Articles
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Intercultural Sensitivity A Study of Pre-service English Language Teachers
Abstract: Since societies develop mutual aims and different societies perpetuate developing long-term economic, social and cultural relationships with other cultural groups and the global instability continues hitting the world, developing intercultural sensitivity becomes more and more important at all levels of the education, especially for those who will teach other languages. One of the major aspects of intercultural communication competence is... [...] Read more
Migrant Perceptions of Social Media
Abstract: New media are changing the way identities are managed. This is increasingly relevant to global communication (Lévy, 2000). The purpose of this article is to understand how these changes effect individual perceptions of media within a new cultural environment. By applying Q-methodology to cultural migration, this research asked cultural sojourners to rank subjective statements of media. Factor analysis were applied to the rankings, which... [...] Read more
Politeness Strategies in Remindings A Cross-cultural Study of Iranian EFL learners and Americans
Abstract: This cross-cultural study examines the speech act of reminding by Iranian English learners and American English native speakers. The primary objective is to study how Iranian EFL learners perform much understudied speech act of reminding in English. To this end, the participants are selected from Iranian learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and American English native speakers through an open-ended questionnaire in the form of a... [...] Read more
Intercultural communication training to support internationalisation in higher education
Abstract: With a steady growth in globalisation, many universities increasingly invest in their human capital by training employees to meet the demands of organisational diversity, to become culturally flexible and adaptable in multicultural contexts. Internationalisation is an important part of a university’s economic, academic and cultural vitality, and this is true at Massey University in Aotearoa New Zealand. In order to proactively build the... [...] Read more
ESL Learners’ Intercultural Competence, L2 Attitudes and WEB 2.0 use in American Culture
Abstract: This study explores ESL learners’ intercultural communication, L2 attitudes, and their relationship to the use of Web 2.0 tools and technology. Survey responses were obtained from 24 intermediate ESL speakers living in the United States. The results reveal there is low correlation between learners’ intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and use of technology. However, the correlation is stronger for learners’ ICC and L2 attitudes.... [...] Read more
Functions of Frequently Used Back Channels in a Corpus of Intercultural Conversations between Hong Kong Chinese (HKC) and native English Speakers (NES)
Abstract: In conversation, two channels operate simultaneously. Yngve (1970) refers that the ‘main’ channel is that through which the speaker sends messages, whereas the ‘back’ channel, such as okay , mm is that over which the listener offers response without claiming the speakership. Back channels are particular to languages and cultures. The present study aims to examine the naturally occurring conversations between Hong Kong Chinese (HKC) and... [...] Read more
Developing Intercultural Competence via Social Media Engagement in a Language Learning Framework
Abstract: Today’s EFL students need both advanced language skills and an appreciation of other cultures. Technology for language learning, however, is usually focused on language skills. Cultural understanding is rarely a primary goal. Intercultural competence was the primary goal of this study, using a technically-mediated and culturally-oriented online learning community to cultivate intercultural competence using social collaboration, understanding,... [...] Read more