In this introductory paper, we argue for a stronger link between language and intercultural communication research, theory development, and social/political action. We aim to reignite the debate ...about our role as public transformative intellectuals and to let advocacy and empowerment be embedded in our work. This calls for a shift in focus from the elite groups who have dominated the intercultural narrative to disenfranchised groups like refugees and (forced) migrant workers. We also reflect on our multi-positionality as scholars, and we present a dialectics of language, intercultural communication and social activism. Finally, we introduce the 12 papers that comprise the Special Issue.
•We investigate how culture could be studied in business marketing research.•We apply a constructivist perspective on intercultural business interaction.•A model for understanding cultural ...sensemaking of business interaction is proposed.•The model combines a sensemaking approach with narrative and metaphor analysis.
This methodological paper proposes a research model for understanding individual-level cultural sensemaking as regards business interaction in international business-to-business relationships. Culture is treated as knowledge inherited and learned by individuals through their lived experiences and learning in various cultural contexts. The developed research model integrates three complementary methods a sensemaking perspective, narrative research, and a metaphor analysis. Making sense of interpersonal business-to-business interactions rests on talk and meaning making, which represents itself as a process through narrative stories with plots. This narrative form is a basic sensemaking device, in which metaphor analysis is helpful in uncovering underlying cultural meanings. The paper concludes with a critical evaluation of the introduced ‘cultural sense-translation’ model, including avenues for further research and implications for practice.
In this article construction profession names were investigated using the corpus-linguistic method. We have identified quantitative differences in the functioning of lexemes. The frequency of the ...functioning of professional names is determined by their structural features. An effective principle for creating professional names is to choose a one-component term that etymologically ascends to international vocabulary. The results of the study revealed significant differences between professions names and also confirmed the relevance of corpus linguistic methods.
The article explores and introduces some of the crucial problems linked to Asian studies, from the viewpoint of intercultural methodology. The author explains why the mastering of Asian languages in ...the research process is of central importance, for it allows us, among other things, to apply and incorporate into the research original, primary sources from these regions. Through the lens of such methodological issues, the article then explores some central problems of Asian modernization and the question of whether this can really be equated with Westernization. The author concludes that modernization is a process, which includes universal, as well as culturally determined elements.
The conference (CA) is an important promotional academic genre that allows scholars to introduce their research to their peers as a conference presentation if the proposal is accepted by the ...reviewing gatekeepers. However, few studies have explored the CA in specific disciplines and no studies have examined this genre from an intercultural perspective. In this paper, we present a move‐step framework for the analysis of CAs and we examine comparatively the rhetorical structure of 80 CAs written in English and Spanish in the field of Applied Linguistics, with a special focus on those moves/steps that convey a promotional function. The results revealed that, to a great extent, the texts written in both languages present a high degree of similarity in terms of the frequency and distribution of most moves/steps, except for a significant difference reported in the frequency of occurrence of the step that states the implications of research findings, which appeared to be more prevalent in the English CAs. These findings may have relevant pedagogical implications for early career researchers and English as an Additional Language (EAL) scholars who seek to accommodate to the rhetorical conventions expected by the members of their specific national and international disciplinary communities.
Resumen
El resumen de las comunicaciones que se presentan en un congreso (RC) es un género académico promocional importante que permite a los investigadores presentar sus trabajos a sus pares si la propuesta es aceptada por los miembros del comité evaluador. Sin embargo, pocos estudios han explorado el RC en disciplinas específicas y ningún estudio ha examinado este género desde una perspectiva intercultural. En este estudio, presentamos una propuesta de análisis del RC basado en sus funciones comunicativas y examinamos comparativamente la estructura retórica de 80 RC escritos en inglés y español en el campo de la Lingüística Aplicada, con especial atención a las funciones comunicativas que confieren una función promocional. Los resultados revelaron que, en gran medida, los textos redactados en ambas lenguas presentan un alto grado de similitud en cuanto a la frecuencia y distribución de la mayoría de las funciones comunicativas, aunque se encontró una diferencia significativa relacionada con la frecuencia de uso de la función que resalta las implicaciones de los resultados de la investigación, apareciendo como más recurrente en los RC en inglés. Estos resultados pueden tener implicaciones pedagógicas relevantes para los investigadores noveles y para los académicos que usan el inglés como lengua adicional que persiguen adaptarse a las convenciones retóricas esperadas por los miembros de sus comunidades disciplinarias específicas ya sean nacionales o internacionales.
This article reports on a reflective account of a walk-along that brought together a researcher and a participant who visited the Curry Mile (Wilmslow Road) in Manchester, UK. It focuses on places, ...emotions and materiality in intercultural research in order to understand how 'things make people happen'. Drawing on the interplay of 'post-humanism', emotions in 'sticky' places, and 'cultural threads and blocks', this paper explores how decentring intercultural research facilitates new ways of coming together, allows the construction of cultural threads, and enables creative and reflective engagement.
— This article examines the strengths and weaknesses of several translation techniques currently in use through the lens of emerging opinions on the science and ethics of intercultural research. ...Broad scientific and ethical dimensions relevant to translating instruments and a distinction between generating multiple language forms of two kinds of instruments are introduced: those in which wording in the source language cannot be altered and those in which constraints of the target language can lead to changes in the original instrument’s wording. Developmental psychologists engaged in intercultural research can consider techniques for minimizing the influence of Western perspectives while pursuing conceptual equivalence in order to satisfy science’s concern for internal validity of translated instruments.
The authors provide an urgent call for cross- and intercultural scholars to re-examine many of the related themes and classic or contemporary study areas of “intercultural communication” and ...“intercultural relations” in light of the impacts that the novel coronal (COVID-19) pandemic is having on human interaction both across and within our social-cultural contexts. As scholars focusing on intercultural communications/relations, education, management, psychology, and social issues, the global COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a range of intercultural problems or issues that need to be researched to better understand related aspects of human suffering, social disruption, and economic inequalities. New research projects/papers need to address how these impact key intercultural theme/topic areas like cultural attributions/expectations, values/beliefs, identities, perceptions/stereotypes/prejudice, language/speech codes, cultural systems/patterns, acculturation/adaptation, intercultural effectiveness/sensitivity/competence, and conflict (Kulich et al., 2020, Table 3.7). Some research areas and applications potentially affected by COVID are highlighted, including our sense of national/international identity and cooperation, our mediated or actual social networks, our ways of framing or carrying out intercultural or cross-cultural cooperation, new issues emerging in inter-group contact, how we apply cross-cultural taxonomies or dimensions to analyze data, and how these ultimately affect our relationships with each other across all levels of culture (from dyads, to groups, sub- or co-cultures) or express and affirm interculturality at such times. Each area is highlighted by calls for specific types of intercultural research to address these challenges and opportunities.
This introductory article gives a state-of-the-art picture of the research on conversational humour in cultural contexts. The most important categories of conversational humour are briefly ...introduced, followed by an overview of the existing research on conversational humour within and across languages and cultures. The focus is both on topical strands and on the prevalent methodological approaches. The paper closes with a summary of the contributions to this Special Issue.
This article presents a case study of the Smarter Crowdsourcing project the International Development Bank and Governance Lab cohosted to cope with the emerging Zika outbreaks in Latin America ...countries. Using the lenses of intercultural communication methodologies, user-centered design, and global cultural flow, I examine the exclusion of at-risk populations as marginalized end users of the project. I also examine the impacts of this oversight on the effectiveness of the technocratic solutions. I then conclude by discussing the implications this case has for international health intervention, global technical communication, and community-based research.
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