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Currently, the analysis of rhetorical moves is extensively applied to business genre conventions. This paper adopts a corpus-assisted genre approach to compare three major rhetorical moves in corpora of students' and professionals' project proposal abstracts to elicit evidence-based recommendations for the pedagogy of business communication. The findings indicate that, while overall features in the proposal abstracts written by actual business professionals and those by students of business vary quantitatively but not qualitatively, students focus more on the aim of the project, and professionals tend to evenly highlight all sides of the project and position it within the context.

Background: Spoken discourse impairments post-traumatic brain injury (TBI) are well-documented and heterogeneous in nature. These impairments have chronic implications for adults in terms of employment, socializing and community involvement. Intervention delivered by a speech-language pathologist (SLP) is recommended for adults with discourse impairments post-TBI, with an emphasis on context-sensitive treatment. The developing evidence base indicates a wide array of treatment components for SLPs to evaluate and implement within their clinical practice. However, there is limited insight into how SLPs are currently treating discourse impairments and the rationales informing clinical practice. Aims: To explore the under-researched area of clinical practice for spoken discourse interventions with adults post-TBI, including treatment components and clinician rationales, and to contribute towards a shared knowledge base. Methods & Procedures: Participants were recruited via purposeful sampling strategies. Six SLPs participated from Australia, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US). Semi-structured interviews were conducted via Zoom. Interviews were manually transcribed, coded and analysed via a qualitative content analysis approach. Outcomes & Results: Participants described discourse treatment practices across various settings and TBI recovery stages. Results indicated that SLPs used numerous treatment activities, resources and outcome measures. Intervention approaches primarily targeted social communication skills, strategy development/utilization and insight-building. Clinical practice conformed to available guidelines where possible, reflected best practice and incorporated components of the research literature. Participants reported using individualized treatment activities aimed at addressing client-specific factors and rationales prioritized tailored, context-sensitive and goal-directed treatment. Conclusions & Implications: This study provided insight into a previously under-researched area. It highlighted a wide range of treatment activities and factors informing current SLPs' treatment of spoken discourse impairment post-TBI. Overall, clinical practice and rationales discussed in this study were aligned with best practice and emphasized a contextualized, individualized approach to discourse treatment across service settings and stages of recovery. Participants identified areas requiring further support, including access to training, resources and research, and the challenge of finding suitable outcome measures. Further investigation into discourse management post-TBI, from initial assessment to outcome measurement, may help inform clinical decision-making and the transfer of research to practice.

Deception is a misrepresentation of reality that attracted many researchers examining it from various perspectives. However, no due attention has been given to the discursive deception strategies in the work of think tanks. This study aims at exposing the deception strategies deployed in the conservative American think tanks' discourse which concern itself with the (re)production of socio-political realities. The study holds the significance of the detection and explication of argumentative and pragmatic discursive deception strategies which impose ideological hegemony and socio-political polarization of the positively presented "Self" against the negatively presented "Other." This study attempts to answer a twofold question: what are the discursive deception strategies involved in the work of think tanks, and why/how these strategies are applied? To this end, eight political texts from three think tanks were analyzed adopting an eclectic model based on van Dijk (2000) and Yule (1996). The analyzed data mainly focuses on four political themes namely (1) terrorism in Islam, (2) Russian role in the Middle East, (3) the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, (4) the U.S. policy in the Middle East. The results demonstrate the pervasiveness of discursive deception strategies in the think tanks' discourse which endeavor to communicate an ideological polarization of a positive presentation of the "Self" against a negative presentation of the "Other" and reinforce a hegemony of particular socio-political realities. Findings can be beneficial for students of (critical) discourse analysis, media, communications studies, and English for special purposes.

Drawing on empirical data from two ethnographic studies on familial im/migration and education on both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border, in this article, we focus on critical incidents that resulted in listening realignment during data collection in which children deploy their politicized funds of knowledge (PFOK) (Gallo & Link) to shape the form and content of our research. We argue that as researchers in educational settings we must reflect on these exceptional moments and reframe our methods of talking with im/migrant children to engage with their politicized funds of knowledge. This entails following children's leads as the experts of their lives while opening up spaces for their PFOK, including their range of narrative approaches that we may inadvertently discount.

The study aims to examine how higher education institutions (HEIs) in three countries responded to the challenges of COVID-19 over a six-month period at the outbreak of the global pandemic. Employing document analysis, we examined 732 publicly available communications from 27 HEIs in Canada, China, and the USA. Through theoretical frameworks of crisis management and Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT), we explore how HEIs respond to the pandemic and protect campus stakeholders. The study revealed common patterns in communication strategies during different stages of the pandemic that include accepting responsibility, emotional reassurance, and compensating victims. It also revealed key differences across social contexts and environments and distinct leadership styles. Findings offer insight into how HEIs communicated at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic and inform the application of SCCT and crisis management theory to institutional behavior in the context of prolonged and intersecting disasters.

The school principal is responsible for transmitting mission, vision, and values in and out the school, with a stronger, clearer emphasis for the success and well-being of students. Competency standard is defined as a guide that names the behaviours expected for the directions to do an effective job in their schools. This article presents the results of a content analysis of four competency standards for school principals from four different locations; two Canadian provinces (Québec and Alberta), Australia, and the United States. Despite the particularities of each context, the four competency standards studied present 85% of similarities. Competencies absent from these standards include technology, cultural diversity, and balance between personal and professional life.

In this critical essay, Yumi Matsumoto uses the concept of English as a lingua franca to understand multilinguals' communicative practices and to support an alternative understanding of English language use among international students in US university classrooms. The essay draws on two examples of university classroom interactions involving non-native international students' English use and considers them through both more traditional perspectives on second language acquisition and an English as lingua franca approach, which analyzes communicative practices without making assumptions about students' status as either native or non-native English speakers. These cases suggest that multilingual international student English use is transforming the notion of "Englishes," specifically multiple English language norms and communicative practices in US university classrooms. By understanding international students' communicative practices and valuing how they communicate and achieve understanding through different Englishes, Matsumoto asserts, we can provide better educational support for multilingual international students and empower them.

"is facebook down" trended on Google on October 4, 2021, when Facebook became temporarily globally unavailable. Web users proactively seek information when they encounter issues online. System status dashboards are one way libraries can leverage this behavior to share changes to resources or services and improve transparency, reference services, and the user experience. The University at Albany Libraries Discovery Services Librarian and User Experience Librarian implemented Springshare's System Status Management tool to share system statuses with library staff and the campus community. The institutional context, implementation, and impact are described in this article. The authors reviewed Association of Research Libraries members' library websites to investigate if and how system statuses are being used to communicate with patrons. Results indicate that the majority of libraries reviewed do not employ a dedicated system status dashboard to share information with their constituents, but may use other types of alerts instead.

Distance education is expanding in all continents, and the use of video has dominated internet. Synchronous Video Communication (SVC) has not been an option thoroughly investigated and practitioners, who use and design synchronous learning scenarios, are in urgent need of guidance. Distant learners face many barriers, and as a result, they drop out more frequently than on-campus students. Educators seem to be equally affected by the "transactional distance" and the new digital literacies needed for facilitating online learning. This study explores the educators' perspective on how SVC could offer alternative educational forms and possibilities for distance learning. Findings had indicated that the use of visual communication and human to human contact (prosopogonosia: seeing faces) could have a strong impact on learning and teaching, therefore, a theory called Tele-proximity was formulated. Tele-proximity is defined as online embodiment that explains how instructors and students are connected in synchronous networked environment via tele-operations. SVC creates a sense of place or a stage where online identities perform and highlights recent research on audio-visual signals in communication and team work (Pentland, 2012, 2008). The theory can be seen as an extension of the Community of Inquiry Model (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000) and a theoretical framework according to which learning objectives could be designed. Transactional distance could be minimized and may be implemented to facilitate more synchronous, visual, and humane options in distance education.

This study compares how the native speakers of Thai (TTs) and American (AEs) as well as the Thai learners of English as a foreign language with high exposure to English (TEHs) and those with the low exposure (TELs) perform the speech acts of compliments (Cs) by taking the context of age into their consideration. The data were collected by means of a written discourse completion task (WDCT). The analysis of the data examined the pragmatic structures and in particular, strategies of Cs. The six pragmatic structures in terms of head acts [H] and supportive moves (S) were found. They were [H] only, [H]+(S), [H]+(S)+[H], (S)+[H], (S)+[H]+(S), and (S) only. Surprisingly, as opposed to other speech act studies, the AEs showed their preferences towards (S)-oriented structures while the TELs tended to favour [H]-oriented structures in giving Cs in all given situations in the context of age. A closer look at the C strategies exhibited cultural specific preferences among the AEs and the TTs which explain the interlanguage phenomena among the TEHs and the TELs. The interlanguage phenomena found in the two groups of learners may be seen as their incomplete mastery of English but they also could be interpreted as the communication strategies of the TEHs and the TELs to smooth their interactions in English. [Contains an English Written Discourse Completion Task (WDCT in English), and a Thai Written Discourse Completion Task translated version of English WDCT into Thai.]

This study examines the linguistic resources by which foreign language (L2) learners express their ideological positions in online discussions taking place in a telecollaborative encounter during one semester. More specifically, the study attempts to decipher how L2 learners discuss and argue their points of view regarding their first culture, their second culture, and the topic in general, depending on the issue under discussion (immigration and nationalism or patriotism) and to the country where the learners were based (US or Spain). Twenty-four learners, organized into six groups, each with two students from the US and two from Spain, participated in three online forums. For the analysis, learners' postings were subjected to quantitative and qualitative content analysis applying two discourse-semantic subsystems of the Appraisal framework, Engagement--the linguistic resources used to reflect the writer's position and willingness to recognize alternative positions--and Attitude--the linguistic resources used to indicate positive or negative assessment of people, places, things, and states of affairs. This study concludes that there were clear differences in the discursive styles between both sets of learners and topics. Overall, for instance, the learners employed more monoglossic statements when discussing nationalism or patriotism rather than immigration and Spain-based learners made more use of judgment markers than their US-based counterparts did.

China has become an exporter of material goods to the world, particularly to the United States. It is time for the exploration of a mutually beneficial relationship in a strikingly different realm, that of human capital in higher education and its contributions to the quality of university teaching. To faculty members and students at U.S. universities the human face of this relationship is Chinese international teaching assistants (ITAs) who are graduate students in science and math, and who are also being supported as teachers of basic undergraduate courses within their academic disciplines. Chinese ITAs are the largest single group of international graduate students, and they make American undergraduate education possible in chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics, business, and computer science. The quality of the performance of native English speaking and non-native English speaking TAs has an impact on the learning of U.S. undergraduates, and while many in American universities praise Chinese ITAs' high levels of knowledge within their areas of study, less praiseworthy are their English communication skills. For a variety of reasons many young Chinese scholars arrive in the U.S. not able to function as content teachers who have to operate in English, and a salient feature of this inability to use English to communicate is Chinese ITAs' lack of experience with suprasegmental aspects of English pronunciation such as Discourse Intonation (DI), which is used to emphasize and differentiate ideas, begin and end topics, and express social relationships in spoken utterances. Yet English as a Foreign Language education (EFL) in China does not deal with suprasegmental aspects of English pronunciation, nor really with spoken intelligibility at all. This proposal describes an initial step in a three-year agenda for improving the current exchange of human capital and knowledge in higher education between China and the U.S., and, ostensibly, other countries in which young Chinese scientists seek advanced degrees, and in which English is the medium of instruction and communication. In essence, greater mutual communication and curricular exchange between American and Chinese institutions of higher education is needed. There needs to be a shift in who Chinese universities see as stakeholders for their EFL program outcomes. One possible mechanism would be a mutually developed course, "Using English to Teach Labs and Classes in U.S. Universities," to be developed and taught in China to late-career undergraduates who intend to pursue graduate study in the U.S. Two established research and science institutions will be focused on, one in the U.S. and one in China. As the initial step, one ITA educator and materials development specialist from the U.S. university will visit the Chinese university for a five month period. This report creates a context and outlines the agenda for this working visit, and for the development of the course. (Contains 7 tables and 2 figures.)

Students from six countries--Australia, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United States--recalled the extent to which their best or worst professors used various forms of communication that have been associated with effective teaching. Across cultures, best professors were perceived to employ more nonverbal expressiveness, relaxed movement, in-class conversation, and out-of-class communication than worst professors. Relative to Japanese and Taiwanese students, Australian and U.S. students perceived their professors to use more nonverbal expressiveness. Students from Australia, Sweden, and the U.S. also perceived their best professors to use more in-class conversation than students from Japan or Taiwan perceived their best professors to use. However, Australian and U.S. students also perceived their best professors to use "less" out-of-class communication than did students from the other four countries. There were also differences in the forms of communication that discriminated between best and worst professors in each culture. For example, nonverbal expressiveness and in-class conversation were the best discriminators for Australian and U.S. students, whereas out-of-class communication and relaxed movement were the best discriminators for Japanese and Taiwanese students.

Within organizations, the communicative phenomenon of humor is commonplace. Humorous talk is just as important and frequent to regular discourse that takes place between organizational members. In this inquiry we examine humor as a particular way of communicating between members of a small Midwestern United States organization. Specifically, we examine how three functions of humor (i.e., joking, sarcasm, and teasing) are used amongst members during normal business hours (8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.). Using ethnography of communication, we conduct both fieldwork and interviews discovering that this organization exemplifies humor as a socially constructed phenomenon to complete the typical workday.

It seems to happen every day. A meeting is called to outline a new strategy or sales plan. Down go the lights and up goes the PowerPoint. Strange phrases appear--"unlocking shareholder value," "technology-focused innovation," "maximizing utility." Lists of numbers come and go. Bullet point by bullet point, the company's goals float across the screen. Eyes glaze over. Some ideas have longer shelf lives than others. Nike said "Just do it," and people did. John F. Kennedy announced that the U.S. would put a man on the moon in under 10 years--and it happened. Most managers can't get their employees to remember the salient points of their last presentation. In "Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die," brothers Chip and Dan Heath aim to change that. Chip, a professor of organizational behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Dan, a consultant at Duke Corporate Education, argue that great ideas are made, not born--and that businesses can drastically improve their messages. Drawing on the work of psychologists, education researchers, and political scientists, the Heaths identify six traits they think all great ideas--from urban legends to public policy to product design--have in common. Call it the tipping point for the How to Win Friends and Influence People set. The Heaths' own big idea is already generating business school buzz. The author spoke with the Heaths about the six things managers can do to tap into their inner JFK and keep employees awake: (1) simplicity; (2) unexpectedness; (3) concreteness; (4) credibility; (5) emotion; and (6) stories.

Mental health difficulties amongst children and young people increasingly dominate the British government agenda. Despite the 2014 Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice extending statutory provision up to the age of 25, the mental health needs of older young people are often overlooked in educational guidance. For many young people, the impact of depression has wide ranging social and economic implications; therefore it is important to enable early identification and intervention. Understanding self-report processes may be one way of enabling this. From this perspective, the present review aimed to investigate what narratives young people use to communicate depression. Eight studies were identified and assessed using qualitative and quantitative frameworks, and reported using PRISMA guidelines. Findings provide useful information about issues, methods and processes in communicating depression as well as perceptions about effective support. Implications for future research and practice are considered in light of these findings.

Employability development is a strategic priority for universities across advanced western economies. Despite this, there is no systematic study of employability development approaches internationally. In this study, we considered how universities portray employability on the public pages of their websites. We undertook website content analysis of 107 research-intensive universities in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Following Farenga and Quinlan, we classified these strategies as "Portfolio," "Hands-off," "Award" and "Non-embedded." Portfolio or Award strategies were the most common across all four locations; Hands-off and Non-embedded strategies were more common to US universities; and Award was more common in the United Kingdom. Universities focused on either "possessional" or "positional" approaches to employability. We advocate for a pedagogical shift towards processual approaches in which responsibility for employability development is shared.

Despite the stated importance of a successful kindergarten transition (TTK) for future school success, no research has addressed this transition for culturally/ethnically diverse families having children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). To address this gap, six focus groups (three with ethnically diverse parents, one with kindergarten teachers, and one each with early childhood resource teachers and early intervention providers) were conducted to elicit the experiences of these stakeholders regarding TTK for children with ASD generally, and the TTK experience for ethnically diverse families specifically. Four major themes relating to TTK emerged from the focus groups: Relationship Building, Communication, Knowledge, and Support. While these themes were relevant for all groups, parents who were relatively recent immigrants and for whom English was not a first language identified unique difficulties. Results are discussed within the context of Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory. Recommendations to improve the experience for ethnically diverse families are explored.

In the article the principles, strategies, methods, techniques of communicative pedagogy of American scientist Thomas Gordon and system components of effective communication training for parents, teachers and administrators are enlightened. It has been determined that the main principle of Thomas Gordon's pedagogy is an interactive way of knowing the world, which is realized within communicative activities through which any views and opinions are transferred to the partner, and his reflection on the expressed opinion is perceived that helps enrich the experience of interpersonal interaction. The concept, based on Thomas Gordon's educational system, according to which a child is not the property of parents, and is characterized by his/her own identity, different from his/her parent's identity and is entitled to his/her own life, a unique personality, privacy, independence has been marked. The main goal of Thomas Gordon's educational system has been revealed: child's development, his/her creative potential, rather than subordination to some external ideals or beliefs, alien to his/her nature. Thomas Gordon stresses that it is necessary to create conditions for child's development, rather than try to bring up such a type of person which adults created in their mind. Thomas Gordon's conflict resolution strategy, based on six stepwise algorithm has been characterized: 1) recognition and definition of conflict; 2) search for possible solutions to the conflict; 3) critical evaluation of solution projects; 4) choice of the most appropriate solutions; 5) examining ways of introducing defined solution; 6) monitoring the results of performed actions. The features of using pedagogical heritage in the content of pedagogical education in different countries have been studied. Outlined recommendations for implementation of communicative pedagogy ideas in the realities of Ukrainian education have been outlined.

The current study focused on an important issue pertaining to online social communication by investigating perceptional differences between eastern and western adolescents. A total of 309 participants were recruited from three countries: China, Singapore, and the United States. Significant differences were found between eastern and western adolescents in terms of their perceptions in online social networking and communication. The study has generated important findings that help understand the dynamics of online social communication for adolescents, especially for online social communication that involves global communities.

The past two decades have witnessed increasing global acceptance of the important role that capable leadership plays in education reform and school improvement. Consequently, policymakers internationally have actively sought means of strengthening capacity for school-level leadership, with a particular focus on the design of more effective programmes of administrator preparation and development. In this article we examine trends in the design of graduate education programmes offered in the related domains of business management and publication administration. We analyse data extracted from on-line descriptions of three types of master's degree programmes: master of business administration (MBA); master of public administration (MPA); and MBA programmes with a concentration in education (MBA-Ed). The study identifies patterns in the programme structure, curriculum content and learning methods employed in these graduate management programmes. The analysis yields features that could add potential value to university-based master of education degree programmes aimed at principal preparation. (Contains 2 tables and 4 notes.)

The use of diagrams in learning and communication is generally considered efficacious and an important skill to cultivate, especially among science students. At the same time, previous research has revealed many problems in student diagram use, including a lack of spontaneity in such use, but the extent to which these problems persist into the tertiary level had not been investigated. The present study examined science and engineering university students' use of diagrams in note taking to learn information from a written passage, and in a subsequent task of constructing an explanation of that information for another person. The results showed that the students used significantly fewer diagrams in explaining compared to when they were note taking, suggesting that many students may lack awareness of the usefulness of diagrams in effectively communicating information to others. The results also revealed that the students used significantly more diagrams in taking notes from and explaining a passage with higher imageability (i.e. easier to visually imagine) compared to one with lower imageability. Educational implications of the findings are discussed. (Contains 1 table.)

One of the most urgent issues facing institutions of higher learning in the United States today is the problem of college student retention. The purpose of this article is to provide a theoretically and empirically supported argument for stating that there is one potent force for retention of college students that has been as yet largely unmined: communication centers. Relatively new to the field of academia, communication centers have the goal of enhancing communication, which is arguably one of the most important skills for career success and civic participation. Communication centers can play a significant role in all of the variables found to impact college student retention, namely communication competence, academic performance, interaction with students and faculty, and involvement in campus activities. (Contains 1 table.)

Population-specific data on factors that affect intimate partner violence (IPV) are needed on female adolescents and young adults, a cohort at greatest risk of IPV in the United States (Rennison, 2001). Studies have frequently overlooked the role of relationship communication as a gatekeeper to IPV (Ridley & Feldman, 2003). To address this gap, negative binomial regression was conducted with data from a 2004 survey of 618 women aged 15 to 24 seeking care at an urban reproductive health facility. Findings suggest that, within the previous year, verbal aggression by either partner was associated with physical violence by either or both partners, and verbal reasoning was negatively correlated with physical violence. Bidirectional and unidirectional IPV relationships may employ communication strategies differently. (Contains 4 tables.)

This is an abbreviation of the author's dissertation. Because integrated marketing communication (IMC) research has traditionally been problematic, this study used an existing scale to determine that higher educational institutional advancement (alumni, marketing-communications, development) is an appropriate venue to study the process model of IMC. Responses from practitioners representing every department within advancement, every regional accrediting body and each of the baccalaureate to doctoral Carnegie Classification levels indicated the IMC process model is both understood and its tenets practiced by practitioners at all sizes and levels of institution. In addition, because IMC is criticized as theoretically weak, this study demonstrates the multi-dimensional construct of IMC can be examined through a source-message-receiver lens, thereby contributing the basic underpinning of much communication theory as a possible core for studying the process model. The study collected and analyzed descriptive data regarding the function of institutional advancement within US institutions of higher education and its practitioners. Practitioners representing baccalaureate institutions agreed most to the IMC dimensions of differentiated communications and database-centered communications. Practitioners representing doctoral institutions had the highest agreement on the dimension of unified communications and those representing master's institutions had the most agreement on the relationship-fostering dimension. Summary statement: US baccalaureate to doctoral institutions' advancement practitioners' survey responses demonstrated an understanding of the best practice concepts inherent in the IMC model. It seems that more than 50 years of at least one professional development organization educating its members about best practices stemming from many disciplines, including advertising, marketing and public relations, overlapping with more than 20 years of various industries' trade publications espousing the benefits of IMC, have led to great interest at the practitioner level, the level where individuals focus on outputs and processes. However, the criticisms of IMC at the academic level are all too valid--there is no definitive definition nor is there a definitive measure, especially one that can easily be adapted to fit all types of industries and practitioners that may benefit from incorporating the process model. That IMC as a monolithic concept is difficult to examine is not in question. Still, the secondary and primary research in this study seems to indicate that both practitioners and scholars should continue current efforts. (Contains 4 figures and 6 tables.)

The "twisted cyber spy" affair began in 2010, when Google was attacked by Chinese cyber-warriors charged with stealing Google's intellectual property, planting viruses in its computers, and hacking the accounts of Chinese human rights activists. In the ensuing international embroglio, the US mainstream press, corporate leaders, and White House deployed what I call the rhetoric of belligerent humanitarianism to try to shame the Chinese while making a case for global free markets, unfettered speech, and emerging democracy. That rhetorical strategy carries heavy baggage, however, as it tends to insult the international community, exalt neo-liberal capitalism, sound paternalistic, and feel missionary. Belligerent humanitarianism sounds prudent, however, when compared to the rhetorical strategy of the US military-industrial complex, which marshals the rhetoric of warhawk hysteria to escalate threats into crises and political questions into armed inevitabilities. To counter these two rhetorical strategies, this essay argues that China's leaders deploy the rhetoric of traumatized nationalism, wherein they merge a biting sense of imperial victimage, Maoist tropes of heroism, and a new-found sense of market mastery to portray the US as a tottering land of hypocrisy and China as the rising hope for a new world order. The "Twisted Cyber Spy" affair therefore offers a case study of US-Chinese communication in an age of globalization. (Contains 34 notes.)

Using a qualitative approach drawing on the experiences of four HE lecturers, this study provides an exploration of and insights into a peer review of teaching (PRT) scheme, which focused on teacher immediacy and communication skills. Within the United Kingdom, limited research has been undertaken in relation to teacher immediacy even though international research, particularly in the United States, suggests it enhances lecturer-student interaction. The study identified three key factors that can enhance teaching through the development of immediacy skills. These were: voice and verbal qualities; body language; and location in the teaching space and environmental factors. This article suggests that, based on the evidence from the four lecturers, any PRT scheme that wishes to focus upon enhancing teacher effectiveness should consider addressing these themes in order to facilitate enhanced lecturer-student interaction. (Contains 1 table.)

Although scholars and practitioners have repeatedly touted the importance of negotiating effectively across cultures, paradoxically, little research has addressed what predicts intercultural negotiation effectiveness. In this research, we examined the impact of cultural intelligence (CQ) on intercultural negotiation processes and outcomes, controlling for other types of intelligence (cognitive ability and emotional intelligence), personality (openness and extraversion), and international experience. Transcripts of 124 American and East Asian negotiators were coded for sequences of integrative information behaviors and cooperative relationship management behaviors. CQ measured a week prior to negotiations predicted the extent to which negotiators sequenced integrative information behaviors, which in turn predicted joint profit, over and beyond other individual differences. Additional analyses revealed that the level of integrative sequencing was more a function of the lower-scoring than the higher-scoring negotiator within the dyad. Other individual difference characteristics were not related to effective intercultural negotiation processes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (Contains 7 tables.)

Health literacy, the ability to obtain and understand information and services to make good health decisions, has received much attention recently. Literacy is a stronger predictor of health status than age, income, race, ethnicity, employment status, or educational level. Inadequate health literacy costs the United States an estimated $100-$236 billion every year (Howard, Gazmararian, & Parker, 2005). Improving health literacy is critical to health care access and patient safety. Efforts to increase patients' health literacy have only begun. One of the obstacles to advancing health literacy is a lack of communication between the literacy and health care fields. In this article, the authors share their experiences to help other literacy professionals find ways to work with health care professionals toward the shared goal of improving health literacy. They offer communication strategies that can be used with patients if low literacy skills are suspected. They also share some lessons they have learned as they built bridges between literacy providers and health care providers.

A series of linked relationships is advanced which together suggest changes should be made to training programs for airside drivers at major airports in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. Overall, the links suggest a relationship between the number of airside incidents such as collisions at airports, the ethnic diversity evident among airside drivers, and the training programs for those drivers. The article advances literature from religious, sporting and ethnic communications research which strongly suggests that addressing an individual or group's ethnic characteristics, especially kinship relationships, increases the effectiveness of business-oriented communications such as education and marketing. But data from interviews among developers and managers of airside driver training programs suggests that no attempt has been made previously to address airside drivers' ethnic background. Reasons presented for this include a widespread lack of recognition of ethnic diversity as an issue in airside driver training, and a consequent lack of government regulation to incorporate such recognition in training programs. Other reasons include cost factors in training development, and the fragmentation of the airside business space between hundreds, if not thousands, of independent contractors. This article suggests that the inclusion of ethnically-oriented strategies in airside driver training programs will act to improve training outcomes and result in fewer airside incidents over time. Benefits available to the transport industry include reductions in liability costs, improvements in passenger and asset safety, and reduction in network blockages.

Although youth in the United States remain substantially more violent than adolescents and young adults in most industrial countries, the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) State-of-the-Science Conference on Preventing Violence and Related Health-Risking Social Behaviors in Adolescents identified many reasons for optimism about our capacity to develop effective prevention and intervention responses. The research is getting better and contrary to popular opinion we do know a lot about what does work. Future advances will depend upon our insistence on the use of effectiveness evidence and the development of a taxonomy which will facilitate cross disciplinary communication.

Education in the 21st century must respond to the needs of an increasingly diverse school community and all of its stakeholders. Changes in both the United States and the broader global society call for updated knowledge and new skills. The primary goal of school community relations is to create an understanding among everyone in a community regarding the benefits of education and the gains inherent to a society that supports education for all. Using the precepts and strategies of the community education process can ensure the success of a school community relations initiative.

Cultural difference is an important topic of discussion in second language education. Yet cultural difference is often conceptualized as fixed, objective, and apolitical based on an essentialist and normative understanding of culture. This article challenges such conceptualizations by examining and politicizing multiple and conflicting meanings of cultural difference. Multiple meanings of cultural difference are illustrated in examples from contrastive rhetoric research, the national standards for foreign language learning in the U.S., and culturally relevant teaching for minority students. The multiple and often contradicting meanings of cultural difference signify that they are produced in discourses that embody politics and struggles for power. The concept of a discursive construction of culture and cultural difference is exemplified in how characterizations of Japanese written communication styles are related to identity politics and colonialist discourses. It is suggested that cultural difference needs to be viewed as relational and as a construct shaped by discourses and power. (Contains 1 note.)