Articles
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Adaptive Personality, Communication Competence and Psychological Health
Abstract: Expatriate adjustment has gained wide attention because of its relevance to expatriates’ successful performance. This study examined the adaptation experience of Korean expatriates in India. Y.Y. Kim’s Integrative Theory of Cross-Cultural Adaptation offers a multidimensional system to explain the link between adaptive personality, communication and psychological health. Our analysis uses a self-reported questionnaire collected from 78 Korean... [...] Read more
Navigating Contact Zones in 21st Century Schools: Creative Identity Development in Two Complex Transcultural Spaces
Abstract: This article describes the experiences and the creative identity development of A., an 11-year-old bicultural and bilingual boy who attended school in two different cultural contact zones (CCZs), in South Africa and Germany. The study is anchored in a single case qualitative research paradigm and follows an ethnographic approach by using qualitative interviews, observation and field notes. Findings show A.’s identity development within the... [...] Read more
Intercultural Topics in the Indonesian English Language Teaching Classroom: Contextualizing Local and Neutral Cultures to Target and Global Cultures
Abstract: Recently, there has been a phenomenon of reclaiming cultures other than those of the target language in English language teaching (ELT). This qualitative research explores intercultural topics in Indonesian ELT classrooms that are shown along with the target and global cultures. The research involves four English teachers from two Indonesian universities who have intercultural experience studying in universities overseas. Data were collected... [...] Read more
Predicting Intercultural Communication in Malaysian Public Universities from the Perspective of Anxiety/Uncertainty Management (AUM) Theory
Abstract: The mission to promote national unity has become more strenuous with the decline of intercultural engagement among multicultural students in Malaysian public universities. Underpinned by Anxiety/Uncertainty Management (AUM) theory, this article examines barriers to intercultural communication by integrating ethnocentrism as an additional barrier. Based on a quantitative approach, 449 valid responses were collected from undergraduates from... [...] Read more
Revisiting Hofstede’s Uncertainty-Avoidance Dimension: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Organizational Employees in Four Countries
Abstract: The present study was designed to explore the validity and applicability of the uncertainty-avoidance dimension in the contemporary world. Because social, cultural, and commercial interrelationships among countries have significantly increased since the introduction of this dimension, it would be advisable to revisit and investigate the substantiality of this dimension before making beneficial suggestions to people who engage in cultural... [...] Read more
Thriving in Indonesian Academia: French Students’ Intercultural Communication Competence in Studying Abroad
Abstract: To gain international recognition, many universities in Indonesia offer international student exchange programs, one of which is the credit transfer program. Participants in that program have differences in communicative competence. That holds for Indonesian students studying abroad and vice versa. This study analyzes the intercultural communication skills of international students and aims to acquire comprehensive information on... [...] Read more
A Qualitative Study of Intercultural Friendship through New Social Media
Abstract: Applying Casmir’s Third Culture Model (TCM) of intercultural communication (Casmir 1993, 1999), the current study examines the ongoing interaction between two international participants mediated by one social medium: WeChat. It describes the dialogic communication patterns between the participants that enabled them collaboratively to construct a shared and mutually beneficial third culture that brought about a productive intercultural... [...] Read more