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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.

Chinese students studying in the United States face great challenges when adapting to cultural, linguistic, and pedagogical differences. Although discouraged in the literature, self-segregation is a practice common among some international students and is especially prevalent in the Chinese community. This qualitative study explored the motivation and frequency of this practice vis-à-vis social support, and its effect on the participants' sense of belonging. Insider status was employed to conduct focus groups of mainland Chinese students currently enrolled in graduate programs at a Mid-Atlantic University in the United States. Findings from the study explore how administrators, educators, and the students themselves view the practice of self-segregation and its consequences.

As students transition from high school to college, their abilities to adapt and adjust are put to the test. This study examines the outcomes of a multi-stage study abroad program targeting first-year college students. The authors investigated student intercultural competence levels prior to matriculation, their development while abroad, and their continued expansion by means of a post-travel, on-campus component. Mixed-methods data collection and analyses indicated that students gained significant intercultural competence development through participating in a short-term overseas experience, which stretched into their transition to college life. This research contributes to the study abroad and intercultural learning literature by investigating the effect of an innovative program model and the understudied population of pre-freshman students. The findings provide practical implications for designing and assessing intercultural programing overseas and on campus.

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.

This article contributes to the literature on the value of Virtual Exchanges (VEs) in the field of technology-mediated language learning. Specifically, we report on a pilot program for high school English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in Slovakia and English as a Second Language (ESL) learners in Michigan, USA who engaged in a 10-week, international VE focused on media literacy. Learners in both countries collaborated on a project that involved developing and administering a survey on media literacy beliefs and practices among high schoolers at their institutions and provided feedback on their international peers' survey designs and presentations of survey findings. Learners also worked to raise awareness about misinformation through a media literacy campaign implemented in their social media networks. To guide language educators interested in implementing VEs, we also address the technological tools that enhanced the VE program and discuss several pedagogical issues that are important to consider in VEs for language learners.

This study reviews the emerging studies on the topic of Chinese immersion programs in the U.S. The effectiveness of Chinese immersion programs has been proved to have positive impacts on students' language proficiency, academic performance, and cognitive development. However, challenges in curriculum and instructions, behavior management, and cross-cultural communication have been limiting the performance of Chinese language immersion programs. To address these challenges, Chinese immersion teachers should be provided with preparations and training on the knowledge of designing multi-subject curriculum in the Chinese language, utilizing instructional strategies in immersion settings, and developing cross-cultural competency.

The article illustrates the potential of engaged arts-based pedagogies in higher education with respect to integration interventions for young refugees in Europe. It discusses the conception and implementation of the collaborative initiative "Find Refuge in Art", which was part of the research Project PRESS at the Hellenic Open University. This example shows how artistic synergy may become an integral part of research design, framing both awareness raising and open education in the backdrop of intercultural exchange. The initiative encouraged the co-production of artistic work from pairs of artists with refugee and non-refugee background and culminated in an exhibition with over 75 participating artists. Challenging the victimizing conceptualizations of refugee art as a primarily trauma-centered representation of displacement, the article invites us to consider questions of agency and inclusion in terms of mutual recognition and to widen participation as a means of fostering transformative intercultural learning and epistemic justice in universities.

This study examines the content strategies of 12 Chinese universities' international websites. Going beyond the Hofstede--Hall model, we explore a novel mixed-method study using both content strategy analysis and user research to investigate intercultural web-based communication strategies. Our study identifies the impacts of Chinese cultural and socio-political values on web content and the mismatch between such values and the information needs of globally distributed prospective students. We conclude that universities' web content strategies should fully understand target audiences' needs. Designers benefit from doing stakeholder interviews and competitor analysis to provide relevant, accurate, and accessible information to users from different cultures.

Mentored online intercultural interaction offers foreign language learners the opportunity to develop different competences, including intercultural, linguistic, and digital competence (O'Dowd, 2021). Such virtual exchange (VE) projects typically involve computer-mediated communication via, for example, Zoom. However, the use of high-immersion virtual reality (VR) for synchronous online collaboration in VE projects has received little attention. This study investigated the effect of VR on students' levels of presence and engagement, on students' communication and on students' views on using VR for intercultural encounters compared to traditional videoconferencing tools. Twenty-seven university students from the Netherlands and Germany utilised VR to carry out intercultural learning tasks using English as a lingua franca during a four-week implementation period. Participants responded to pre- and post-intervention questionnaires, completed reflection journals, audio- or video-recorded their VR meetings and participated in interviews. Results showed that the levels of presence and engagement and preferences of social VR compared to videoconferencing for intercultural encounters depended on students individually. A VR immersion experience and comfortability scale was created based on the data which showed mixed experiences. VR influenced participants' interactions, topics of conversation and communication strategies when they explored their spaces together. The results showed that students' attitudes towards VR and their subjective experience of VR seem to play an important role in the VE-VR setting. VR provided a safe space for many participants. Positive attitudes towards communicating in the VR environment are highly correlated with positive attitudes towards meeting students from other countries in VR. Implications for language education are provided.

Several studies have found that virtual exchange (VE) has a positive impact on intercultural effectiveness (IE) development. However, few VE studies have measured and unpacked perceived learning gains from VE in this area using data from multiple VEs and mixed-methods approaches. In this study, we explored the impact of VE on perceived IE development among pre-service teachers in two exchanges. Using k-means cluster analysis of reported gains in IE, we identified three groups of students who reported high-medium-low IE gains. Cluster analysis informed our qualitative analysis of students' reflections on VE. Having analysed data from 486 diary entries at four successive time measurements, we identified three factors critical to students' perceived IE development: students' ability to overcome challenges during VE, level of engagement with their partners, and engagement with cultural difference. These findings shed light on what experiences in VE influence participants' perceptions of their intercultural learning. The study provides recommendations for the design of online collaborative learning programmes, such as VE, that might help address students' diverse needs.

Adult ESL is a high-turnover field, and volunteers are a critical component of the adult ESL workforce. Existing research focuses on learners' experience in the classroom. There is limited attention to how teachers might change as a result of encountering immigrant learners in adult ESL. The purpose of this study was to understand the informal and incidental learning activities experienced by teachers in adult ESL settings and the impact of the learning on their intercultural maturity development. This study is based on survey data from 212 adult ESL teachers. The results demonstrated that adult ESL presented opportunities for informal and incidental learning for teachers. Both volunteers and paid instructors identified learning from teaching as the most important source of learning. Participation in informal and incidental learning activities was positively correlated with intercultural maturity. Further, organizational support promoted informal and incidental learning.

The present article explores the epistemological conditions of intercultural encounters. Based on an analysis of Raimon Panikkar's intercultural hermeneutics, we argue that intercultural encounters cannot take place adequately when they are based on purely rhetorical rationality or rational persuasion. We point to the limitations of grounding intercultural relationships on dialectical dialogue and, therefore, of educating them by simply enhancing discursive capacities. We underline the need for other epistemological conditions that should be fostered in order to move forward on the path to actual interculturality. These can be summarised by what Panikkar calls "conversion", an epistemic framework of love--personal relationality, that goes beyond objectifying rationality--for the communication between (culturally different) subjects. We conclude that the culturally diverse human condition refers to being encountered and being understood on a level that is not merely logical or linguistic. What can be understood of a person with another cultural background goes beyond what can be comprehended by logical rationality or captured by veritative judgements about objects. In other words, in intercultural encounters, ontological, rather than merely logical truth is at stake, which means that the presence of the other can lead to experiences of meaning: it reveals a being that calls for conversion. Conversion demands an ontic action on the part of the subject, not merely an epistemological one, that cancels the violence that rational persuasion might entail.

Integrating intercultural competence in foreign language classrooms has been emphasized in China, yet scant explicit guidance currently exists on how to teach intercultural competence in college English courses. This study aimed at comparing and contrasting intercultural pedagogical approaches used by instructors in English courses for non-English majors, as well as teaching feedback provided by students enrolled in such courses. This study applied a sequential exploratory mixed research design. Methods such as face-to-face interviews and teaching and learning related document analyses were utilized to collect data, and generated qualitative and quantitative data. Three-dimensional meta themes emerged in mixed analysis, categorizing pedagogical approaches and teaching styles of individual instructors. Student feedback revealed learning experiences and difficulties of the teaching approaches.

Research routinely suggests that international students often struggle in engaging with other student groups. This study, therefore, examines to what extent and how the intercultural attitudes and intentions of new international students in three Dutch educational institutions related to their acculturation orientation preferences (AOPs) during the "honeymoon" stage. Their AOPs were investigated across four social contact domains: living, schoolwork, friendships, and general interactions. Using structural equation modelling, results from 198 respondents indicate that intercultural intentions predicted their AOPs, with multicultural integration the most preferred strategy and marginalization the least preferred. Results of a simple mediation analysis show that intercultural intentions mediated the effect of intercultural attitudes for students adopting multicultural integration and separation strategies. Interview findings from 25 participants indicate that students sometimes adopted different orientations across the social contact domains. Internationally oriented higher education institutions should further support new students in their planning for intercultural interactions.

As part of its "Guiding Principles for Evaluators," the American Evaluation Association (AEA) requires that evaluators develop cultural competencies. Using a successive-independent-samples design, the researchers sought to compare perceptions of cultural competence across a duration of 10 years. Qualitative data were collected via online surveying, which included 168 program evaluators in 2009 and 110 program evaluators in 2019. Content analysis was utilized, and content categories were identified and quantified for both data collections. The data reflect that, from 2009 to 2019, there has been an increased recognition of what cultural competence entails and a closer alignment between what the "Guiding Principles for Evaluators" promotes and what evaluators demonstrate. However, the data also indicate that perhaps preferences have evolved past the current cultural competence paradigm as well as the term "cultural competence" itself. These findings and implications are discussed in further detail.

Business communication teachers navigate a constantly changing pedagogical geography shaped by technology and breakthrough discoveries in linguistics, psychology, and neurobiology. "My Favorite Assignment" is designed to speed new teaching methods to the classroom. This article gives readers 11 teaching innovations on report writing, intercultural communication, and analysis and critical thinking debuted at the 2022 Association for Business Communication's (ABC) 87th Annual International Conference in Tampa, Florida, USA. Additional support materials--instructions to students, stimulus materials, slides, grading rubrics, frequently asked questions, and sample student projects--are downloadable from the ABC and DePaul University Center for Sales Leadership websites.

Iranian authorities view English language learning as a disturbing influence on national identity. They are concerned about its impact on learners' identities. Despite the political concern, there is growing interest in learning English in Iranian private schools for personal and social development. This article reports on a study in which six male and two female adult English language learners in Iran were interviewed. The semi-structured interviews provided insights into learners' identity formation and social practices. The data showed developments in learners' perceptions of national identity, cultural, and religious practices. The globalization of English has amplified learners' level of access to the discourse of others, while the level of investment in learning is indispensable in their identity formation. This research argues that English language learning and its associated everyday practices lead to learners' identity work. This has significant implications for language education in cultures with adverse views toward learning English.

By participating in global projects, students learn to communicate, asynchronously or synchronously, through digital tools and media. The project in this article paired pre-service teachers in the United States with primary students, ages 8 to 10, in South Korea. The intent was to expose pre-service teachers to global collaboration projects, and to give them experience with the challenges that come with global collaboration so they can later support their own students in such endeavors. The project was evaluated through an open-ended survey for pre-service teachers (N=19) and results were coded according to the constructs of TPACK (technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge). Results showed that the most impactful aspects of the project were in the pedagogy and technology constructs. Surveys showed mostly positive (n=9) and mixed experiences (n=8) for pre-service teachers. Negative experiences were largely related to challenges with asynchronous collaboration. Future recommendations include developing companion lessons to precede this project, training teachers and students in techniques, expectations, and norms during non-face-to-face collaboration.l

University campuses are critical spaces where the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in society are discussed, and debated. However, even as campus communities across the world grow more diverse, higher education institutions are facing an existential crisis--high dropout rates, low enrollments, growing disenchantment with education, and issues of otherization, sexism, and racism on campus. It has never been more necessary for administrators, faculty, staff and all stakeholders to understand the role of effective institutional, intergroup, and individual communication in increasing students' university belongingness, and positively affecting their attitudes towards 'others.' Using the lens of systems theory and intergroup contact theory, this study analyzes how institutional, interpersonal, and individual level factors affect college students' attitudes about diversity, and their university belongingness. An online survey of 432 students from a midsized public university in the U.S. indicated that specific interpersonal communication (e.g., interactions with diverse faculty and peers), as well as institutional-level factors were positively correlated with student attitudes towards diversity. Results also indicated that microaggressions were a significant predictor of belongingness as were institution-level communication where students felt they had university support or when they felt their voices were heard. Other findings indicated that students of color felt less welcome on campus and reported lower university support than their Caucasian peers. Results highlighted both areas of hope, as well as key challenges for higher education administrators. Implications, including recommendations for student success, greater intercultural collaboration, and creating a more inclusive campus community, are discussed. Some key implications include the need to recruit more international and culturally diverse staff; offering DEI courses, regular DEI training of staff, and actively promoting campus activities that encourage greater intergroup contact.

Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is a paramount issue in EFL teaching and learning. This paper intends to systematically review the existing research on EFL teachers' and pre-service teachers' intercultural communicative competence (ICC). The authors reviewed a total of 19 peer-reviewed studies on teachers' and pre-service teachers' intercultural communicative competence in EFL settings published in 2011 to 2021. The results revealed five major themes emerging from the studies, namely teachers' cognition (attitudes/ beliefs/ perceptions/ understanding) of (the implementation of) ICC, ICC assessment, teacher development of ICC, ICC training, and ICC-related factors. Drawing on the findings, the writers discuss topics that need further explorations.

The purpose of this study was to explore how college students perceived multiliteracy experiences through the intercultural exchange project in an online EFL class. This study explored students' perceptions of the communication experiences with partners from different cultures and their intercultural understanding. Two types of data were collected from 30 Korean college students: qualitative data including activity reports, reflection notes, and final tasks; quantitative data including the responses to the perception questionnaire and intercultural sensitivity survey. Results of statistical analyses did not reveal significant differences in paired t-tests for cultural sensitivity. However, data showed that students experienced meaningful practice of multiliteracy and intercultural understanding. Students experienced four dimensions of the pedagogy of multiliteracy and improved their cultural sensitivity. Researchers suggest that EFL teachers find ways for learners to become multiliterate communicators with learning experiences of multiliteracy in English classes.

In the airline business, cabin crew are the employees who have direct contact with passengers. They are in an occupational group that generally has to face many difficulties in the workplace. In addition to their responsibilities to ensure the safety of the flight, one particular issue that creates tremendous stress for cabin crew is when they have to serve passengers from other different cultures. This study explores the understanding of cabin crew from the international airlines concerning cultural intelligence. The key informant of 12 cabin crew were selected from the international airlines in Thailand. Interview approach was used to collect the data using an in-depth interview form which was then analyzed by using content analysis. The findings revealed 1) there is the importance of knowing cultural intelligence for cabin crew from the international airlines, 2) it is not just the skills to deal with the passengers but everyone in workplace, 3) everyone is different, 4) their experiences matter, 5) we should think, learn, plan, and act, 6) we also should embrace and adapt the Thai cultures that have already existed to the world, 7) it is important to learn knowledge through the diversities and differences, 8) and also learn the knowledge through experiences, 9) we should realize the awareness of cultural diversity and difference. 10) we should expand the perspective since the world is bigger than you think, 11) we should discuss and learn the shared understanding and involvement in cultural diversity and difference for every cabin crew, and 12) we should identify the appropriate actions to effectively work and deal with people from different cultural backgrounds. The study summarized, then proposed the findings of overall understanding about cultural intelligence of cabin crew to Thailand's international airlines organization. The researchers proposed the outcomes to the research institutions, the academic institutions, and the airline organizations in Thailand and around the world.

Critical language teaching education has become an inescapable endeavor for language teacher education programs. To contribute to this effort, this paper outlines the implementation of an English course from a critical, intercultural perspective, during the first semester of a language teacher education program in Colombia. It also reports the ways preservice teachers responded to this implementation as evidenced in data stemming from their oral and written outcomes and from course evaluations. Results indicate that this approach to language teaching allowed preservice teachers to affirm their multiple identities as they developed and strengthened their language skills in English. Data also indicate that looking at the world from a more critical perspective entailed contradictions and challenges for preservice teachers and the teacher educator.

This study assessed the knowledge, feelings, and life experiences of students in public middle schools in the Brazilian Amazon toward aquatic mammals by applying semi-structured interviews, with a qualitative-quantitative approach. A total of 241 students, from all genders, aged between 12 and 14 years old, from four public schools of Pará State were interviewed. The data were transcribed and analyzed in an inductive way, in dialog with the literature of scientific education and ethnozoology. This methodology was developed and validated during the doctorate research of the first author of this paper. The students showed a rich knowledge, feelings, and life experiences regarding the Amazonian aquatic mammals, those related to biological, morphological, behavioral, ecological, and taxonomic aspects, as well as the threat to these species. The research reveals the need for schools of the region to develop and use didactic resources and strategies for intercultural dialogue in science classes, favoring the development of reflective attitudes in students and promoting decision-making favorable to the conservation of aquatic mammals.

The research investigated pragmatic transfer in responses to English tag questions by L1 Thai learners based on Interlanguage Pragmatics, specifically pragmatic transfer (Kasper & Blum-Kulka, 1993). The L1 Thai learners were categorized into two groups according to their English proficiency levels: advanced and intermediate. Oral and written discourse completion tasks (Blum-Kulka, 1982) were employed to elicit the participants' responses to English affirmative and negative tag questions in two modalities, speaking and writing. The major findings cast light on the L1 Thai learners' problems of responding to English negative tag questions, rather than positive ones, as a result of their strong reliance on the Thai pragmatic norm. The results also suggested that the responses to English negative tag questions by the intermediate group were less native-like than the advanced group's responses and manifested a higher degree of pragmatic transfer. Concerning pragmatic transfer in the two modalities, responses to English negative tag questions in writing showed a greater degree of pragmatic transfer than those in speaking. The results of the study are expected to elucidate the performance of the L1 Thai learners' responses to English tag questions in both modalities and their dependence on the Thai pragmatic norm in responding to English tag questions. [This study was presented virtually at the 32nd International Conference on Foreign/ Second Language Acquisition on May 20-22, 2021.]

By travelling in a cosmopolitan milieu in a UK university, pedagogies of possibilities are explored. Over a period of five years the exploration narrates the journeys of, what Clover (2010) calls, "artists as educators," documenting conversations and creative pedagogic practises. This is despite the closure of the university campus in 2023, due to an overt neoliberal agenda. The findings of two feminist cosmopolitans in conversation, illustrates that when stories require repetition, that is the retelling of a certain narrative as well as stories that are whispered, they are of a particular significance. Represented are resistance, resilience and rebellion. In addition to the tone and context of conversations being important, the findings in the research suggest that by adhering to a feminist cosmopolitan ontology, encouraged is a sensitive, ethical encounter with others. This approach suggests that those marginalised in the academy and the artworld, then are seen and heard. Their voice and artwork are visualised as challenges to the norms of the academy.

In this article, "physical" models and ideas are invoked to describe some overall aspects of intercultural interactions. It is emphasized, however, that actual intercultural interactions are much more complex than any physical or mathematical model can encompass. They constitute, in fact, just one more example of what scientists call "complex systems." These ideas are applied to the following examples: (1) Stuart Hall's "The West [versus] the Rest" and Samuel Huntington's "weltanschauung"; (2) interactions through Science and Technology as well as "Science Diplomacy," focusing on Silk-Road interactions. The article is concluded with a partial list of "necessary" conditions conducive to constructive intercultural interactions, although these cannot possibly be "sufficient." The wider implications for Cosmopolitan Education are also underlined.

This study examined image-text relations in English-as-a-foreign-language textbooks focusing on moving-image animations that accompany verbal dialogues. It also explores how animations support verbal dialogues in the textbooks. Data sources include three major versions of junior high school textbooks locally-produced in Taiwan, each consisting of 6 books, one for each semester. Findings show that animations enter into one specific type of image-text relations with the textual dialogue, i.e., a relation of Complementarity: Augmentation, by providing information that is consistent with and additional to the dialogues in a number of ways. The animations provide the rationale for a particular part of the dialogue not otherwise apparent, they portray another participant in the dialogue in addition to the speaker of the conversation turn, and they reveal a speaker's emotional response that is not expressed verbally in the dialogue. In naturally-occurring conversations, these emotions would usually be expressed through interjections, but are mostly absent from the verbal dialogues in these textbooks. As such, the animations also serve to substitute the pragmatic markers that should have been present in the verbal text. Based on these findings, the article concludes by providing pedagogical recommendations for how animations could be used to guide language learners in exploring the possible communicative functions of appropriate interjections in the textbook dialogues in order to develop learners' pragmatic competence.

International students, especially those studying in English language institutes at universities in the United States, often struggle to create connections with local students and the host community. Learners of non-English languages also struggle to find opportunities to practice languages that are uncommon in the surrounding community. This Practice Report describes an innovation where, instead of using English Conversation Tables to help international students practice English, professors "turned the tables" and allowed international students to become the experts, teaching local students their languages and cultures at weekly Non-English Conversation Tables held at a mid-sized rural public university. Through the Conversation Tables, both international and domestic students developed meaningful connections, deepening their on-campus engagement. These connections fostered self-growth and intercultural competence in both groups of students, some of whom had very limited prior experiences with cultural diversity. The authors identify the characteristics of the language tables that led to their success, including the location, facilitation, and promotion, to provide a model for reproducing the intervention in other contexts.

Contrastive rhetoric (CR) has made great contributions to our understanding of L2 writing. Nevertheless, CR has endured countless criticisms over the years, resulting in "reimagined" forms attempting to address many of these criticisms. In doing so, these forms have shaped CR into a collection of complex ideologies that have unnecessarily complicated CR and impeded its efficacy in both research and the classroom. Therefore, to make it more practicable, it must be decluttered and brought back to its fundamentals. To accomplish this, I look at CR within the theoretical framework of Clark's (1996) Common Ground (CG) theory, which affixes it to something much more universal and heterogeneous--communication. Essentially, what I postulate here is that when CR is considered in tandem with CG theory, it is shifted from an ideological theory that fails to take into consideration socially and politically conscructed notions of L2 writing to an approach concerned with basic communication principles. When this shift occurs, many of its criticisms can then be assuaged and CR can once again become more practical for researchers and an effective tool for teachers to help their students achieve their writing goals.

Advancement in online collaboration between community members enables new forms of feedback in language learning settings. This exploratory study presents an analysis of peer feedback on writing tasks. Participants included learners of English and Arabic as foreign languages, at the college/university level, in two learning contexts (Saudi Arabia and the United States), throughout a 12-week telecollaborative project. Four different tasks, related to giving feedback on each other's writing, were given to participants in the two contexts. These activities were designed to investigate the impact of this approach at enhancing foreign language learning with telecollaboration. The objective was to create a digital environment for language learners, in which cultural elements could be discussed among people from diverse backgrounds. The study applied qualitative methods, using codes and thematic analysis. The data analysis was conducted with qualitative methodology, classifying speech acts and language functions based on Leng's framework (2014). The findings confirmed the positive contribution of this approach for language learning, specifically increasing intercultural understanding. Participants, regardless of their linguistic or cultural feedback, easily maintained reciprocal communication through shared feedback. Social interaction regarding the cultural encounter culture served as an active agent for the learning process of each target language. Pedagogical implications of this research include the value of situating peer feedback within telecollaboration to help students create their own intercultural stances by negotiating linguistic, social, and cultural inputs.

As more universities internationalize, interest in engagement between international and domestic students has increased. University initiatives to bring students together often adopt a deficit approach dependent on international students' adjustment to the host culture, overlooking the need for engagement to be a two-way exchange and the role of the institution in this process. Focusing on academic group work as a salient site of cross-national interaction, this study draws on analysis of focus group data to explore how institutional habitus or unwritten rules are enacted at a large U.S. university. Findings indicated that domestic students were better socialized to understand the habitus of the institution and tended to take charge in group work. In contrast, international students were seen as linguistically and academically deficient and were relegated to passive roles in a group. Important implications for practitioners and scholars of U.S. higher education are discussed.

Among the vast and diverse discussions and research on international students, the intercultural status of university students holds a special place in terms of integration and academic success. One of the discussions is the intercultural competencies of the students in higher education. In this respect, this study aims to compare the intercultural effectiveness of international and domestic students, as well as examine their intercultural effectiveness status in terms of different background characteristics. The data were collected from a public university in Turkey using the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale developed by Portalla and Chen. The findings revealed that international students compared with domestic counterparts show a higher level of intercultural effectiveness. Additionally, some background characteristics are significant predictors of the intercultural effectiveness of university students: grade level, parent's nationality, being and living in a foreign country, and having a close friend(s) from a different culture. Some research and policy recommendations are provided.

In seeking to investigate the use of "sorry" in interlanguage refusal by Thai EFL users in an intercultural communication context, the present study collected data from Thai flight attendants who served passengers on international flights for a Thai airline, so as to examine how "sorry" is adopted in refusals in the context of in-flight services. A discourse completion task (DCT) questionnaire was employed to solicit responses from ten male and ten female participants. Through Weerachairattana and Wannaruk's (2016) classification of refusals and the syntactical construction of "sorry" by Arizavi and Choubsaz (2018), the data gathered were coded and analyzed in terms of semantic formulas, strategies used, and pragmatic transfer. Findings revealed that "sorry" conveyed conventional implicatures as "a marker for refusals," "expressing an excuse or reason," and "introducing a reason or showing sympathy," attested by the constructions used in refusals. The term was also uttered with an "excuse, reason, or explanation" to express politeness and regret in refusals in which pragmatic transfer was produced by flight attendants due to L1 pragmatic norms. These different functions of "sorry" used in refusals were bound to surrounding and situational contexts. However, gender differences did not have much bearing on the use of "sorry" in refusals because organizational culture plays a more significant part in discourse in professional contexts. This study was conducted in the hope that it could contribute to interlanguage pragmatic study, particularly to expand our understanding of intercultural communication between English native speakers and EFL learners and users.

International research administration continues to draw significant interest in its practice. As projects and associated problems become more global, collaboration between teams in different countries also will grow in size and in complexity. This study set out to understand the challenges of such collaborative efforts by research administrators within international research teams. The result was an identification of characteristics that members of multi-national teams possess. The study found that training is critical to collaborative teams, cultural communication (or lack thereof) remains a significant barrier, and formal and defined roles and responsibilities for team members supports good governance. These observations beget best practices that can be used by research administrators and managers who participate in international team projects. It is recommended that a training and compliance mechanism be developed and customized per project. These mechanisms would discuss potential cultural differences, provide communication guidance, and specify roles and responsibilities for each team member so as not to duplicate efforts and to produce high levels of organization and coordination.

A curriculum on English for cultural tourism communication was designed, developed, and implemented for Thai adult learners in Doem Bang Nang Buat, Suphan Buri, based on adaptation of the grassroots model (Taba, 1962) and relevant research. This study focused on measurement of the learning outcomes and satisfaction levels of Thai adult learners with an English for Cultural Tourism Communication course. Participants were 21 adult learners living in the community of Doem Bang Nang Buat in Suphan Buri. Data were collected through pretests and posttests, a questionnaire, and participant observation, and analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation. Content analysis was also applied. The results indicated that the learning outcomes of the adult learners improved significantly as the posttest mean scores were higher than the pretest mean scores at the statistical significance level (p < 0.05). The satisfaction levels of adult learners with the course were rated overall as very satisfied regarding teaching competencies, materials and methods, activities, learning facilitation, and knowledge and understanding of lessons. The study suggests that an English language development curriculum for adult learners should concentrate on learner needs and interests with the aim of presenting everyday English situations in an effort to enable learners to apply English language knowledge and skills to their professions. Furthermore, collaboration between native and non-native English speakers along with the utilization of technology in a positive learning environment is seen as necessary to enhance adult learning.

English as a lingua franca (ELF), a shared contact language of communication for speakers from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, has become a common phenomenon in a globalized world. Central to ELF interactions is the ability to negotiate meanings drawing on a broad range of cultural repertoires and linguistic resources. Helping ELF learners and users develop this ability is essential in English language teaching. This paper describes how to adopt a Cultural Linguistics approach to explore the cultural conceptualizations in the contextualized languages of two English-subtitled Taiwanese films. The results reveal that the structural concepts suggested by Cultural Linguistics could become useful strategies to negotiate and explain some cultural schemas, categories and metaphors entrenched in films. Accordingly, pedagogical implications from the film-based research for intercultural ELF communication education in English language teaching are discussed.

This article explores current Internationalization of the Curriculum (IoC) practices and perceptions among teaching staff at a middle-sized Swedish University. It provides information about the background and theoretical framework, explaining the main concepts and the growing importance of IoC in the last decade, touching common myths and misconceptions and introducing Leak's (2015) conceptual framework of IoC. Further, this article elaborates on enablers and blockers that local teaching staff face in their efforts to internationalize the curriculum. This work will serve as a foundation for stimulating the reflection and discussion amongst teams of teaching staff about the IoC in their disciplines and how to navigate future opportunities to further internationalize curricula.

The purpose of the study was to identify how the designed instructional model moderated the vocabulary-related anxieties in students when they communicated in the media internationally. The methodological approach used in the study was aimed at controlling and manipulating variables which were as follows: The level of vocabulary anxiety related to communication in the media, cultural intelligence, and English vocabulary level. The study relied on quantitative and qualitative methods to gather the experimental data and answer the research questions. Insufficient vocabulary was found to be one of the key factors of anxieties in students when they communicated in the media internationally. The major sub-factors of the vocabulary-related anxieties in the students when they communicated in the media internationally (as perceived by the respondents) were spontaneous interaction with the native speakers, guessing the meaning of the words from the context, and paraphrasing ideas using synonyms. The instructional-purpose use of the predesigned vocabulary lists, learning them using the Telegram bot, talking to the foreign speakers in the media, self-analysis, and analysis by peers were proven to be capable to moderate the vocabulary-related anxieties in students when they communicate in the media with the foreign speakers.

Teaching intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is still a challenging goal to achieve in English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) education. ESL/EFL instructors teaching in textbook-based educational contexts require more tangible approaches to designing and implementing purposeful intercultural language teaching that amplifies the desired ICC goals. This article proposes the use of a backward design-inspired framework as an effective approach to foster ESL/EFL students' intercultural skills through the development and implementation of supplementary ICC materials. The article explains how specific ICC dimensions can be enhanced and complemented through a proposed four-stage framework, helping instructors identify intercultural learning gaps in the assigned curriculum, identify desired results for intercultural learning, determine assessment evidence, and plan supplementary intercultural learning experiences and instruction. The article provides an example of implementing this framework to support ICC development in an ESL/EFL teaching context in Jordan and concludes with some pragmatic insights for implementing the framework in similar ESL/EFL teaching contexts.

The purpose of this article is to illustrate the process of inspiring change for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion by describing the efforts of a College of Nursing and Health Sciences at a 4-year, public institution in Louisiana. Motivated by recent campus conversations, the college has established a collective effort to establish new strategies to create a more inclusive academic environment for students, faculty, and staff. These efforts build upon recent successes and are in support of the university's campus-wide Strategic Plan for Inclusive Excellence. The lessons learned include: (a) the impact of intercultural engagement on inspiring culture change within an academic college; (b) the importance of getting broad buy-in and engagement from students, faculty, and staff for making process; and (c) successful strategies for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion at the college level.

The aim of this study was to explore international university students' perceptions on future global employment opportunities and expectations with regard to workplace diversity. The study employs a qualitative approach, and the data were collected from nine study groups with thirty-eight voluntary students from twenty-one different countries studying in a private international university in North Cyprus. The thematic analyses of the data revealed that students anticipate some degrees of inequality and discrimination when seeking employment, i.e., they believe networking is more important than qualifications. Moreover, the participants maintain that overseas job experiences will provide them with better employment opportunities in their respective countries. The main implication of this study for educators is that they should evaluate their current business degree curricula allowing for more interactive communication to build confidence in students' ability to compete in the global workplace. The curricula should also aim at intercultural consciousness-raising through topics of equality and identity using English as a "lingua franca" with the objective of creating high levels of problem solving and critical thinking in students.

Internationalisation is an important part of higher education. An increasing number of higher education institutions offer online degree programmes that enable studying in intercultural, global online contexts. This design-based research paper focuses on the holistic design of international online degree programmes. It investigates how students in a culturally and linguistically diverse online degree in Finland experience international and intercultural aspects. The approach was a mixed methods of electronic survey (N = 59) and thematic semi-structured interview (N = 7). Whilst studies seem to develop students' intercultural communication skills, results reveal training needs for teachers in culturally diverse online contexts in terms of materials, tools, communication, groupwork, and leadership, and support needs for organisational and online culture. As a conclusion, design principles for international and intercultural aspects in online degree programme design are presented. Results can be utilised by administrators and educators that wish to design degree programmes in international and intercultural online contexts.

This study showcases an International Learning Exchange (ILE) program between North Korean (NK) refugee students in South Korea and American university students from the US. ILE programs connect two or more linguistic/ cultural groups for intercultural awareness, which provide authentic communicative environments. However, the prevalent use of English and research focus mostly on non-native English-speaking students reflect the ideology of native-speakerism embedded in ILE programs. The purpose of this study was to develop an ILE program that resists native-speakerism and to investigate its influences on native as well as non-native English-speaking students. Adopting a case-study approach, data were collected from video-taping, fieldnotes, student documents, surveys, and interviews. Findings show how the authors designed and implemented a principle-based ILE program. The responses of NK students show their growing motivation and communication ability. The responses of American students show their critical reflections on their native-speaker identities. This study offers insights into designing ILE programs based on multilingualism and translanguaging.