A State of Emergency in Crisis Communication an Intercultural Crisis Communication Research Agenda

This article seeks to provide an evidence-based set of recommendations for the development of an intercultural crisis communication (ICC) research agenda with three goals. First, to provide an advancement in our understanding of the state of crisis communication research in general. Second, to offer a grounded introduction to crisis communication for intercultural scholars who may not be as familiar with the field. Finally to identify three broad evidence-based areas for developing ICC research – (1) representing different cultural perspectives in crisis communication research, (2) placing American crisis research in a global context, and (3) developing cross-cultural comparisons.     

Towards a Model of Intercultural Communicative Competence in Iranian EFL Context: Testing the Role of International Posture,Ideal L2 Self,L2 Self-Confidence,and Metacognitive Strategies

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to present a model of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) by incorporating international posture, motivational disposition (ideal L2 self), second language (L2) self-confidence, and metacognitive learning strategies. To this end, 150 Iranian L2 learners, selected through convenience sampling procedure, took part in the research. The findings of structural equation modelling revealed that the proposed model showed adequate fit to the data, implying that the model is appropriate in Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) context. Also, the results indicated that learners with a high level of international posture are more likely to bridge the gap between their present and ideal selves. This was, additionally, argued that internationally oriented and ideally motivated learners become confident of their abilities to get engaged in interaction with L2 target communities. Furthermore, metacognitive learning strategies were found to be directly associated with ICC, implicating that the learners who continuously reflect on their learning and evaluate their performances are more prone to have a higher level of ICC. Finally, suggestions were offered for language teachers and policy-makers to inspire their learners to be more competent in communication with people of other cultures and languages.     

Visualizing the knowledge domain of intercultural competence research: A bibliometric analysis

As the volume of research on intercultural competence (ICC) increases greatly in the past twenty years, a systematic review of the diverse literature and its development process becomes essential. This study conducted a bibliometric analysis for the knowledge domain of intercultural competence by using 663 research articles on ICC spanning from 2000 to 2018 in Web of Science (WoS) database. Knowledge maps of ICC research were visualized by CiteSpace. The research findings show that in the field of ICC research, the number of published articles shows an ostensible upward trend in terms of temporal distribution since 2007; the first five highly cited countries are USA, China, Australia, Spain, and UK; International Journal of Intercultural Relations (IJIR) is found to be the most highly cited journal within the past twenty years; the first five highly cited authors are Michael Byram, Darla Deardorff, Claire Kramsch, Mitchell Hammer and Milton Bennett; Conceptualizing intercultural competence (Spitzberg & Changnon, 2009) is the most highly cited article; Blog entries, medical student, academic expatriate, and global management competencies are found to be top four ICC research hotspots. These findings provide considerable insights into research trend, topics, journals, authors and hotspots concerning ICC from the diachronic perspective. Visualization study of the ICC literature by formulating a graphical and explicit approach might be beneficial for researchers and scholars to track the development of ICC research.     

A Study of the Level of Intercultural Communicative Competence and Intercultural Sensitivity of Iranian Medical Students Based on Ethnicity

Competence and sensitivity at intercultural communication are essential for an effective and appropriate communication in the context of health care. The present study sought to survey the levels of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and intercultural sensitivity (IS) of 400 Iranian medical students based on their ethnic backgrounds (i.e. Fars, Turkish, Kurdish, and Lor). The findings of this study indicated that the four ethnic groups had moderate levels of ICC and IS, and that the Lor ethnic group had the lowest mean scores on the four dimensions of ICC (i.e. knowledge, attitude, skills, and awareness). Implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

Developing intercultural communicative competence in foreign language classrooms – A study of EFL learners in Taiwan

Internationalisation has accentuated the importance of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) among language learners in higher education in the 21st century. As in the case of Taiwan, universities worldwide have begun to emphasise intercultural ‘literacy’ in language classrooms. Following Byram’ (1997) ICC model, this study adopts an intercultural approach to language classroom in order to investigate the effectiveness of explicit instruction in developing ICC among EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners in Taiwan, and to discover how this development is related to the background factors of overseas experience and English proficiency. The accompanying research therefore has two purposes: (1) to evaluate the effectiveness of explicit instruction on EFL learners’ development of ICC by employing both self-assessment and other assessment tools and (2) to investigate the relationship between the development of ICC and two background factors. The results show that (1) explicit instruction is effective in raising students’ development of ICC, especially the knowledge and skills dimensions, and (2) English proficiency and overseas experience are significantly related to better acquisition of ICC.     

Re-examining intercultural research and relations in the COVID pandemic

The authors provide an urgent call for cross- and intercultural scholars to re-examine many of the related themes and classic or contemporary study areas of “intercultural communication” and “intercultural relations” in light of the impacts that the novel coronal (COVID-19) pandemic is having on human interaction both across and within our social-cultural contexts. As scholars focusing on intercultural communications/relations, education, management, psychology, and social issues, the global COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a range of intercultural problems or issues that need to be researched to better understand related aspects of human suffering, social disruption, and economic inequalities. New research projects/papers need to address how these impact key intercultural theme/topic areas like cultural attributions/expectations, values/beliefs, identities, perceptions/stereotypes/prejudice, language/speech codes, cultural systems/patterns, acculturation/adaptation, intercultural effectiveness/sensitivity/competence, and conflict (Kulich et al., 2020, Table 3.7). Some research areas and applications potentially affected by COVID are highlighted, including our sense of national/international identity and cooperation, our mediated or actual social networks, our ways of framing or carrying out intercultural or cross-cultural cooperation, new issues emerging in inter-group contact, how we apply cross-cultural taxonomies or dimensions to analyze data, and how these ultimately affect our relationships with each other across all levels of culture (from dyads, to groups, sub- or co-cultures) or express and affirm interculturality at such times. Each area is highlighted by calls for specific types of intercultural research to address these challenges and opportunities.     

Intercultural communication problems as perceived by Saudi Arabian and American managers

Research on Saudi Arabian communication patterns is inadequate. The present study reviews the literature on Saudi Arabian cultural and communication patterns and reports the results of data collected in Saudi Arabia on the perceived problems of Saudi Arabian businessmen when communicating with Americans. While large differences exist in the perceptions of the communication problems, both the Saudi Arabians and the Americans targeted differences in the patterns for organizing ideas as a major intercultural problem. Implications for intercultural training are provided.     

Sensation Seeking and the Integrated Model of Intercultural Communication Competence

There is a recent body of research that draws a connection between sensation seeking and intercultural communication. In the present study, the relationship between sensation seeking and variables that contribute to intercultural communication competence are explored in the context of the Integrated Model of Intercultural Communication Competence. Four hypotheses were proposed. Results from structural equation modeling supported two of the proposed hypotheses. Though there was no direct relationship between sensation seeking and ICC, the results supported previous findings that sensation seeking has a positive relationship with ICC in the presence of mediating variables. The implications of the findings are discussed.     

Intercultural communication competence in retrospect: Who would have guessed?

The formative work on intercultural communication competence reflected a wide array of definitions and methodologies. In the years since it was introduced the impact concept has been substantial. First, the ICC conceptualization provided a linkage between interpersonal communication and intercultural communication. Second, the ICC concept contributed to the shift away from linear, information-transmission views of communication, in favor of transactional, constructivist perspectives on the process—perspectives that emphasized meaning and interpretational dynamics, rather than solely messages and media. Third, attention to ICC made it clear that intercultural knowledge and good intentions—without the appropriate behaviors—often lead to other-than-intended outcomes. Conversely, a culturally defined skill set, without more general knowledge, may result in outcomes that are only appropriate in particular cultural settings. Fourth, while “intercultural” began as a somewhat limited concept referring to interactions between individuals from differing national backgrounds, the concept of “culture” gradually expanded to regional, ethnic, organizational, occupational, and relational entities. Scholars of the day may have failed then to recognize the importance of the concept. Nonetheless, the competence concept envisioned in our earliest work has been influential in into writings in many areas, including relationships, organizations, healthcare, leadership and other areas (Ruben, 2006, 2014). One can only imagine how the concepts of intercultural, communication, and competence will evolve and influence the shape of future scholarship and practice within communication and other social science endeavors in the years ahead.     

The role of intercultural competence,in the relationship between intercultural experiences and creativity among students

We studied the interplay of intercultural competence, intercultural experiences, and creativity among Russian students from Moscow (N = 272). We expected the students from culturally diverse groups, attending the courses on cultural issues, to be more creative. We based our expectation on the idea that cultural diversity and cultural learning are associated with a higher level of intercultural competence that might contribute to students’ creativity. We measured the intercultural experiences by cultural diversity of study groups (a number of foreign students in the groups and the intensity of friendly contacts with them) and by cultural learning (a number of culture-related courses that students attended). We measured creativity by the “Many Instances Game” from the Runco Creativity Assessment Battery (rCAB). We measured intercultural competence by the adapted scale of Fantini and Tirmizi. We discovered positive associations of intercultural experiences in the university with students’ creativity. Such components of intercultural competence as attitudes and skills (the adaptability of behavior), played an important role in the students’ creativity. The attitudes were positive and the skills were negative, related to the creativity. We also revealed that these two components of intercultural competence mediated the relationship between the intercultural experiences and creativity of students. Based on the results, we discussed the factors of the educational environment which may enhance or prohibit creativity.     

Role of Reflective Knowledge in the Development of Intercultural Competence

This paper is concerned with understanding how Saudi academic migrants utilized reflective knowledge to promote their development of Intercultural Competence. Two collective instrumental case studies investigate how Saudi academic migrants perceived and described their development of intercultural competence. Research findings indicate a variety of common and divergent examples, topics, and themes that describe SAM development of intercultural competence from the category of reflective knowledge. The participants perceived the importance of intercultural competence and, through critical reflection, were able to describe impactful instances of their developing abilities to communicate and behave effectively and appropriately in a variety of intercultural situations.     

An investigation of ELT students’ intercultural communicative competence in relation to linguistic proficiency, overseas experience and formal instruction

This study aims at exploring how linguistic proficiency, target culture experience, and formal education are related to the learning of intercultural communicative competence (ICC). It presents the theoretical underpinnings of ICC in the light of recent literature. Then, it continues with the methodology section that includes a quantitative research study in which 35 students at the Department of English Language Teaching (ELT) at European University of Lefke (EUL) participated. The participants of the study had different linguistic proficiencies ranging from waystage or elementary level (A2) to vantage or upper intermediate level (B2). The paper concludes by stating the findings of the research and also by making some recommendations for language teachers to better develop the learners’ ICC in teaching English as a second language (TESL)/teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) contexts.     

Relationship Between Intercultural Communicative Competence and L2-Learning Motivation of Iranian EFL Learners

In today's interconnected multicultural world, citizens' differential levels of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) can play an important role in the amount of enthusiasm, time, and efforts they invest in second or foreign language (L2) communication and learning. ICC has recently found its way into L2 theory and research. This study attempted to first develop a measure of ICC and then explore the relationship between Iranian L2 learners' ICC and their L2 learning motivation, on the one hand, and between gender and the development of ICC, on the other. The participants were 180 B.A. English Literature/Translation and M.A. TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) students at several Iranian universities. A test battery including the final version of the ICC questionnaire and an L2-learning motivation questionnaire adapted from Gardner's attitude/motivation test battery was then administered to a random selection of 70 students (M = 30 and F = 40). The correlation results indicated that there was a strong, positive relationship between L2 learners' ICC and L2-learning motivation. Meanwhile, t-test results demonstrated that Iranian female and male L2 learners did not possess different levels of ICC. The finding related to the ICC and motivation association suggests that an account of ICC development be incorporated into L2 teachers' classroom agendas at different educational levels.     

Using systemic functional linguistics as method in identifying semogenic strategies in intercultural communication: A study of the collocation of “time” and “different” by Swedish managers with international management experiences

Theoretical foundations to intercultural communication (ICC) are integrative and interdisciplinary but few have studied ICC from a systemic linguistics perspective. Viewing communication as a dialogic process, this study takes a systemic functional linguistics (SFL) view of language as a social semiotic where semogenesis (meaning making) is both construed and construed by context of situation which in turn is construed by culture. Using interview data collected from Swedish managers who have extensive international management experiences, this study aims to illustrate how SFL can be used as an adaptive theory and framework of discourse analysis in uncovering semogenic strategies in ICC processes.     

Retesting integrated model of intercultural communication competence (IMICC) on international students from the Asian context of Malaysia

Intercultural communication competence (ICC) is a need of today, for those who live in multicultural societies and have frequent interactions with culturally different individuals. It is strongly recommended to retest the integrated model of intercultural communication competence (IMICC) among multiple cultural perspectives. For this reason, this study adopted IMICC, retested it on the Asian context of Malaysia. The research employed a survey technique and collected data from 300 international students of a public university. The theoretical model of the research was analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Most of the established paths of IMICC were supported. The findings show sensation seeking and attitude toward other culture (ATOC) directly influenced ICC. The mediating effect of ATOC was empirically justified through the findings. Nevertheless, the mediating effect of motivation to engage in intercultural communication (MTEIIC) towards sensation seeking and ethnocentrism with ICC was not established. The results are promising; however, it is the initial step toward the validation of IMICC on the Asian context. The research practically contributes usage of the model to the policymakers in order to develop future strategies/policies for international students. Further refinement and retesting of the model are necessary for future studies.     

Perpetuation of Whiteness Ideologies in U.S. College Student Discourse

Utilizing discourse from college students who participated in a three-day seminar on systemic racism, intersectionality, and white privilege, this study examines and critiques ideologies within college students’ discourse that are foundational to whiteness. Three ideological discourses emerged before, during, and after the seminar – Liberal Pluralism, Meritocracy, and “Reverse Racism.” The discourses were analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis and findings are presented from the study that include the implications of ideological discourses that perpetuate the pervasiveness of whiteness and white privilege. The paper concludes with implications for communication scholars and educators, most specifically those who teach intercultural communication.     

Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Intercultural Communication Competence

This study examined the process of developing intercultural communication competence (ICC) with particular attention to cross-cultural differences in communication patterns. A qualitative approach involving 40 interviews with Americans living in Sweden and Swedes living in the US was employed in order to gain a nuanced, in-depth, and contextual understanding of how immigrants and expatriates experience the process. Several differences in verbal and nonverbal communication patterns between the two cultures emerged. The findings provide insights into how ICC is developed differently across cultures, as well as how the cognitive, affective, and behavioral components of ICC are interrelated and influenced by culture-specific aspects.     

The relationship between student sojourner perceptions of intercultural competencies and previous sojourn experience

This study investigated the relationship between perceived intercultural competence and sojourn experience. Three groups of student sojourners with varying amounts of intercultural experience (none, less than three months, 3–12 months) completed an 18-item questionnaire measuring four general areas of intercultural competence, drawn from previous literature. First, sojourner ratings were submitted to factor analysis which confirmed the four conceptual dimensions found in previous literature, with slight modifications: Awareness of Self and Culture, Awareness of Implications of Cultural Differences, Interpersonal Flexibility and Ability to Facilitate Communication. Scales were constructed from the individual items and ratings of the three sojourner groups were compared on ratings of their perceived competence on the four dimensions. Results of the statistical analysis revealed significant differences among the three groups on two of the four dimensions of intercultural competence: Sojourners with the most intercultural experience (3–12 months) rated their ability significantly higher than those with no experience on: Awareness of Self and Culture, and Ability to Facilitate Communication. Results are examined for implications for future research and application.     

Influence of sensation seeking on intercultural communication competence of international students in a Malaysian university: Attitude as a mediator

The present study aims to retest the relationship between sensation seeking, attitude towards other cultures (ATOC), and intercultural communication competence (ICC) introduced by the Western researchers. It was proposed that sensation seeking and ATOC have a direct impact on ICC, and ATOC mediates the relationship between sensation seeking and ICC in the Malaysian context. Survey technique was considered and structural equation modeling was performed in the study. The participants (N = 336) included international students of a Malaysian public university and were randomly selected for data collection. Findings revealed that sensation seeking is a predictor of ATOC and ICC. In addition, ATOC appeared as the mediating variable. The results reconfirmed the findings of Western studies and validated the culture-general nature of variables in the Malaysian context. Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) Malaysia can predict the accomplishment of their existing plans and further develop a policy for making Malaysia a hub of international students by considering the findings of this study.