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The purpose of this study is to explore cultural barriers and methods of establishing effective communication in English as a Foreign language classrooms. Simply learning grammar rules is insufficient for students to interact effectively; they also need to acquire knowledge about culture, history, and geography through the use of textbooks, documentaries, and movies. With this in mind, the research study aimed to incorporate authentic literary short stories into an intermediate-level class based on the belief that literary texts can help learners develop their intercultural communicative competence. The participants of this study were 25 EFL learners between 18 and 21 years old. The data was collected and analyzed through individual interviews. The findings demonstrate that students can enhance their English language abilities and communication skills through reading authentic books. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millions of Indonesian migrant workers have sought employment in Malaysia during the last three decades. Many of them are skilled and unskilled laborers, and their incorporation into the host society's labor market has the potential to improve their own quality of life while also contributing significantly to the country's economy. However, Indonesian migrant workers encounter numerous problems in their professional and personal lives. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the intercultural communicative competence (ICC) factors as one of the Indonesian migrant workers' strategies. This is qualitative exploratory research on the factors of ICC in the integration of Indonesian migrant workers into the Malaysian labor market. Focus groups were used to obtain data from 16 Indonesian migrant workers who had already successfully integrated into the Malaysian workforce as well as newcomers who were in the process of integrating into the local culture. In addition, interviews have been conducted with the 13 employers to complement the data from the migrant workers. The data was analyzed using rounds of deductive and inductive coding and analysis based on the five components of Byram's model. The findings suggest that practicing intercultural communication skills can help migrant employees overcome cultural difficulties in the Malaysian labor market. The Indonesian migrant workers and their employers also indicated that they have an advantage in cultural integration due to the cultural similarities. The paper discusses the implications of the findings in terms of ICC training offered to migrant workers themselves (culture and language) and to professionals who work with them, with the goal of facilitating and promoting Indonesian migrant workers' labor market integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to highlight the significance of creating intercultural competence among students in Ukrainian higher education institutions (HEIs), especially in the context of European integration. The goal is to investigate the potential impact of Euro Union (EU) educational policies and the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU on students’ intercultural competence, and to offer recommendations for the effective implementation of intercultural education. The methodology covers a comprehensive set of theoretical and empirical research methods, including the analysis of scientific sources, regulatory documents, an online questionnaire, pedagogical observation, and direct interviews with Humanities instructors. The research specifically focuses on 160 first and second-year master’s students in the specialties of “Agroengineering” and “Electricity, electrical engineering, and electromechanics” at Sumy National Agrarian University, taking the course “Communications in the International Environment” during the academic year 2023-2024. The results of the study provide a perspective on the attitudes of students toward international harmony, equality, and social values. The findings reveal that the students prioritize living without war and conflict, national security, and national greatness. However, the study also shows that there are challenges to developing intercultural skills, as students express less interest in an active social life, improving the welfare of those in need, and making decisions that affect their community. The pedagogical observation and expert evaluations underline the need for specialized training to enhance intercultural skills among engineering students. The conclusion is that the study’s dual focus on national specificity and international relevance offers actionable perspectives for educators, policymakers, and researchers. It promotes a deeper understanding of the constraints and opportunities in intercultural competence development to meet the demands of a globalized world. At a national level, the study highlights the specific challenges faced by master students in Ukrainian HEIs and the necessity for specialized training to enhance intercultural communication skills. Internationally, the research aligns with EU educational policies and Council of Europe initiatives, contributing to the broader discourse on intercultural competence in higher education. Recommendations include the incorporation of interactive teaching methods, fostering intercultural dialogue, and promoting a nuanced understanding of intercultural communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Culture mediates how all people think and communicate and intercultural communication skills are required for effective collaboration. This study (2017–2021) explored intercultural communication with 40 participants in one very remote First Nations Australian community in Northern Australia. We explored the perspectives of both Yolŋu (First Nations Australian people from North-East Arnhem Land) and Balanda (non-Indigenous people, in this case Australian) on interactions during early childhood assessments of Yolŋu children (0–6 years). Our intercultural research team used a culturally responsive form of video-reflexive ethnography, a Yolŋu approach to in-depth discussion and collaborative analysis. In this article, we explore nine intercultural communication processes that were recognized and enacted by study participants. Each process is represented by a metaphor drawn from water traveling in North-East Arnhem Land. We share these processes so that others may consider exploring their relevance in other intercultural communication contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because intercultural communication has become one of the most demanded skills in the current digitalized world, many educational institutions aspire to graduate students who possess intercultural skills and are able to successfully communicate with people from diverse cultures. However, intercultural communication has not received much attention in the Lebanese context, especially in schools. To this end, this paper examined the Lebanese high school directors' perceptions of intercultural communication. As pragmatists, the researchers employed quantitative and qualitative methods to better understand the problem under investigation. Using a snowball sampling, they surveyed the perceptions of 55 Lebanese director.s in private and public high schools and interviewed two informants in the Center for Educational Research and Development. The collected data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Then, the derived conclusions were compared to ensure trust worthiness of the findings. Major findings showed that though intercultural communication is a learning outcome in most schools, it is mostly taught at the knowledge level in the foreign language classrooms. Assessment of this outcome was neither systematic nor consistent. It was also shown that directors in private schools tended to be more informed than those in the public sector. Recommendations are made for enhancing intercultural communication skills in Lebanese educat.ional institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can universities enhance their students' internationalisation at home? The need to find teaching methodologies that boost students' intercultural communication skills without travelling abroad has motivated the present study, carried out by two English lecturers from Florida Universitaria in Spain and Jade University of Applied Sciences in Germany. Research was divided into two stages: first, a deep analysis of the intercultural experiences organised in the past at both universities; and second, the implementation of virtual encounters with students from different cultures as tools to promote interculturality at the home university. This paper aims at showing the impact of those exchanges on boosting students' intercultural communication in English. Two groups of undergraduate students, during their English classes, worked synchronously on topics related to essential aspects of intercultural communication. The main teaching objectives of the Virtual Intercultural Communication (VIC) exchange were to increase participants' motivation for knowing other cultures, to raise their intercultural awareness, to foster their capacity to change perspectives, and to improve students' English language skills and their digital abilities. Through the outcomes achieved, students' self-reported feedback, and lecturers' observation, it can be concluded that virtual exchanges are effective tools to improve students' intercultural communication while they meet the English learning objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article, the author discusses the issues and challenges facing French language and literature education in the U.S. amidst the growing promotion of science, engineering and math courses. Also cited are how French capitalism, colonialism, slavery, and industrialization affected the world, and how language and literature improved the communication skills of graduates and make them competitive in the job market.

The paper analyses intercultural communication problems in tourism enterprises of Latvia, Lithuania, and Sweden. It gives an overview of intercultural theories and their application to the characteristics of employees in three countries. The methodology includes both primary and secondary types of research: analysis of scientific literature and qualitative research. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted in three countries. The results show cultural peculiarities typical to each country and provide possible solutions to intercultural problems. The research aims to examine intercultural communication problems in tourism and hospitality enterprises and to identify types of strategies and actions required to develop intercultural communicative competence and to solve intercultural communication problems. The article provides company profiles, describes intercultural difficulties encountered and the designed employee-assessment questionnaire. The research findings may be of interest to tourism industry representatives and higher education institution stakeholders, including academic personnel and students who study intercultural communication as an important discipline in the tourism faculty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Writing for academic purposes should be a compulsory topic in any academic institutions that usually provide students with courses and modules devoted to the acquisition of Academic Writing Skills. Teaching about Academic Writing is not an easy task as it calls for some prerequisites. Among these we could mention a good command of the English language. Academic environments nowadays use the English language as the lingua franca, that is the medium to communicate. That would require, besides the above-mentioned excellent command of the English language, a broad perspective on how knowledge and information are shared in international academic contexts. Being culturally aware, a researcher would try to get their message across in such a way that their written texts would be as objective as possible, being emptied of any cultural features (that have in view the researcher's cultural background). Nonetheless, the purpose of this paper is to show how academic writing may be regarded as another form of communication, this approach seeming to be a more effective one for students' understanding of the problem. Writing is a complex process that requires special training. Looking at this problem from this perspective may actually make it easier for students to understand the basic principles of academic writing and, at the same time to realize that, by the end of the learning process they may become better communicators. Mastering good academic writing skills definitely shapes the way in which communicate in a beneficial way. Academic writing is about being able to share knowledge and information in a concise, logical way, being always aware of the progression of the argument and being able to adapt to any environment or audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to survey language teaching MOOCs that promote intercultural competence (IC). Specifically, the survey aims to identify the keywords most relevant to MOOCs with IC components, the languages taught, the offering countries, and the embedded soft skills. The selection of keywords is important because they can indicate connection between different disciplines. After trialing a broader set of keywords in several rounds of initial search, we identified five keywords that are the most relevant to language education with IC components on MOOCs: culture, intercultural, cross culture, multi culture, and society. Then courses with these five keywords on language learning are selected for further analysis. The results are summarized as follows: (1) Most language teaching MOOCs are found under the keyword "culture," indicating a strong connection between language education and intercultural communication; (2) In terms of the target languages and the offering countries, it is found that English, Chinese, and Spanish are the major languages widely taught in the context of intercultural competence; China, United States, and Ireland are the three countries which offer the highest numbers of MOOCs in this respect; United States, United Kingdom, and Australia are the three countries which offer the highest numbers of MOOCs of different languages. The results indicate that a limited number of languages and offering countries dominate the language learning MOOCs. The study calls for a plurality of languages and cultures to be taught through MOOCs, making more diversified knowledge systems accessible to global audiences. (3) The language teaching MOOCs not only focus on language but also aim to foster five types of soft skills (language learning skills, communication skills, business and entrepreneurship skills, career development skills, and cultural development skills), suggesting that intercultural competence and its related soft skills are usually important components embedded in such MOOCs courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies show engineering graduates lack critical skills, including the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in diverse teams. As institutions seek effective and affordable solutions to meet ABET accreditation standards for non-technical skills, we report on an intervention program designed to advance learners' intercultural communication (IComm) skills. We adapted the UNESCO Story Circles methodology (2020) to undergraduate engineering contexts: discipline-specific prompts guide oral exchanges among students, tasking learners to practice IComm principles in teams. The 2021 mixedmethod study tracked 31 students' attitudes toward teamwork and performance in project-based learning. Data sources included three survey instruments, individual project grades, and end-of-semester course evaluations. Results show strong student support for the intervention program across demographics and instructional modalities; improved learner attitudes toward teamwork in post-intervention surveys; improved 2021 end-of-semester course evaluations compared to 2019; and, higher individual grades on the team project. Findings support the use of our intervention program in project-based engineering courses and highlight the importance of guiding engineering students in the intentional practice of IComm principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores university students’ communicative competence for English-Medium Instruction (EMI) at a Swedish university in the era of digitalisation and blended learning. Based on a linguistic ethnography, we present an argument for communicative competence as repertoire assemblages orchestrating digital materiality and human language to construct meanings. The study shows how diverse digital multimodalities and AI-language tools are essential features of spatial repertoires for academic communication, and how they cooperate with and mediate students’ personal repertoires to accomplish interactive learning tasks in EMI contexts. The study also highlights how digital diversity in EMI causes a ‘digital divide’, potentially impacting power relations among students. These findings underline the importance of acknowledging the communicative value of digital materiality and negotiating difference and normativity for intercultural academic communication in EMI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the development of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' speaking skills and intercultural communication skills through three intercultural speaking tasks in the form of video blog recordings. EFL learners (N = 13) enrolled in the English preparatory class voluntarily participated in the study. The learners were clustered into six groups by drawing lots, and each group was given topics related to their course content, which required them to record a video blog at the end of each unit in a series of English course books. The study was designed as qualitative research. A structured written interview, classroom observation, and self-narratives were used to collect the data. Content analysis and thematic coding were utilized to analyze the obtained data from the research. The results revealed that intercultural speaking tasks are fruitful in lessening EFL learners' speaking anxiety and prejudice towards cultural differences. EFL learners developed empathy and tolerance towards cultural differences, deepening their cultural awareness in a positive way and accepting other cultures as they are while realizing their own cultural values and norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a two-year pedagogical, teacher-as-researcher, action research project at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Sousse, Tunisia, which investigates how the integration of the Soliya Connect Program, a facilitated dialogic online exchange programme, with a theoretical course on critical intercultural communication helped students develop critical interculturality. Despite some initial concern about the extra time commitment, students were unanimously positive about integrating the two aspects, claiming that the Connect Program helped them to develop criticality in real life, and that the online communication was much more effective because they participated with the critical perspective developed in class. The findings support the integration of theoretical and practical online components in developing students' critical intercultural communication skills, and the use of action research to inform adjustments to both components in order to improve the outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study investigated the intercultural communication challenges among Indonesian seafarers with foreign crews at international shipping companies. Data collection was conducted through a mixed-questionnaire method, with each questionnaire consisting of 10 items distributed in Google Forms to 171 respondents. The findings revealed that the language barrier was a significant issue among Indonesian seafarers to communicate and socialize with onboard multinational crews, which was mainly overcome through body language. Indonesian seafarers' acceptance of onboard diversity rendered them to be more sociable, which was identified as a positive attitude. However, it cannot be denied that the fact of low communicative competence has impacted social life interactions and work for some seafarers. Resultantly, pertinent Indonesian maritime education and training institutions should adequately prepare seafarers and cadets with relevant work skills and English linguistic competence. This research aims to shed new light on the development of maritime and seafarers' research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This assignment was developed as an interdisciplinary exercise by instructors in Communication Studies and Speech Language Pathology & Audiology and is designed to contribute to shared learning objectives related to intercultural competence and linguistic diversity. Through an analysis of accent modification, students are specifically encouraged to identify cultural and social factors related to self and others in the context of speech sounds and speech sound disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The internationalization of Anglophone universities could allow English-dominant students to benefit from experience with English speakers from a wide variety of backgrounds, but US students have often complained of difficulty communicating with such instructors, especially International Teaching Assistants (ITAs). Research has largely focused on helping ITAs assimilate linguistically and culturally, although many applied linguists suggest that ITAs' students would also benefit from training in skills for communication across linguistic difference, through attention to their language attitudes, familiarity with diverse Englishes, and communication strategies. We report on an intervention designed to address all three, here focusing on students' willingness to engage in collaborative communication strategies. The intervention, conducted in a computer science department and reaching over 300 first-year students from varied linguistic backgrounds, included an online and an in-class component, each lasting about an hour. This brief intervention resulted in small but significant gains in domestic undergraduates' (n = 174) stated intention to engage in collaborative behavior with their ITAs, although our detailed examination of qualitative responses suggests important areas for continued improvement of the intervention. We discuss the potential for such interventions to facilitate institutional and cultural change, encouraging the recognition of the shared responsibility for successful communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many universities, peer mentoring is a popular practice aiming to ease cultural transition for newcomers. Despite the ubiquity of such practice, the factors involved in short-term mentoring programmes and how they relate to mentoring outcomes remain under-researched in Malaysia. This collective case study aims to address this gap by exploring the factors shaping participants' intercultural mentoring practice in a one-month programme. Interviews were conducted with ten participants comprising equal numbers of Korean mentees and local mentors, backed up by observations. Subsequently, five factors were identified: interest in cultural exchange, building rapport, obstacles to meeting, group conformity, and language accessibility, together highlighting the key role of meaningful intercultural communication in achieving the mentoring objectives. Through the lens of activity theory (Engeström, 2001, 2015), this study helps to shed light on the dynamics of successful mentoring practice shaped by undercurrents from the institution, the local context, cultural variation, and personal characteristics of the participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the exponential growth in the aviation industry, the number of non-native speaker pilots and air traffic controllers has significantly increased. Naturally, the interaction has become more challenging since the communication shifted to intercultural communication within a lingua franca setting. This study identifies and discusses the repair and accommodation strategies pilots and air traffic controllers use in their routine in-flight communication. The corpus consists of 30 hours of actual pilot-controller audio communication collected from the Malaysian airspace. Audio data collected from three frequencies (Alpha, Bravo and Charlie) were analysed using the conversation analysis method. The findings extend existing knowledge on miscommunications in pilotcontroller discourse. The study found that in most instances, pilots and controllers made conscious efforts to repair the various types of miscommunications that took place. The findings also show that communication errors and misunderstandings are commonly caused by cultural differences and inadequate language competency amongst the pilots and controllers. The paper concludes by suggesting that repair strategies and intercultural communication competence should be integrated within aviation communication training modules to improve pilot and controller communication strategies in intercultural settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an expatriate-majority state with a diverse multicultural and multilingual environment, Kuwait offers a distinctive opportunity for examining intercultural communication competence (ICC). This study examines the extent to which cognitive, affective, and behavioral predispositions toward ICC are present within the context of higher education by examining multilingual student populations at three local universities. Using survey data from over 800 respondents, the study explores ICC correlates such as linguistic abilities, formal educational experiences, and other sociodemographic factors. Analyses of variance demonstrate that some expected factors, such as multilingualism or expatriate status, contributed positively to ICC measures, while others did not--including attending English-language universities. Years of university experience positively correlated with both affective and behavioral aspects of ICC, while the cognitive component was least affected. Practical implications include the opportunity for universities to incorporate more cognitive-oriented intercultural lessons into their curricular objectives, which can add both educational and social value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an asynchronous, transnational virtual exchange between university students from Japan and China. Students from two different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, in two different physical locations, collaborated to produce a video on the broad theme of sustainability in a mutual second language, English. Through pre- and post-project surveys and the written reflections of students, it was found that students were able to develop greater intercultural awareness and improve their English language communication skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For students within foreign studies departments at the tertiary level, presentations in both their first and second languages have become integral components of course work, and therefore public speaking anxiety may hinder the pursuit of second language acquisition and intercultural communication competence. More effective methods for combating this problem must be developed, and exposure training (using both virtual and imagined practice) has been shown as effective for anxiety reduction related to public speaking. However, whether increasing intercultural public speaking confidence may also aid in reducing foreign language learning anxiety remains an ongoing question. University students in Japan (n=20) underwent a training program which featured VR-based and imaginal public speaking practice in front of intercultural audiences. Results indicate that public speaking anxiety levels were reduced by significant levels; however, only VR-based practice helped reduce foreign language anxiety significantly. Interviews showed the program was considered effective overall by the majority of participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The successful functioning of both the state and individual in the conditions of updated intercultural communication is impossible without adequate mastery of the universal language of international communication, which is currently the English language. The development of intercultural abilities of future interpreters in the field of business communication is aimed at continuous improvement of existing educational programs of institutions of higher education. The relevance of our research is due to the growing demand in modern business society for highly qualified interpreters with intercultural communication competencies. The purpose of the study is to develop and practically implement a model of intercultural communicative competence in the process of teaching business English. The mentioned educational program is for applicants for higher education in the field of translation who are studying in a bachelor's degree program at Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design. Changes in the development of intercultural communicative competencies of students were recorded experimentally using diagnostic techniques. The research results are reflected in the educational program "The English language: translation in business communications" and designed on the principles of developing the intercultural communicative competence of future interpreters. It is created to train highly qualified specialists who can analyze, organize and conduct interlingual and intercultural business communication, plan and carry out successful complex translation projects, and act as intermediaries in the process of interlingual and intercultural communication of business partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been limited empirical research probing English language learners' perspectives towards Intercultural communicative competence (ICC). Specifically, it is mostly unknown how English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) students respond to ICC emergence in some constituents and the degree to which they master each constituent in the socio-cultural learning context. This study evaluated the ICC perceptions of 310 EFL students in Vietnam. Findings demonstrated that ICC constructs were interconnected and diversely perceived by different genders, ages, and English proficiency levels. Implications are discussed regarding how the localized ICC construct can support policies, curriculum developments, and EFL instructional practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: highly-educated refugees; intercultural communication; intercultural communicative competence; labour market integration; resilience; hochqualifizierte geflüchtete Menschen; interkulturelle Kommunikation; interkulturelle Kommunikationskompetenz; Integration in den Arbeitsmarkt; Resilienz; refugiados altamente calificados; comunicación intercultural; competencia comunicativa intercultural; integración al mercado laboral; resiliencia EN highly-educated refugees intercultural communication intercultural communicative competence labour market integration resilience hochqualifizierte geflüchtete Menschen interkulturelle Kommunikation interkulturelle Kommunikationskompetenz Integration in den Arbeitsmarkt Resilienz ES refugiados altamente calificados comunicación intercultural competencia comunicativa intercultural integración al mercado laboral resiliencia 31 56 26 03/11/22 20220301 NES 220301 1 Introduction As a result of wars, persecution, and human rights violations, there are currently more than 70 million forcibly-displaced people worldwide (United Nations Refugee Agency 2019). Yet while municipalities throughout the Netherlands provide basic support for such refugees, and the newcomers receive instruction in the Dutch language, they are not given any systematic ICC training - and their long-term integration into the labour market is, for the most part, an individual responsibility ([30] et al. 2015). While much more remains to be done, we thus argue that both the explicit teaching of PICC to refugees themselves, and the increased awareness of the importance of PICC among professionals who are supposed to help them, can potentially constitute sensible first steps towards assisting and promoting refugees' labour market integration. However, recent research in the Netherlands and several other EU countries ([6] et al. 2020) indicates that highly-educated refugees face the same challenges as refugees in general. [Extracted from the article]

COVID-19 pandemic has had a hard impact on all educational sectors where access to schools, educational institutions, and university campuses is forcibly halted. In this context, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research urged teachers to move from face-to-face to online learning to mitigate the spread of the virus, keep up the regular schedule and save the academic year. This paper highlights the issues, perspectives, and pedagogical practices of the instructors' overnight change, switching pre-existing face-to-face learning to the online environment. It also refers to the challenge of those learners lacking intercultural communication skills needed to participate virtually. The researchers used the documentary research method to develop their leading research question and analyse existing research documents and other e-sources of information such as university and government reports, newspapers, PDF books, papers, and YouTube channels to collect relevant data for this study. As a result, we could illustrate the Algerian universities' response and analyse government and university sources such as newspaper articles and ministry decrees. Therefore, we believe that the emergency to digitalize teaching in our higher institutions is a significant opportunity to keep engaged in the online environment now and after the pandemic and take advantage of the universities' best pedagogical practices. Thus, prepare for the online shift to better address the digital divide by promoting equal opportunities for all students to access the Internet, possess and effectively use Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) to fully participate in the modern educational system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is an indispensable skill when interacting with people from other cultures, given the clash of perspectives that intercultural encounters may bring about. Being a skill that can be taught and learned, there is a wide concern for developing ICC through formal education. This involves designing specific training tasks that can enhance the acquisition of ICC with the help of virtual exchange (VE) activities. The aim of the present paper is to highlight a specific way in which the educational goals associated with ICC development can be achieved. To this end, an analysis of 55 eTwinning intercultural projects has been conducted in order to determine the relationship between ICC and VE. The statistical data described here indicate that VE fosters the development of ICC. Moreover, they are indicative of the fact that the VE task types that are most effective in the development of ICC can be identified through computation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the start of this interview, Professor Jin recounts how she abandoned her ambition to become a physician and ended up teaching and researching clinical linguistics at a British university for 18 years. She emphasises the crucial role of intercultural communication (IC) in both foreign language education and the 'internationalisation' of universities; in connection with the former, she recommends some ways for EFL teachers to promote intercultural communication competence (ICC) in their TESOL practices; regarding the latter, she points out that for a university to be 'internationalised', true IC is indispensable as it can bring all partners (i.e. academic, administrative, technical staff and students) up to a level where they understand, empathize and appreciate each other. In her current role as Dean of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in the City University of Macau, she has been leading a group of faculty members to work on proposals to establish Applied Linguistics programmes for BA, MA and PhD levels, in order to support the infrastructure of future workforces in Macau and the Greater Bay Area. Additionally, in the Chinese EFL context, she discusses several key issues concerning teaching English to young learners and to older learners (aged 50 and above). Finally, she offers some advice regarding how to balance the teaching, research, and administrative responsibilities expected of a faculty member in the field of applied linguistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a rapidly globalising world, every modern person needs a sufficient level of intercultural competence (IC). An increasing part of communication is carried out through the online environment, and it becomes more natural to acquire communication skills in it. However, representatives of non-linguistic specialities may not be aware of the importance of this phenomenon. The primary purpose of this research is to identify the attitude of representatives of a non-linguistic speciality to IC through online learning. To collect information, semi-structured interviews were conducted among students of medical and linguistic specialities, for which online learning is practiced. It is crucial to find out how diverse the attitude towards IC is among the representatives of various fields of activity. Bachelor students of state universities took part in the semi-structured interview. All the respondents are in the fourth year of study. The survey included 370 students aged 20-21. The difference in the specialities was one of the most important criteria for selecting respondents. As the results show, representatives of a non-linguistic speciality are indeed less aware and interested in increasing IC in online learning. Several solutions were proposed to solve this problem: increasing interest in interculturalism by spreading information in an educational institution's online environment; teachers' help to students to develop such a competence; using the online environment; providing additional online materials; participation in international online events and exchange programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To provide recommendations for adequately training healthcare providers in intercultural communication skills. We discuss three main recommendations concerning intercultural communication skills training. First, we give an overview of the fundamental skills in which healthcare providers should receive training, such as self-awareness and adaptability. Second, we briefly discuss how such training should be delivered, and focus on different language support methods, including those that work with different types of interpreters and digital tools. Third, we discuss how within-group differences can be taken into account to prevent stereotyping. To illustrate these recommendations, we provide certain examples of existing good practices and interventions. In today's superdiverse societies, delivering culturally and linguistically sensitive healthcare tailored to the needs, values, and preferences of individual patients is a prerequisite for good quality healthcare communication. To achieve this goal, there is a need for clearer recommendations for affirmative action, guidelines, policy, and support for the topic of diversity sensitivity in healthcare, such as evidence-based interventions, than is currently the case. That is, structural changes on a system level are urgently needed to support healthcare providers to implement diversity sensitivity in their daily clinical work. • Training healthcare providers' cultural skills is essential. • Cultural skill training should be integrated in medical curricula. • Intercultural communication should be tailored to the individual patient. • To prevent stereotyping awareness of within-group differences is needed. • System level changes are needed to support healthcare providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a preschool digitalization project, this article presents the findings from a survey of 75 Swedish preschool heads. One main question guided the survey: how do Swedish preschool heads describe the use and usefulness of digital tools for interaction with parents? These findings are discussed in regard to intercultural differences, intercultural communication competence, and discursive blind spots, where two additional questions are addressed: (1) what preunderstandings and discursive blind spots are found in preschool heads' accounts of the use of digital tools for preschool staff–parent communication, and (2) what implications does the use of digital technology have for (intercultural) communication? Findings from the survey show that preschool heads take little consideration of their own or the parents' cultural background when understanding and promoting the use of digital tools. The conclusion is that overrelience on digital communication may increase the risk of miscommunication – for all Swedes but particularly with regard to communication between native and "new" Swedes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]