implementation of intercultural communication

Socio-linguistic innovations in education as effective managerial tool provide resolving wide range of cross-cultural communication problems, including the process of social and psychological adaptation of international students; however, methodological component of this notion is not completely identified. We performed innovative productive method in international students’ education and their socio-cultural adaptation. Our strategic target was to define the productive method effectiveness in the sphere of intercultural communication of international students in St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. We observed the level of communicative competence formation including linguistic, sociolinguistic, discursive, socio-cultural and social skills of international students which are highly important for their social and psychological comfort. We tested the students and identified that the level of their communicative skills was not enough for successful intercultural communication in a new socio-cultural environment (average point of 43% from 100% in Russian and 55% in English). Productive method implementation provided the communicative competence increase to the average point of 70% in Russian and to the average point of 71% in English. In conclusion, this study confirms the effectiveness of the productive approach as a methodological system developing student’s communicative competence which allows designing a flexible socially-oriented educational environment including elements of psychological support and adaptation.

Training abroad and technological capacity building: Analysing the role of Chinese training and scholarship programmes for Tanzanians

The case study in this paper examines the contribution of scholarship programmes provided by the Chinese government in improving human capital in the fields of science, technology, and innovation in Tanzania. The case study constitutes a survey of 85 Tanzanians who have received training in China, and interviews with 13 individuals including some of the surveyed trainees, scholarship administrators, and other stakeholders. While critical comments were raised, the trainees in our sample were largely positive about the Chinese training experiences. Besides the direct transfer of skills and exposure to China’s modernity, the indirect outcome of technology transfer has come about through the importation of equipment and technical literature. However efforts to transfer and apply acquired knowledge have been regularly impeded by structural barriers including cross-cultural communication problems, differences in attitude, and the fact that in several cases Tanzania does not have the capacity to absorb some of the advanced Chinese technologies taught in the courses. Two-way communication is needed in order to inform and adapt the Chinese government training programmes to the specific needs of the recipient African economies.

Taxi Drivers' Cross-Cultural Communication Problems and Challenges in Bangkok, Thailand

This paper reports an investigation of Thai taxi drivers' cross-cultural communication problems and challenges by synthesizing the research findings from two related studies: (1) a classroom investigation of Thai taxi drivers' communication challenges; and (2) a study of Thai taxi drivers' English language competence. The findings reveal that Thai taxi drivers had relatively low level of English competence, and had experienced three cross-cultural communication problems and challenges in the language, cultural, and attitudinal domains. Efforts to improve their English skills need to take into consideration the nature of their work and work conditions.

Coping with Cross-cultural Communication Problems in English(Cross-Cultural Communication)

Coping with Cross-cultural Communication Problems in English(Cross-Cultural Communication)

Роль межкультурной коммуникации в туризме, в содержании туристского образования и науки

This article descusses cross-cultural communication problems, determines the ways to solve them, proves the role of cross-cultural communication in tourism, touristic education and science.

A Pragmatic Cross-Cultural Study of Complaints Expressions in Jordan and England

Research shows an increasing interest in the area of cross-cultural pragmatics due to the existence of diverse problematic pragmatic norms (Al-Khawaldeh and Zegarac, 2013). It has been found that identifying cross-cultural differences in linguistic expression and socio-pragmatic norms of communicative acts would help to reduce problems in cross-cultural communication (Meier, 2010). To the best of the researcher's knowledge, no study has been conducted to compare the linguistic expression of complaining by Jordanian native speakers of Arabic and native speakers of English. To bridge the research gap, this study compares the number and types of politeness strategies that Jordanian native speakers of Arabic and native speakers of English use to complain. The study investigates the cultural styles and politeness strategies used by Jordanian native speakers Arabic and native speakers of English for expressing complaints. The analysis of the Discourse-Completion Tasks’ (DCT) results revealed that eleven complaints strategies were the most commonly-used by both groups, namely opting out, general annoyance, direct threat, accusation, prayer, advice, irony, rejoinder that shows no disapproval, exclamation, request for repair, and request for explanation. These strategies are manifested in the speech of both languages to save the hearer's face and remain polite when performing the inherently face-threatening speech act of complaint. Though both groups used various complaints strategies at overall frequencies that were closer, they were statistically distinguishable in the type of the linguistic expression of complaints, i.e. opting out and prayer. The results are then discussed from the universality and cultures-specificity perspective.

A Pragmatic Cross-Cultural Study of Complaints Expressions in Jordan and England

Research shows an increasing interest in the area of cross-cultural pragmatics due to the existence of diverse problematic pragmatic norms (Al-Khawaldeh and Zegarac, 2013). It has been found that identifying cross-cultural differences in linguistic expression and socio-pragmatic norms of communicative acts would help to reduce problems in cross-cultural communication (Meier, 2010). To the best of the researcher's knowledge, no study has been conducted to compare the linguistic expression of complaining by Jordanian native speakers of Arabic and native speakers of English. To bridge the research gap, this study compares the number and types of politeness strategies that Jordanian native speakers of Arabic and native speakers of English use to complain. The study investigates the cultural styles and politeness strategies used by Jordanian native speakers Arabic and native speakers of English for expressing complaints. The analysis of the Discourse-Completion Tasks’ (DCT) results revealed that eleven complaints strategies were the most commonly-used by both groups, namely opting out, general annoyance, direct threat, accusation, prayer, advice, irony, rejoinder that shows no disapproval, exclamation, request for repair, and request for explanation. These strategies are manifested in the speech of both languages to save the hearer's face and remain polite when performing the inherently face-threatening speech act of complaint. Though both groups used various complaints strategies at overall frequencies that were closer, they were statistically distinguishable in the type of the linguistic expression of complaints, i.e. opting out and prayer. The results are then discussed from the universality and cultures-specificity perspective.

The Russian Lenguage, Culture and Mentality from the Hungarians’ Standpoin

The paper looks at the cross-cultural communication problems – one of the most significant educational issues, given the globalization processes and economic and scientific integration. In Hungary, the interest to learning the Russian language and culture is increasing as the way for understanding the potential international partner and strengthening the business relations between Hungary and Russia. In author’s opinion, the unbiased information on the current situation in Russia and the history of relations between the two countries should stimulate the motivation for learning Russian as the second and third foreign language in Hungarian educational institutions. The retrospective analysis of the above relations demonstrates both the positive and negative trends, the latter being caused by the stereotypes influenced by the certain political powers and historical events. The paper empha- sizes the reasons behind the existing prejudices and myths concerning Russia. The author believes that such misjudgments should be persuasively corrected by the experts in the Russian language and culture, and regards this task as the first priority. In conclusion, the paper provides the brief review of the recent Hungarian publications on the comparative culture studies.