Developing Russian Phd Students’ Academic Culture in EAP Courses for International Communication and Co-Operation

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Victoria V. Safonova
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Academic Culture ◽  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Communication Barriers ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Academic Settings ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Academic Communication

The paper gives a didactic insight into the concept of “intercultural academic communication” /IAC/ analyzing its types, forms, structure and bilingual input for the purposes of improving Russian advanced students’ communication skills as intercultural speakers and writers in English-speaking academic settings. On the basis of the 2015-2017 cross-cultural analysis of Russian Master’s Degree - PhD Students’ experiences of intercultural communication it provides a didactically-oriented and competency-based classification of communicative barriers to effective cross-cultural academic communication, describing such of them as linguistic, pragmatic, sociocultural, cognitive and visual communication barriers. The paper argues that the theoretical framework for designing tasks aiming at improving PhD students’ bilingual pluricultural competence to use English as a lingua franca in intercultural academic settings is to be based on L. Vygotsky’s cultural historical theory, A.N Leontiev’s activity theory, A.A. Leontiev’s psychological theory of communication, S. Hall’s theory of cultural factors and contexts and culturally-oriented FLT approaches to developing students’ bilingual academic competences on a multidisciplinary basis. The paper concludes with some recommendations on creating a hierarchical set of multidisciplinary problem-solving tasks and activities specifically designed to help PhD students meet new 21st century challenges of intercultural communication - co-operation, avoiding culture-bound academic pitfalls in today’s extremely complicated world. Among these tasks are those that involve PhD students’ into: a) observing and generalizing the similarities and differences of communicative and/or cognitive academic schemata in Russian and in English; b) classifying communicative barriers between intercultural speakers or writers (incl. English native - non-native speakers); c) interpreting the appropriacy of academic products in a FL from a global intercultural perspective; d) making suggestions for necessary pluricultural academic self-education in order to be able to foresee and/or identify communication barriers and find effective communicative tools to bridge intercultural academic gaps; e) doing thought-provoking case-studies in IAC; f) transforming interculturally inappropriate academic products in a FL into appropriate ones; g) group role-playing of IAC schema modes involving different academic roles that are typical of English-speaking international science co-operation settings; h) doing “Study - Innovate” projects.

scholarly journals A cross cultural analysis of conjuncts as indicators of the interaction and negotiation of meaning in research articles

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renata Povolná
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Negotiation Of Meaning ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Academic Communication

Abstract The role of English as a global lingua franca of academia has become indisputable in the on-going process of internationalization of all scholarship, even though the majority of writers and readers of academic texts are non-native speakers of English. Thus it is questionable whether there is any justification for imposing on international academic communication written in English the style conventions typical of the dominant Anglophone discourse community. Recommendations usually comprise qualities such as clarity, economy, linearity and precision in communication (cf. Bennett, 2015), which can be achieved, among other means, by certain overt guiding signals including conjuncts (Quirk et al., 1985). Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to reveal cross-cultural variation in the use of these important text-organizing means as it is believed that conjuncts can enhance the interaction and negotiation of meaning between the author and prospective readers of academic texts. The paper explores which semantic relations holding between parts of a text tend to be expressed overtly by conjuncts and which semantic classes, such as appositive, contrastive/concessive, listing and resultive conjuncts, contribute most to the interactive and dialogic nature of written academic discourse. The data are taken from research articles (RAs) selected from two journals, one representing academic discourse written by native speakers of English (Applied Linguistics) and the other representing academic texts written in English by Czech and Slovak scholars (Discourse and Interaction).

Context-dependency and impoliteness in intercultural communication

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Istvan Kecskes
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Context Dependency ◽  
Shared Knowledge ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
Actual Meaning ◽  
Interpretation Process

AbstractThere has been a great deal of research on impoliteness focusing on one particular language or cross-cultural differences between languages (e.g. Bousfield 2008; Bousfield and Locher 2008; Culpeper 2005, 2009; Haugh 2007, 2011; Kienpointner 1997). However, much less attention has been paid to impoliteness in intercultural communication in which all or some speakers communicate in a language other than their native tongue.On the basis of research on L1s and cross-cultural analysis of impoliteness, most of the researchers (e.g. Culpeper 2005, 2009, Haugh 2011; Watts 2003) in the field seem to agree that no act is inherently impolite, and that such an interpretation depends on the context or speech situation that affects interpretation (see Culpeper 2009). The paper will examine this context-dependency in intercultural communication where interlocutors cannot always rely on much existing common ground, shared knowledge and conventionalized context but need to co-construct most of those in the communicative process. It will be argued that limited shared knowledge and common ground may restrict the interpretation process to the propositional content of utterances, which may result in an increase in the actual situational context-creating power of utterances. Recent research (e.g. Abel 2003; Bortfeld 2002, 2003; Cieślicka 2004, 2006; House 2002, 2003; Kecskes 2007) demonstrated that in intercultural communication the most salient interpretation for non-native speakers is usually the propositional meaning of an utterance. So interpretation generally depends on what the utterance says rather than on what it actually communicates. As a consequence of their taking propositional meaning for the actual meaning of an utterance, interlocutors are sometimes unaware of impoliteness conveyed implicitly or through paralinguistic means.

scholarly journals “Communication is a two-way street”

Pragmatics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongmei Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Verbal Protocols ◽  
Novice Learners ◽  
Successful Student ◽  
Academic Settings ◽  
Valid Evidence ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Academic Communication

Speech act studies are increasingly likely to use retrospective verbal protocols to record the thoughts of participants who produced targeted speech acts (e.g., Cohen & Olshtain, 1993). However, although communication is always a two-way street, little is known about the recipients’ perceptions of speech acts. In academic communication at universities, it is critical for students to gain awareness of the socio-cultural norms as well as knowledge of appropriate linguistic forms in interacting with instructors. Therefore, gathering perceptual information from instructors, the recipients of many speech acts such as apologies, serves an important role in realizing successful student-instructor communication. Targeting instructors’ perceptions, two forms of an online survey were created via surveygizmo.com, with one including 12 spoken apologies and the other including 12 emailed apologies. An equal number of native (NS) and nonnative English speaking (NNS) students produced these apologies. The 150 instructors who responded to the survey gave significantly higher ratings to apologies made by NS students than to those made by NNS students. An analysis of instructors’ explanations after the ratings showed that both sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic knowledge (Thomas, 1983) were valued in the successful realization of apologies, with the majority of instructor explanations addressing the sociopragmatic aspects of apology productions. In their comments on highly-rated student apologies, instructors appreciated the fact that students took responsibility in apologizing, offered worthy explanations, and delivered the messages with minimum grammatical mistakes. Poorly rated apology messages did not contain sufficient or valid evidence, inconvenienced the instructors through inappropriate requests, and usually had multiple grammatical mistakes. This study provides useful source of information to be used in university classrooms that can orientate novice learners towards socio-cultural expectations and appropriate lexical markers to be employed in making successful apologies in academic settings.

A Cross-cultural Analysis of Two China-US Game Cases and Tobacco Control Compliance

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 5087-5102
Author(s):  
Yuan Lingyu ◽  
Dexin Tian
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Tobacco Control ◽  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
Cultural Roots ◽  
The Us ◽  
Tit For Tat

Objectives: This paper aims at exploring the China-US relations by analyzing the communication strategies and game intentions in two case studies and the cultural roots herein. Guided by the water and game theory for intercultural communication (WGICC) and cultural analyses, this study has found that in Case 1, China and the US have established initial win-win ties because of a mutually-beneficial trade system, the US intention to gain international recognition, and the romantic expectations of each other. In Case 2, both countries have suffered great losses due to the US pursuit of reinforced national identity and revitalized conservatism which set the stage for an endless line of plots to contain China. In return, China has been practicing a tit-for-tat strategy backed up with its grand ambition to forge a community with a shared future for mankind and ready to fight against containment and suppression from both the US and its allies. This study suggests an interactive pattern of win-win cooperation based on common needs and similar interests, and loss-loss confrontation based on real and imaginary fear while manifesting that the greatest Dao is expressed in the simplest terms. The findings can shed lighton appreciating China’s efforts in such domestic campaigns as tobacco control compliance and Covid-19 prevention and its diplomatic relations with other nations.

scholarly journals Communicative Restrictions in Chinese Academic Discourse

2020 ◽  
pp. 304-315
Author(s):  
Natalia G. Burmakina ◽  
Iuliia I. Detinko ◽  
Irina G. Nagibina ◽  
Iana V. Popova
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Contextual Analysis ◽  
Academic Mobility ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Teacher Student ◽  
Mobility Programs ◽  
Face Saving ◽  
Academic Communication

The article is devoted to the study of communicative restrictions (taboo) in the academic space of the People’s Republic of China. Taboo in Chinese linguistic culture is based on the dominant principle of Chinese ideology – the principle of “saving of face” (face-saving), which allows people to effectively build harmonious relations in the academic community. The aim of the study is to identify the specifics of communicative restrictions in formal and informal academic communication within the framework of asymmetric, unequal, relations (“teacher – student”, “research supervisor – student”) and symmetrical, equal, relations (“teacher – teacher”, “student – student”). With the help of ethnographic, descriptive, and contextual analysis methods, the authors identify and present seven most relevant topics of taboo functioning in the process of formal and informal academic interaction. The results of the study can be used in theoretical and practical courses on communicative linguistics, discursive linguistics and discourse analysis, pragmalinguistics and intercultural communication. In addition, the work may be useful in developing cross-cultural trainings in the framework of interaction with China on academic mobility programs

scholarly journals Sino-Russian Intercultural Communication Research: Literature Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-63
Author(s):  
Ekaterina D. Vasilyeva ◽  
Nadezhda M. Lebedeva
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Cultural Distance ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Intercultural Interaction ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
Chinese Studies ◽  
Chinese Psychology

International relations between China and Russia have a long-lasting history. At the same time interpersonal contacts between these two ethnic groups face difficulties associated with language, cultural distance, prejudices and other factors. This article presents a review of studies on the problem of Russian-Chinese intercultural interaction. Due to its interdisciplinary nature the studies are scattered both methodologically and with respect to its theoretical foundations. In this regard, we conditionally divide the considered works into four main areas: studying the perception of the image of Russia and China among Russians and Chinese, classification of Sino-Russian communication barriers, cross-cultural analysis of communication components, and indigenous concepts of Chinese psychology related to the process of intercultural interaction. A brief review of the modern research results gained by Russian and Chinese authors on effective communication and building trustful relationships is given. The results of studies revealing important differences at the level of verbal and non-verbal communication are presented. Particular attention is paid to cross-cultural research aimed at identifying etic and emic attributes of the situation of intercultural interaction. The most common approaches to understanding the concept of trust and its operationalization in Chinese studies are described. The importance of further studying mechanisms of building trustful relationships between representatives of the two countries is noted. In conclusion, unresolved problems and current trends in the study of intercultural communication are identified.

scholarly journals CROSS CULTURAL CONTEXTS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Ingrid Brita Mathew
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
West Sumatra ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Cross Cultural Analysis

This paper reflects on the need of students of English language to experience 'English-speaking culture'.  Due to the scarcity of natural contexts to communicate in English in West Sumatra it falls to English teachers to provide both English-speaking context and ongoing cross cultural analysis.  Some ways teachers across the curriculum can provide a context of English-speaking culture and implement cross cultural analysis while teaching are discussed.  The 'onion' model of culture is presented to show that culture is not only 'what' but also 'how' and 'why'.  Examples are given of how culture can be explicitly and implicitly taught. Key words/phrases: culture, context, English-speaking culture, cross cultural analysis

scholarly journals Balancing Acts: Culture as Commodity Among Business Consultants

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-337
Author(s):  
Elias Mellander ◽  
Anna-Mari Fagerström
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Cultural Communication ◽  
Cross Cultural Communication ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Business Consultants ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Shed Light

In this article the authors intend to analyze how the concept of culture is packaged, sold and delivered as a commodity. It is based on an ethnographic study of a Swedish consultancy in the field of cross-cultural communication and the relationship between the company and its clients. The clients were primarily foreign executives working in Sweden or Swedish expatriates, preparing for life abroad. The significance of culture-as-commodity will be explored from the perspective of the company as well as its clients in order to shed light on how the concept of culture can be communicated and what happens to it in the process. The study shows how the company combines theoretical perspectives from anthropology and intercultural communication with the aim to deliver a complex yet accessible understanding of culture to its clients. The analysis shows that these perspectives both clash and synergize, creating contradictions as well as turning culture into an accessible and useful tool for clients. The authors argue that researchers in the field of applied cultural analysis can learn from the example put forth by the balancing act between these two perspectives on culture performed by the company. The authors conclude that although the commodification process reduces and simplifies the meaning(s) of culture, the company still manages to put culture on the agenda, demonstrating to its clients how, why, and in what ways it matters to them.

scholarly journals Belarusian Mentality in the Context of Intercultural Communication: Grounds or Pessimism and Optimism

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-53
Author(s):  
Iryna Piniuta
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Barriers ◽  
Intercultural Training ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
The Usa ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Uk

Summary The article is devoted to the consideration of the factors which influence intercultural communication of Belarusians with people who live in the countries bordering Belarus (Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia) and some countries where English is used as the first official language (the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia and Ireland). The objectives of the research were: to compare cultures of people living in Belarus, in the bordering countries and in the English-speaking countries; to describe the characteristics of Belarusian mentality which presumably create cultural barriers; and to determine the factors that facilitate intercultural communication of Belarusians with people under consideration. The research was based on the dimensions of power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long term orientation and indulgence (G. Hofstede). Using these criteria, the characteristics of Belarusian mentality were systematically presented; they include tolerance, collectivism, cautiousness, modesty, restraint, respect for traditions and pragmatism. The reflection of the distinctive features of the Belarusians’ outlook in proverbs and behaviour illustrates the differences which can presumably cause cross-cultural misunderstanding. Also, the factors which promote intercultural communication are highlighted. The results of the research may be used in intercultural training of postgraduate students and in-service specialists in education and business.

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