Building friendship through a cross-cultural mentoring program

This paper examines the efficacy of a short-term mentoring program in building cross-cultural friendships between students at an Australian university. Using a quasi-experimental approach, our study found that the mentoring program (Local Aussie Mentoring Program—LAMP) increased cross-cultural interactions for mentees, but not for mentors. About 45% of both mentors and mentees wished to continue their relationship with mentoring partners after the completion of the mentoring requirements. Mentees spent significantly more time with cross-ethnic friends than did controls after the completion of LAMP. We examined whether multicultural aspects of personality, as measured by the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ), would positively correlate with cross-cultural mentoring effectiveness and cross-cultural friendship interactions (the dependent variables). Multicultural personality aspects of mentors (as measured by the MPQ) had significant positive relationships with both mentee and mentor-rated mentoring measures. All mentor MPQ scales showed some significant but small and positive relationships, with mentor friendship items, particularly Open-mindedness, Cultural Empathy and Emotional Stability. We found a significant, positive relationship between mentee Cultural Empathy and Social Initiative with cross-cultural friendship. These results show some partial support for a positive relationship between MPQ scales and cross-ethnic friendships.     

Communication Experiences and Adaptation of Mainland Chinese in Hong Kong and Hong Kong Chinese in Mainland China

In-depth interviews were conducted for 203 Hong Kong Chinese in Mainland China (HIM) and 198 Mainland Chinese in Hong Kong (MIH), followed by two-level theme analyses, to examine their communication experiences and adaptation. The two groups were found to be dissimilar in terms of socioeconomic status, purpose of migration, and process of adaptation. Many HIM tended to evaluate the new environment from a “new workplace” view, mentioning adjustment and communication at workplace. Most MIH, on the other hand, used a “new home” approach, expecting a happy life with good income. The major challenge for most HIM was getting used to a less developed physical environment and an organizational culture with lower efficiency and work ethics. For most MIH, the main source of hardship came from insufficient protection for workers’ rights and interests. Hong Kong is more urbanized with superficial relationships while the Mainland society is more communal, nurturing long-term relationships.     

Organizational Trust in Cultures with a History of Distrust: A Qualitative Study of Polish and Russian Leaders’ Perspectives and Experiences

This study aims to better understand how trust operates in organizations in countries, where history and culture have contributed to a norm of distrust. Personal interviews were conducted with nine organizational leaders in Poland and Russia who described trust and distrust in their organizations. The study is part of an extended body of inquiry on organizational trust, based in a research-driven model and five drivers of trust. The leaders considered trust important for organizational success in both countries, despite operating within a culture of distrust. Building trust in both countries was described as based on communication in known relationships and verifiable results.     

外语教学与跨文化语用能力的培养

跨越不同文化背景的人。即使双方发音正确，懂得语法。掌握相当数量的词汇。有着较好的语言水平。在交际中也经常会发生故障。这是由于双方对彼此的社会文化传统缺乏了解。以及他们的说话方式或习惯不尽相同所造成的语用失误。本文从外语教学入手．探讨在外语教学中如何培养学生的跨文化语用能力。     

浅谈"跨文化交际学"的教学

跨文化交际学课程的设置、重点教学内容由于点多面广,所以应侧重放在价值观和日常生活的差异比较上。旨在使英语学习者提高对文化差异的敏感性,能适应不同的交际场合,避免因文化因素产生的尴尬和误会,达到与来自目的语文化人士和谐、有效、顺利、轻松、愉快交往的目的。     

东西文化差异分析

本文结合对《跨文化交际》课程学习,对东西文化差异作了简要分析。     

论高校校园武术文化国际传播的内涵与功能

武术,在我国高校中有着深厚的群众基础.经过多年的发展,武术已成为高校文化活动的一道亮丽的风景.探讨校园武术文化国际传播的内涵与功能,充分利用校园的人文环境优势进行民族文化传播,无论对于我国高校或武术发展而言,都具有一定的现实意义且不失为1种双赢战略.     

The Use of Generalizability (G) Theory in the Testing of Linguistic Minorities

We contend that generalizability (G) theory allows the design of psychometric approaches to testing English-language learners (ELLs) that are consistent with current thinking in linguistics. We used G theory to estimate the amount of measurement error due to code (language or dialect). Fourth- and fifth-grade ELLs, native speakers of Haitian-Creole from two speech communities, were given the same set of mathematics items in the standard English and standard Haitian-Creole dialects (Sample 1) or in the standard and local dialects of Haitian-Creole (Samples 2 and 3). The largest measurement error observed was produced by the interaction of student, item, and code. Our results indicate that the reliability and dependability of ELL achievement measures is affected by two facts that operate in combination: Each test item poses a unique set of linguistic challenges and each student has a unique set of linguistic strengths and weaknesses. This sensitivity to language appears to take place at the level of dialect. Also, students from different speech communities within the same broad linguistic group may differ considerably in the number of items needed to obtain dependable measures of their academic achievement. Whether students are tested in English or in their first language, dialect variation needs to be considered if language as a source of measurement error is to be effectively addressed.     

跨文化交际的文化规约

能不能正确对待跨文化交际中的文化差异是能不能保证跨文化交际顺利进行的先决条件。针对目前跨文化交际论述的一些理论误导,从交际文化学的角度提出解决文化交际冲突的一些重要原则和应遵循的文化规约是非常及时和必要的。     

第六种英语技能--商务英语教学中跨文化能力的培养

商务英语教学的最终目的、语言学理论的研究成果、加入WTO后中国经济更大程度地融入到经济全球化浪潮中的客观现实使得“跨文化交际能力”的培养成为商务英语教学中的重点之所在,并应该提升到与语言习得“听、说、读、写、译”五项基本技能同等重要的位置,将它作为“第六种英语技能”来看待,以适应我国在知识经济时代急需大量高素质的外经贸复合型人才培养的需要。