Intercultural Communication Education Research Articles

Introducing intercultural communication pedagogy and the question of the other

ABSTRACT This paper constitutes the introduction to the special issue of Pedagogy, Culture & Society, titled ‘Intercultural Communication Pedagogy and the Question of the Other’, which emerged from the launch event of the Institute for Language Education at the Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh. It proceeds from the arguments that intercultural communication pedagogy has clung too long to essentialist competency models that erase all differences, and that to counteract their effects one needs to pay greater attention to the most pre-original and non-synthesisable ethical relation between self and other. To do so, the paper draws on debates that have problematised competency models, discussing in depth two interrelated central themes that these debates have tended to overlook. The first theme refers to the possibility of the oppressed turning into oppressors in their efforts to free themselves from the unified notion of culture that competency models support. The second theme refers to the emancipatory mission of critical pedagogy which, despite its best intentions, operates within a normative framework from which self and other become the same. The paper culminates with the questions that drive contributions to this special issue, offering an overview of the papers that it contains.

Becoming contemporaneous: intercultural communication pedagogy beyond culture and without ethics

ABSTRACT There is a significant amount of literature in which the educational question concerning intercultural communication is seen in terms of providing students with the knowledge, skills, dispositions, and competencies that will enable them to become effective intercultural communicators. While this line of thought seems to have become the ‘common sense’ of much educational policy, there is also a growing body of research in which critical questions are raised about this approach. There are particular concerns about the totalising tendencies in such approaches, and ethics is often mobilised as a way to understand and enact the intercultural encounter differently. In this paper, I contribute to these discussions from an educational perspective. I contrast a pedagogy of empowerment with a pedagogy of disarmament, show how the idea of culture functions as an explanatory device, raise the question of time in intercultural encounters, and argue that an ethical ‘turn’ may run the risk of becoming another totalising gesture in intercultural communication. Through these explorations, I outline the contours of a pedagogy for intercultural communication beyond culture and without ethics in which the central challenge is that of trying to become ‘contemporaneous’. I pay particular attention to what this may require from the teacher.

The affective ideology of the OECD global competence framework: implications for intercultural communication education

ABSTRACT This paper adds to the growing literature that critically examines the cultural politics of the OECD’s framework of global competence by turning our attention to the ‘affective ideology’ underlying this framework, namely, how affect is used ideologically to produce specific subjectivities and moralities in students. Building upon the work of affect theories in education policy, this paper explores how the concept of global and intercultural competences, as it is manifested in the OECD global competence framework, constitutes a site of affective sense-making and affective governance. In particular, the analysis reveals two ways in which this happens: first, by capitalising on global and intercultural competencies as self-centred, emotional skills to sell policy and pedagogical ideas and tools; second, by using certain affects as moral imperatives to shape global competence in intercultural communication education. The paper concludes with a discussion of the research, policy, and pedagogy implications for intercultural communication education.

Concluding remarks on intercultural communication pedagogy and the question of the other

ABSTRACT This paper constitutes the concluding remarks paper to the special issue of Pedagogy, Culture & Society, titled ‘Intercultural Communication Pedagogy and the Question of the Other’. The paper presents our own reflections of the broader implications and possible conclusions that can be drawn from contributing papers. Here, we argue that there is one notion, which has been overlooked in the field of Intercultural Communication Pedagogy, namely, the political. In this paper, we argue that the political should not be negated, or relegated, at the expense of the ethical – instead, the political should be included in addressing and redressing the ethics of Intercultural Communication Pedagogy. We reject the liberal doxa that Intercultural Communication Pedagogy should be conceptualised along the lines of non-conflict with the other, e.g., through understanding the other or having a dialogue with the other. Instead, we propose conceptualising the self and other relation in Intercultural Communication Pedagogy as a permanent antagonism, a permanent crisis, without resolution. In outlining our argument, we discuss some conceptual issues surrounding some postpositivist approaches and offer a way forward for Intercultural Communication Pedagogy through an engagement with the political.

Intercultural Communication in An Undergraduate English Coursebook in Mainland China: A Discourse Analysis Perspective

In recent years, intercultural communication education is occurring frequently in Chinese English textbooks. However, there is a lack of study on how these textbooks present the knowledge of intercultural communication and competence. To fill this gap, this article proposes to conduct a qualitative analysis of one English textbook (College English Intercultural Communication Course) published in mainland China. With Derrida’s deconstructive thinking, the topics, characters, contents, exercises and point of view provided by the textbook are evaluated via discourse analysis. Based on the deconstructive reading of the textbook, two cultural problems are found: (1) western-centric ideas; (2) essentialism and othering. There is an internal conflict between the deconstructive method of presenting intercultural communication and competence claimed by the textbook and an inner-circle unitary cultural center it actually constructs.

An Introduction to Intercultural Communication Teaching of English in Colleges and Universities in the Era of Big Data

An Introduction to Intercultural Communication Teaching of English in Colleges and Universities in the Era of Big Data

An Empirical Study of University Students’ Intercultural Communicative Competence

This study conducted a statistical analysis of the intercultural communication situation of university students in Zhaoqing University in Guangdong Province, China, in the hope of deepening the depth and breadth of research on intercultural communication, making up for the shortcomings of qualitative research, strengthening the intercultural communication teaching ability of university foreign language teachers, and expanding the reform of foreign language education.

Exploration and Practice of Intercultural Communication Education in a Chinese Applied University

In the context of global mobility and intercultural communication, the growing learning needs and cross-cultural communicative needs of Chinese college graduates have put forward new requirements for domestic higher education curriculum. Although many higher education institutions have made various attempts on intercultural related teaching and learning, many previous practices are still based on an essentialist perspective of theory. Based on the research setting of Sichuan University Jinjiang College, a leading applied university in China, this paper explores the path and practical forms of intercultural communication education in foreign language classrooms, and makes a critical reflection based on the non-essentialist understanding of intercultural communicative theory.

Toward Critical Reflexivity through Critical Intercultural Communication Pedagogy: Student Discourse in an Intercultural Conflict Course

Critical reflexivity, situated in a critical communication pedagogy framework, enables students and instructors to critique their identity positions alongside broader contextual structures enmeshed within the dynamics of intercultural conflict. This study therefore examines undergraduate students’ discourses of critical reflexivity following a retreat workshop experience in an intercultural conflict course. After collecting data through reflection papers, we found uneven understandings and applications of critical reflexivity that reflect the potential of critical reflexivity in helping students to question various assumptions about themselves and others but also the challenges of disrupting dominant ideologies such as individualism to increase understanding of structural factors.

Intercultural Communicative Teaching in the EFL Classroom

Intercultural communicative competence is highly recognized and required for global interaction all over the world these days. Therefore, intercultural communicative teaching is increasingly becoming necessary and significant in foreign language education, especially English teaching in China. To better understand and implement intercultural communicative teaching in the EFL classroom, this paper first differentiates relevant concepts involved in intercultural communicative teaching, then digs more into models of intercultural communicative competence and intercultural communicative teaching approaches, and finally summarizes and reflects on intercultural communicative teaching in the EFL classroom. Intercultural communicative competence is highly recognized and required for global interaction all over the world these days. Therefore, intercultural communicative teaching is increasingly becoming necessary and significant in foreign language education, especially English teaching in China. To better understand and implement intercultural communicative teaching in the EFL classroom, this paper first differentiates relevant concepts involved in intercultural communicative teaching, then digs more into models of intercultural communicative competence and intercultural communicative teaching approaches, and finally summarizes and reflects on intercultural communicative teaching in the EFL classroom.

Intercultural Communicative Teaching in the EFL Classroom

Intercultural communicative competence is highly recognized and required for global interaction all over the world these days. Therefore, intercultural communicative teaching is increasingly becoming necessary and significant in foreign language education, especially English teaching in China. To better understand and implement intercultural communicative teaching in the EFL classroom, this paper first differentiates relevant concepts involved in intercultural communicative teaching, then digs more into models of intercultural communicative competence and intercultural communicative teaching approaches, and finally summarizes and reflects on intercultural communicative teaching in the EFL classroom.<a name="OLE_LINK48"></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'serif';">Intercultural communicative competence</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'serif';"> is highly recognized and required for global interaction all over the world these days. Therefore, <a name="OLE_LINK47"></a>intercultural communicative teaching is increasingly becoming necessary and significant in foreign language education, especially English teaching in China. To better understand and implement intercultural communicative teaching in the EFL classroom, this paper first differentiates relevant concepts involved in intercultural communicative teaching, then digs more into models of intercultural communicative competence and intercultural communicative teaching approaches, and finally summarizes and reflects on intercultural communicative teaching in the EFL classroom.</span>

Overcoming Essentialism? Students’ Reflections on Learning Intercultural Communication Online

The fields of intercultural communication (IC) and intercultural education are in flux and the paradigmatic shift is away from essentialist approaches on culture and interculturality towards seeing IC and interculturality as flexible, fluid, contradictory, political, and ideological constructs. This study presents a virtual exchange project, a joint introductory course on IC between a Finnish university and a French university. One of the objectives of the course was to provide students with a more critical, non-essentialist perspective on interculturality. This study presents an analysis of 32 students’ texts (learning logs) that are processed qualitatively using content analysis to find answers to questions of (1) how students make sense of their experience of learning IC through multilingual online interactions, and (2) how different approaches on culture and interculturality are reflected in students’ leaning logs. The learning logs are written by participants during their six-week learning experience. The findings indicate that students gained confidence in interacting with people from diverse backgrounds and using multiple languages. How students reacted to and reflected on the more critical perspective on interculturality varied greatly, with many learning logs seeming to juggle between different approaches. The online environment was considered a major source of concern prior and at the beginning of the course, but as the course progressed it did not represent a barrier within the documented experiences. Our analysis aims to help teachers of IC to better address the needs of different learners. We also discuss the challenges and possibilities of a multilingual intercultural virtual exchange with a view to creating safe and motivating spaces for teaching and learning about interculturality.

Developing Students’ Intercultural Communicative Competence Through Threads of Personal Experiences: A Reflective Approach

Abstract With the development of world globalization, English works as a lingua franca for intercultural communication among different cultures in the world. This shift implies that introducing solely English native speaking cultures to students is not sufficient for their needs. This paper depicts the reflective teaching process of my ten years of experience of teaching intercultural communication. The paper describes how the teacher systematically reflects on the practice of teaching, continuously revises the curriculum, and finally formulates an efficient model of integrating students’ personal experiences into developing students’ intercultural communicative competence and awareness. This reflective study attempts to provide some pedagogical implications for intercultural communication education.

Revisiting Whiteness Pedagogy: Examining the Discursive Practices of Diverse Students in an Intercultural Communication and Conflict Course

ABSTRACT Our study explores discourses of whiteness amongst a diverse group of undergraduate students within the context of critical intercultural communication pedagogy. Through a qualitative analysis of two sets of student essays, we look across discourses of students who primarily identify as white and students with nondominant identities to identify convergences and divergences. We found that many white-identifying students used strategic rhetorics to maintain the invisibility of their whiteness and/or enact white privilege even while expressing awareness of it. Many students with nondominant identities expressed tensions in defining those identities within the liminal spaces constructed by whiteness. Some challenged the constraints of whiteness by drawing from complex histories, highlighting the potential of hybridized identities as cultural bridges, and using their privilege towards deeper learning.

Reconfiguring Intercultural Communication Education through the dialogical relationship of Istina (Truth) and Pravda (Truth in Justice)

This conceptual paper argues for the reconfiguring of Intercultural Communication Education (ICE) through a dialogical engagement with Istina (Truth) and Pravda (Truth in Justice). The paper argues that the field of ICE is predominantly characterised by normative conceptualisations of truth (e.g., characterised by fixed or ‘objective’ interpretations of language and culture) or hyper-relativist post-truth conceptualisations (e.g., non-essentialist approaches to ICE). This conceptual paper, therefore, addresses the following research question: To what extent can a dialogical approach to truth address and redress epistemic power imbalances in ICE? Through engaging with Russian language and the dialogical approach of Mikhail Bakhtin a non-normative approach for ICE is proposed. The paper conceptually argues in moving beyond the binary of normative and post-truth interpretations in ICE through dialogism. The paper serves at an important juncture amidst calls that the field of ICE is characterised by epistemic violence and epistemic power imbalances. The proposed dialogical approach to truth in ICE aims to redress epistemic imbalances in arguing for a form of non-normative dialogical ethics.

Räl-manapanmirr ga dhä-manapanmirr – Collaborating and connecting: Creating an educational process and multimedia resources to facilitate intercultural communication

Purpose: Yolŋu Ŋ(First Nations Australians from North-East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory) and Balanda (non-Indigenous people) often encounter communication challenges at a cultural interface during the provision of health and education services. To address these challenges, our project co-created an educational process and resources to inform and facilitate intercultural communication. During interactive workshops, participants and researchers from different cultural backgrounds reflected on their communication practice together in small groups. Reflection and discussion during the workshops were supported by multi-media resources designed to be accessible and resonant for both Yolŋu and Balanda partners. Participants explored and implemented strategies during intercultural engagement within and beyond the workshop. In this article we explain our processes of co-creating intercultural communication education and share features of our educational process and resources that resonated with participants from both cultural groups. Method: Our intercultural team of researchers used a culturally-responsive approach to Participatory Action Research (PAR) to co-create an intercultural communication workshop and multi-media resources collaboratively with 52 Yolŋu and Balanda end-users. Result: Collaborating (the power and value of genuine collaboration and engagement throughout the process) and connecting (the meeting and valuing of multiple knowledges, languages and modes of expression) were key elements of both our methods and findings. Our processes co-created accessible, inclusive, collaborative spaces in which researchers and participants were actively supported to implement intercultural communication processes as they learned about them. Conclusion: Our work may have relevance for others who are developing educational processes and resources for facilitating intercultural communication in ways that honour participants’ voices, challenge inaccessible systems, resonate with diverse audiences and create opportunities for research translation. Explanation of terms • Yolŋu are First Nations Australians from North-East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. • Balanda is a term used by speakers of Yolŋu languages to refer to non-Indigenous people. • First Nations Australians is used to include diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. This term recognises the identities of First Nations peoples who hold unceded sovereignty over their lands and waters. • The pronouns we, us and our are used to refer to the intercultural research team who are also authors (i.e. Emily, Gapany, Ḻäwurrpa, Yuŋgirrŋa and supervisors Anne, Lyn and Sarah). When sharing other people’s perspectives, or the voices of individual researchers, the text will specify whose voice is being shared.

A research trajectory for difficult times: decentring language and intercultural communication

ABSTRACT This study investigates how critical intercultural pedagogy, creative arts methods, inspired by new materialism, can support new forms of language and intercultural learning in contexts of conflict. Columbian university scholarship recipients in pre-service English language education from disadvantaged backgrounds, co-research alongside the researcher/educator to develop drama games for language and intercultural learning directed at teachers and learners in the students' home communities. The transformative, collaborative research approach, drawing on critical pedagogy and ‘Theatre of the Oppressed’, aims to decentre language and intercultural communication education, and promote a social activist stance among students in the face of local and global uncertainties.

Assessing Intercultural Competence Using Situational Judgement Tests: Reports from an EMI Course in Japan

Intercultural competence has become a central feature of intercultural communication education as a means of assessing students’ development. Like other university courses, teachers and other stakeholders need to find ways to account for students’ development and achievement in intercultural learning. Previous research has shown that there is not one single way to account for a student’s intercultural competence; instead employing a variety of measures such as quizzes, interaction activities, interviews, and surveys is advocated in determining a student’s intercultural development in a classroom setting. As a result, in this study, participants’ (n = 48) responses to situational judgement tests are analysed and explored. Specifically, participants responded to three cross-cultural workplace videos that depicted various intercultural incidents such as a misperception of time, unawareness of appropriate language and communicative behaviours in the workplace, and cultural differences in non-verbal communication. Overall, the results showed that participants can articulate an awareness of various intercultural concepts prompted by the videos. Furthermore, participants were able to demonstrate facets of intercultural competence by observing and reflecting on various issues in the workplace. However, the analysis revealed that participants’ reports are often inconsistent and varied in terms of complexity. In addition, grading the assessment is time-consuming and additional rubrics and raters may be required to evaluate student reports accurately and consistently. Despite these challenges, the study shows that situational judgement tests are effective in assessing students’ intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Using authentic materials can also be a beneficial tool, particularly in culturally homogenous EMI classrooms.

Exploring students' perceptions about intercultural communication education: Rethinking the design and facilitation of a course in Japan

Researchers and intercultural educators have put forward various theoretical principles and pedagogical ideas related to the design and implementation of intercultural communication (IC) courses. Recently, researchers have called for curriculum development to include students’ voices about their intercultural communication education (ICE). This paper reports on a study which examined 42 students’ perceptions of an intercultural communication course taught over one semester at a university in Japan, focusing in particular on motivations for students’ intercultural learning and their strategies for maintaining or further developing their IC competence upon completing their studies. Students were also asked to consider the significance of ICE in terms of their life experiences. Survey results revealed that participants enrolled in the IC course to reflect on their study abroad experiences, develop tangible skills for their vocations, and effectively manage IC interactions. They also claimed that learning about perceptions and IC transitions contributed to their understanding of their own experiences and broader intercultural issues. The study contributes to understanding of what students who choose to enrol in an IC course potentially seek from such a course in this context and how they interpret its significance in terms of their own goals and anticipated life trajectories. It also offers some implications for the design of future IC courses.

A Case Study of Intercultural Sensitivity of Junior School Students in an International School

The process of internationalization requires people to have higher intercultural communicative competence, which refers to a person's ability to successfully communicate in different cultural environments. It consists of cognition, emotion, and behavior. The study of intercultural sensitivity actually focuses on the emotional factor in intercultural communication competence. Based on the concept of intercultural sensitivity and English teaching practice, this article intends to contribute a little to the intercultural communication teaching and relevant study by analyzing the current level of intercultural sensitivity of junior high school students and interviewing English teachers about the implementation of intercultural teaching strategies.