The intercultural reentry: Conceptualization and directions for future research

While there has been extensive research on the cultural adjustment of sojourners to a foreign culture, there has been a dearth of literature examining the adjustment of returning sojourners to their home culture (reentry). In order to further understanding of this phenomenon, this article discusses the reentry process as one type of cultural adjustment. First, reentry is defined and described. Secondly, research investigating the two processes of adjustment to a foreign culture and readjustment to the home culture is reviewed, and the two processes are compared and contrasted. Finally, suggestions are made concerning future research.     

Collaborative issues in cross-national research

Although the topic of research collaboration receives infrequent comment, a well functioning collaborative process is crucial to the substantive success of intercultural research enterprises. The present report addresses this topic and focuses on two major sets of collaborative issues, the personal/ personnel and the structural/organizational. The issues are organized around the phases of the project at which they optimally should be considered and resolved.     

Intercultural communication for health personnel

In order to develop successful health care delivery systems, both in the United States and abroad, health service workers need to understand various cultural orientations and to communicate effectively within the cultures. The authors discuss the cultural implications of health problems in three countries, the need for training health science professionals in intercultural communication, and describe an intercultural communication course designed especially for health science students at California State University, Northridge.     

The A.M.I.G.O. project: A multicultural intergroup opportunity

This paper describes an empirical investigation of changes incurred as a result of participation in a semester-long intercultural experience. “The A.M.I.G.O. Project” is conducted in small group communication classes and requires students to meet and interact weekly with foreigners living in their community. The project is designed to allow college students to obtain some of the benefits of a foreign experience without going abroad. The program is also intended to provide a meaningful and worthwhile experience to individuals temporarily living in the U.S. A single-factor repeated measures analysis of variance was used to examine differences between participants and non-participants at the beginning and end of the semester. Five dependent variables-acceptance of differences, openness to new ideas, importance of foreign exchange, responsibility toward foreigners living in the community, and attitudes toward peace-were evaluated. The results of the questionnaire strongly indicate a significant change in the attitudes of the participants. Overall, students became more accepting of diversity and differences, felt greater responsibility to and increased importance of foreign visitors to the United States, and developed a sense of importance and desire for travel abroad. Furthermore, the members of the English as a Second Language class [the Amigos] demonstrated significantly greater improvement on their English proficiency exams than non-participants. Implications of the results and a discussion of the limitations of the study conclude with suggestions for future research.     

The learning of modern culture

In October, 1976, a survey was conducted among 1,621 sixth grade pupils located in 30 rural and 30 urban randomly selected East Javanese elementary schools. The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of pupil background characteristics, the home learning environment, school and classroom organizational characteristics, the physical environment of the classroom and the school, teacher characteristics, the classroom learning environment and rural-urban factors upon the acquisition of modern orientations among Indonesian elementary schoolchildren. The study was also designed to develop reliable and valid measures of the key variables used in the conceptual model. The results indicated that reliable and valid instruments could be generated from survey data; specifically, satisfactory scales were developed for the measurement of the following concepts: the home learning environment, the school physical environment, the classroom physical environment, teacher pedagogy, teacher quality, individual modernity, and fifteen characteristics of the classroom learning environment. Correlational and multiple regression analyses showed that individual modernity, the learning outcome, was influenced by both social and educational learning determinants. The most powerful predictors of modernity in the positive direction were class size, the home learning environment, the personal development and relationship dimensions of the classroom learning environment, and the school physical environment. Pupil age and teacher pedagogy (innovativeness) were negatively associated with the criterion. The results also show that modernizing forces are disproportionately concentrated in the urban area. In the multiple regression, the learning determinants accounted for a large enough portion of the variance in the learning outcome (R² = .262) to be statistically significant from zero at the .001 level. The study shows that the learning of modern culture is a complex phenomenon which is influenced by a wide variety of factors.     

Images of life in America: The impact of American T.V. in Israel

The present study sets out to uncover young Israelis' perceptions of the American reality using the postulates and methodology of the cultivation analysis approach to mass communication. The comparison of the perceptions of “light” and “heavy” T.V. viewers with measures of the actual reality reveals that heavy viewers demonstrate a strong and consistent tendency to paint a rosier picture of life in the U.S., in terms of wealth and standard of living, even when other factors (age, gender, residence and ethnic group) are held constant. The findings of this study have methodological implications concerning the study of media effects as well as theoretical implications regarding the ongoing debate on “media imperialism.”     

Bilingualism,federal policy on bilingual education and intercultural relations

Bilingualism, or facility in two languages, is one of the most powerful tools employed in cross-cultural communication. Its effect is far greater than the simple improvement of understanding between two groups. Rather, bilingualism is a complex concept with demographic, socioeconomic, and political overtones. Though not always the case in the past, most governments are now sensitive to the questions surrounding bilingualism and are aware of the consequences of misguided policies. This paper discusses the background of bilingualism and bilingual education both within and outside of the United States. It presents an analysis of current federal government policy toward bilingual education and the implications for intercultural relations in the United States. These implications are discussed in terms of language use, education, employment, equal opportunity, politics, and international relations.     

Kiowa forty-nine singing: A communication perspective

Kiowa Forty-Nine singing is a social activity in which important aspects of Kiowa culture are performed and revealed through traditional communicative activities. The purpose of this study was to examine forty-nining as it serves to reveal cultural patterns of interaction. Rooted in ethnomethodology, this field research combined personal interviews and content analysis. The data first provided a general characterization of forty-nining; subsequent analysis produced distinguishable, but interrelated, sets of rules which regulate the nature and structure of forty-nines. Patterns identified in the fortynines can be extended to other intratribal interaction, as well as to intercultural communication. Better conception of these interactive patterns may foster better understanding of Kiowa intercultural relations.     

Stereotypes of the Japanese manager in Singapore

Semantic profiles of the Japanese manager were obtained from a questionnaire study of Japanese and Singaporean managers in the Singapore subsidiaries of Japanese companies, to establish an autostereotype and a high-contact heterostereotype. Questionnaires were also administered to Singaporean, British and American managers in the Singapore subsidiaries of British and American companies, to establish low-contact heterostereotypes of the Japanese manager. Discriminant analysis was used to map the stereotypes in perceptual space. No significant differences were found between the low-contact heterostereotypes of the Japanese manager held by the British, American and Singaporeans, but very significant (α < 0.1%) and interpretable differences were found between the low-contact and high-contact heterostereotypes, and between each of these and the autostereotype. The differences between the stereotypes are discussed, and the implications for multinational organizations are considered.     

Family size and parental satisfaction: Race and sex differentials

The impact of family size on parental satisfaction is investigated with race and sex as moderating variables. From a national sample of parents, a white subsample is matched to the black sample on the basis of education, city size, and age. The association between family size and parental satisfaction is negative and low for white males and females as well as for black females. For black males, the association between family size and satisfaction is positive and moderately high. Exchange interaction and role transition are proposed as frameworks which could account for the general relationship between family size and satisfaction as well as for the black male anomaly.     

The cross-cultural transfer of educational technology: A myth

This paper argues that technologies can never be transferred from one culture to another. The implementation by Costa Rica of the Open University system of technologies developed in England is used as a case in point. The paper focuses on the non-applicability of using the term “transfer” with its attendant connotations, to signify the implementation of similar technologies in different cultures; differentiates between system specific and culture specific problems in the process of this implementation: and discusses the interaction of three cultures in the process of “transferring” a system of technologies from one of these cultures to another. The Open University system of technologies is described as it exists in England and the system specific problems of these technologies are delimited. The system of technologies is then “transferred” to Costa Rica and the culture specific problems discussed as seen by two evaluators from yet a third culture (the United States). The expectations of individuals from all three cultures (English, Costa Rican and U.S.) are raised in tight of these culture specific problems.     

International conferences: Significant measures of success

This article reviews the literature on evaluating international conferences identifying significant factors which contribute to measured success. Extensive previous research over the last twenty years has identified criteria for evaluating success which continue to be ignored as international conferences repeat the same mistakes. More systematic research is needed. A framework of 25 evaluation measures is described for future research on the assessment of international conferences.Responses to three items of a questionnaire sent out by the East-West Culture Learning Institute as part of a project studying international conferences are also discussed, relating to evaluation measures, problems of evaluation and potential benefits of evaluation. Guidelines and suggestions are provided synthesizing the available research toward planning more successful international conferences in the future. In conclusion, six issues are identified for further clarification in future research on international conferences.     

Testing a model of emotional and coping responses to problems in adaptation: Foreign students at a Canadian university

The purpose of this research was to develop and test a model of cross-cultural adaptation which proposes that adaptation to movement across cultures involves three processes: learning new social norms, matching behavior to these norms, and matching one's self-concept to the newly acquired behaviors and social norms. According to this model, adaptation problems arise when the foreigner fails in one or more of these processes so as to create various types of mismatches between the components of norms, behavior, and self-concept. Each type of mismatch was hypothesized to lead to a particular affective response and to be most effectively resolved by unique coping strategies which would restore balance among these three components. Successful adaptation, then, occurs when the foreigner uses the coping strategy which is appropriate to the type of mismatch problem encountered in the acculturation situation.This study tested the hypothesized relationship between mismatch problem, affective response, and coping strategy. Subjects were 40 foreign and 40 Canadian students at a Canadian university. They were presented with scenarios depicting five types of mismatches in hypothetical acculturation situations. Results showed that subjects' interpretations of these agreed with the mismatches proposed by the model. Moreover, their reported affective and coping responses confirmed the majority of the hypothesized relationships. These findings suggest the mismatch model may serve as a good framework for classifying diverse adaptation problems and for predicting the coping strategies which would effectively resolve these.     

Tracking the civil rights and women's movements in the United States

Membership in civil rights and women's liberation organizations in the United States was tracked over a period of 22 years. Men's social and fraternal organizations were also tracked as a comparison group. Systematic fluctuations in membership suggest that this criterion would be useful for identifying the developmental stages of a movement. In addition, peaks in membership were correlated with historical events. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

The 5th annual SIETAR conference in Mexico city: An evaluation

The 5th Annual Conference of the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR), in Mexico City, was evaluated using both scaled and open-ended questions. Analysis of the scaled responses suggested that the participants found the conference to be personally enjoyable, professionally worthwhile, well organized and intellectually stimulating. Overall, the conference was rated very favorably. On the other hand, however, negative evaluations were received regarding the quality of the presentations, the travel agent, the translations and direct benefits in the areas of intercultural training and research. Demographic analyses indicated that North Americans, researchers and university and government people rated the conference most favorably. Seven recommendations for future conferences were derived from the summarized open-ended responses.     

Phenomenology and hermeneutics: Evolving approaches to the study of intercultural and international communication

The thought models and theories of many individuals and disciplines have contributed to the study of human communication. In recent years scholars have become increasingly aware of the fact that methodologies superimposed upon the actual event of human communication have significantly shaped our perceptions of these events. Going beyond methodological approaches or quarrels, a phenomenological basis requires direct encounter with the event and an attempt to let methodology evolve out of that direct encounter, rather than attempting a so-called objective approach. Self, experience, values, and human relationships are of primary concern to the phenomenologist who sees meaning and interpretation as a unitary concept. Phenomenology thus concerns itself with understanding, and the bases for such understanding, rather than with the mere application of methodology. At the same time, phenomenology by its very approach, concerns itself not merely with the discovery of some abstract truth, but must be deeply concerned also with the improvement of the human condition founded in conscious experience. Behavior and meaning thus become conjoined. The ultimate aim of phenomenological studies becomes a concern with the ontological as well as the epistemological bases of human understanding.