Theorizing the Value of English Proficiency in Cross-Cultural Rhetorics of Health and Medicine

This study reports the results of 12 recent interviews with nonnative-English-speaking (NNES) authors who have conducted research and written articles on health and medical subjects. Analyzing the interview transcripts through the theoretical lens of Pierre Bourdieu’s forms of capital, this study expands on previous research by offering a more precise and theoretically grounded understanding of how NNES authors perceive the value of English proficiency in relation to their success as scientific researchers. This theorization of the varying ways in which authors perceive the value of English proficiency affords new perspectives on the inequities that NNES authors encounter in the global publishing economy and their rhetorical strategies for overcoming these inequities. The study concludes by reflecting on theoretical and practical implications for researchers, teachers, and other stakeholders in the global publishing industry.

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Accommodation Experience in the Sharing Economy: A Comparative Study of Airbnb Online Reviews

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su122410500 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (24) ◽

pp. 10500

Author(s):

Zhihua Zhang ◽

Rachel J. C. Fu

Keyword(s):

Host Response ◽

Online Reviews ◽

Sharing Economy ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Relative Importance ◽

Cultural Perspective ◽

Culturally Different ◽

English Speaking ◽

House Design ◽

Practical Implications

Current research investigating the accommodation experience in the sharing economy in China is limited, especially from a cross-cultural perspective. To fill this gap, this study examined the accommodation experience of Airbnb guests using text-mining techniques and compared the accommodation experience perception between two culturally different groups: domestic Chinese and foreign English-speaking Airbnb guests. The results showed that the two groups shared eight common dimensions, including “Convenience/Location”, “Amenities”, “Feel at home”, “Check-in/out”, “Experience”, “Availability/Transportation”, “Host”, and “Style/Decoration”. However, there are differences in the relative importance of each dimension of accommodation experience between the domestic and foreign Airbnb guests. For example, the foreign guests more often mentioned homeliness, location/convenience, and availability/transportation, while the domestic guests showed greater interest in check-in procedures and style/decoration. Additionally, the two groups have several unique dimensions. The dimensions unique to foreign guests are “Recommendation” and “Booking flexibility”, while the dimensions unique to domestic guests are “Revisit” and “Cleanliness”. This study provides both theoretical and practical implications for peer-to-peer accommodation hosts and platforms. For example, Airbnb hosts can improve the satisfaction of Airbnb guests by improving several common extracted topics (e.g., amenities quality and host response) and the fact that foreign guests care more about homeliness, while domestic guests pay more attention to the check-in process and house design and decoration.

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Cross-Cultural Encounters between the Mediterranean and the English-Speaking Worlds

10.3726/978-3-0351-0194-2 ◽

2011 ◽

Keyword(s):

Cross Cultural ◽

Cultural Encounters ◽

English Speaking ◽

The Mediterranean

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Unattended Emotional Prosody Affects Visual Processing of Facial Expressions in Mandarin-Speaking Chinese: A Comparison With English-Speaking Canadians

Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology ◽

10.1177/0022022121990897 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 002202212199089

Author(s):

Pan Liu ◽

Simon Rigoulot ◽

Xiaoming Jiang ◽

Shuyi Zhang ◽

Marc D. Pell

Keyword(s):

Visual Processing ◽

Time Window ◽

Early Time ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Late Time ◽

Cultural Comparison ◽

Emotional Prosody ◽

Eastern Culture ◽

Cross Cultural Comparison ◽

English Speaking

Emotional cues from different modalities have to be integrated during communication, a process that can be shaped by an individual’s cultural background. We explored this issue in 25 Chinese participants by examining how listening to emotional prosody in Mandarin influenced participants’ gazes at emotional faces in a modified visual search task. We also conducted a cross-cultural comparison between data of this study and that of our previous work in English-speaking Canadians using analogous methodology. In both studies, eye movements were recorded as participants scanned an array of four faces portraying fear, anger, happy, and neutral expressions, while passively listening to a pseudo-utterance expressing one of the four emotions (Mandarin utterance in this study; English utterance in our previous study). The frequency and duration of fixations to each face were analyzed during 5 seconds after the onset of faces, both during the presence of the speech (early time window) and after the utterance ended (late time window). During the late window, Chinese participants looked more frequently and longer at faces conveying congruent emotions as the speech, consistent with findings from English-speaking Canadians. Cross-cultural comparison further showed that Chinese, but not Canadians, looked more frequently and longer at angry faces, which may signal potential conflicts and social threats. We hypothesize that the socio-cultural norms related to harmony maintenance in the Eastern culture promoted Chinese participants’ heightened sensitivity to, and deeper processing of, angry cues, highlighting culture-specific patterns in how individuals scan their social environment during emotion processing.

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Limited English Proficiency and Disparities in Health Care Engagement Among Patients With Breast Cancer

JCO Oncology Practice ◽

10.1200/op.20.01093 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. OP.20.01093

Author(s):

Mohana Roy ◽

Natasha Purington ◽

Mina Liu ◽

Douglas W. Blayney ◽

Allison W. Kurian ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

Health Care ◽

Clinical Trial ◽

Genetic Counseling ◽

English Proficiency ◽

Primary Language ◽

Patient Portal ◽

Language Groups ◽

English Speaking ◽

Health Care Engagement

PURPOSE: Race and ethnicity have been shown to affect quality of cancer care, and patients with low English proficiency (LEP) have increased risk for serious adverse events. We sought to assess the impact of primary language on health care engagement as indicated by clinical trial screening and engagement, use of genetic counseling, and communication via an electronic patient portal. METHODS: Clinical and demographic data on patients with breast cancer diagnosed and treated from 2013 to 2018 within the Stanford University Health Care system were compiled via linkage of electronic health records, an internal clinical trial database, and the California Cancer Registry. Logistic and linear regression models were used to evaluate for association of clinical trial engagement and patient portal message rates with primary language group. RESULTS: Patients with LEP had significantly lower rates of clinical trial engagement compared with their English-speaking counterparts (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 0.29; 95% CI, 0.16 to 0.51). Use of genetic counseling was similar between language groups. Rates of patient portal messaging did not differ between English-speaking and LEP groups on multivariable analysis; however, patients with LEP were less likely to have a portal account (adjusted OR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.83 to 0.96). Among LEP subgroups, Spanish speakers were significantly less likely to engage with the patient portal compared with English speakers (estimated difference in monthly rate: OR, 0.43; 95% CI, 0.24 to 0.77). CONCLUSION: We found that patients with LEP had lower rates of clinical trial engagement and odds of electronic patient portal enrollment. Interventions designed to overcome language and cultural barriers are essential to optimize the experience of patients with LEP.

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Career satisfaction antecedents of professional accounting returnees in international workplaces: an employee experience perspective

Employee Relations ◽

10.1108/er-06-2021-0258 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Nga Thi Thuy Ho ◽

Hung Trong Hoang ◽

Pi-Shen Seet ◽

Janice Jones ◽

Nhat Tan Pham

Keyword(s):

Design Methodology ◽

Career Satisfaction ◽

Home Country ◽

Well Being ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Cultural Work ◽

Content Type ◽

Different Types ◽

Employee Experience ◽

Practical Implications

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the determinants of career satisfaction of professional accounting returnees who have studied and/or worked abroad and then returned to work in different types of international workplaces in their home country.Design/methodology/approachA survey of professional accounting returnees in Vietnam was undertaken and multiple regression analysis was applied to test the proposed relationships.FindingsThis study finds that career satisfaction is affected by career fit, career sacrifice, types of international workplaces (domestically headquartered firms versus globally headquartered firms) and cross-cultural work readjustment. Further, cross-cultural work readjustment partially mediates the effect of career fit and career sacrifice on career satisfaction.Practical implicationsThe research provides the basis for designing career-related employee experiences to support career satisfaction of professional accounting returnees.Originality/valueThis study integrates dimensions of career embeddedness with cross-cultural work readjustment and employee experiences, which are normally studied separately, in different types of international workplaces. It contributes to the limited research on contributors to well-being in the form of career satisfaction among professional returnees in an emerging economy.

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Developing Intercultural Awareness and Language Speaking Proficiency for Foreign Language Learners through Cross–Cultural Voicemail Exchange

International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching ◽

10.4018/ijcallt.2011100102 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 1 (4) ◽

pp. 17-32 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Amber Yayin Wang ◽

Wan-Jeng Chang

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Online Communication ◽

The United States ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Intercultural Awareness ◽

Foreign Language Learners ◽

Speaking Proficiency ◽

Before And After ◽

Efl Students ◽

English Speaking

To expand global and intercultural communication, the effectiveness of asynchronous online communication devices, especially email, have been discussed in the area of foreign language teaching. A lack of specific research exists that addresses the application of online voicemail. This paper reports on a five month period of voicemail exchanges between 53 EFL learners in Taiwan and 56 CFL learners in the United States. The authors examine the responses of EFL students to this cross–cultural voicemail project and assess their progress in intercultural awareness and English speaking proficiency before and after the project. This study concludes that the use of voicemail creates an impact on the English speaking performance and intercultural awareness of EFL students and increases the motivation of EFL students in using English to express ideas. Further implications for teaching are discussed.

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A Contrastive Analysis of Chinese Humor and English Humor in Intercultural Communication

Theory and Practice in Language Studies ◽

10.17507/tpls.0912.17 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (12) ◽

pp. 1595

Author(s):

Sha Zhu

Keyword(s):

Interpersonal Communication ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Cultural Communication ◽

Contrastive Analysis ◽

Cultural Backgrounds ◽

Cross Cultural Communication ◽

Transcultural Communication ◽

Figure Of Speech ◽

English Speaking ◽

Chinese And English

Humor plays an important role in daily life and also quite useful in interpersonal communication. Nowadays, the cross-cultural communication between the English-speaking countries and China becomes more and more frequent while some humor is difficult to appreciate with diverse cultural backgrounds. Therefore, this paper aims at analyzing the Chinese and English humor from their similarities, like the use of ambiguity and figure of speech, as well as differences, especially in functions, topics and ways of expression. Related causes are further discussed the differences. Hopefully, the findings will help to reduce the obstacles in understanding humor in different culture and promote transcultural communication in a delightful manner.

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Corpus-based analysis of the collocational profiles of the terms denoting the mentally challenged

Linguistik Online ◽

10.13092/lo.81.3647 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 81 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Liana Markelova

Keyword(s):

Public Perception ◽

American English ◽

Public Attitude ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Web Pages ◽

Gradual Change ◽

Web Based ◽

English Speaking ◽

The Difference ◽

Semantic Prosody

The present study aims to trace the evolution of public attitude towards the mentally challenged by means of the corpus-based analysis. The raw data comes from the two of the BYU corpora: Global Web-Based English (GloWbE) and Corpus of Historical American English (COHA). The former is comprised of 1.8 million web pages from 20 English-speaking countries (Davies/Fuchs 2015: 1) and provides an opportunity to research at a cross-cultural level, whereas the latter, containing 400 million words from more than 100,000 texts ranging from the 1810s to the 2000s (Davies 2012: 121), allows to carry on a diachronic research on the issue. To identify the difference in attitudes the collocational profiles of the terms denoting the mentally challenged were created. Having analysed them in terms of their semantic prosody one might conclude that there are certain semantic shifts that occurred due to the modern usage preferences and gradual change in public perception of everything strange, unusual and unique.

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ANALYSIS OF ENDOCRINE RESPONSE TO PERCEIVED DIFFERENCE IN CROSS-CULTURAL INTERACTIONS

Journal of Global Engagement and Transformation ◽

10.52553/10002c ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Carole Woolford-Hunt ◽

Marlene Murray ◽

Tevni Guerra ◽

Kristina Beenken-Johnson

Keyword(s):

Cross Cultural ◽

Human Relations ◽

Endocrine Response ◽

The Social ◽

Wide Range ◽

Education Psychology ◽

The Impact ◽

Practical Implications ◽

Do So ◽

Cultural Interactions

We live in a world where awareness of ethnic and cultural diversity is an ever increasing reality. Business and education turn to the social sciences to inform them about how to manage and optimize cross-cultural interactions. Although much research has been done on the impact of cross-cultural interactions on a wide range of variables, one less researched area is the endocrine response to cross-cultural interactions. In this study we set out to investigate the endocrine response to cross cultural interactions and the impact of these interactions on perceived differences. To do so we measured the pre and post levels of the stress hormone cortisol of individuals communicating in dyads for 15 minutes. Results showed a significant impact of ethnic interaction on perceived differences and cortisol levels. Practical implications of these findings could have application in the areas of education, psychology, business and human relations in general. Implications for further research are discussed.

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