Rethinking “Difficult” Conversations in Communication Instruction From an Intercultural Lens: Pedagogical Strategies for “SWAP-ping” the Communication Classroom

Intercultural communication offers both theoretical and pedagogical implications for communication instruction. As such, we interweave theories and concepts of intercultural communication and instructional communication in (re)thinking “difficult,” “sensitive,” or “uncomfortable” classroom conversations that involve privilege, power, and intersecting cultural identities (e.g., racism). In juxtaposing these areas side by side, we first interrogate why intercultural and instructional communication scholars have neglected what the other takes as central: pedagogy and diversity. In particular, we ask: Why are certain conversations deemed “difficult” in the mainstream communication classroom? To whom are they difficult conversations? Why might these conversations feel “uncomfortable or risky”? Second, we crystalize how intercultural communication makes strides toward feeling/thinking/understanding difficult conversations in ways that promote social justice by proposing a pedagogy of “SWAP-ping” the communication classroom.     

Can Detroiters Dream Again? The Imagined Dialectics of Urban Decline in Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown—Detroit

Examining the Detroit episode of Anthony Bourdain’s CNN show, Parts Unknown, this study illuminates how the collective memory of the American dream is ironically projected onto Detroit, the metonymic city of America past. In order to identify the nostalgia of the American dream narrated in the show, we apply the dialectical approach to intercultural communication suggested by Martin and Nakayama and propose the imagined dialectics. Throughout our analyses, we contend that the imagined dialectic narrated in the Parts Unknown episode nostalgically frames Detroit’s past, which inevitably fetishizes its present. We ultimately argue that the nostalgia of the American dream epitomizes the lack of an intercultural and interregional understanding within the US and prevents us from democratic discussion for the betterment of the urban lives.     

试析多媒体辅助跨文化交际教学的积极作用

从运用多媒体辅助跨文化交际教学的实践出发，探讨运用多媒体辅助跨文化交际教学的必要性和优势。多媒体系统能把语言文化知识形象地呈现给学生，给学生提供了理想的在真实情景下感知语言与文化的环境，使文化知识更加具体、全面而真实。这无疑对培养和增强学生的跨文化意识起到了积极作用，同时对培养学生一定的科研意识和科研能力及加强学生的素质教育，起着不可忽视的重要作用。     

谈大学英语口语课程中跨文化交际能力的培养

跨文化交际能力是语言表达能力的重要组成部分。大学英语口语课程对于学生跨文化交际能力的培养还不够重视。本文从大学英语口语课堂上出现的交际失误入手，分析增强学生跨文化意识的重要性和学生的跨文化交际能力滞后的原因，并且提出了促进学生跨文化交际能力的教学方案。     

从互文性角度看跨文化翻译

作为沟通两种不同语言文化的桥梁,翻译在跨文化交际中起着不可或缺的重要作用。从互文性角度来看,翻译可以说是在语言、文本、文化和思维等众多层面展开的一项具有互文性质的语言转换活动。在跨文化翻译活动中,译者必须将互文性纳入考虑范围,仔细揣摩隐藏在语言结构背后的语言和文化特征,从文本的体裁、话语和语篇出发,采用移植、补偿或省略等翻译手法,处理跨文化翻译过程中的互文指涉。     

Can ability emotional intelligence help explain intercultural effectiveness? Incremental validity and mediation effects of emotional vocabulary in predicting intercultural judgment

A review of the literature reveals that previous studies on the role of emotional intelligence (EI) in predicting intercultural effectiveness have focused solely on trait EI, i.e., self-reported emotional efficacy, and on emotion recognition, disregarding the core components of ability EI, particularly its understanding emotions branch. Considering this gap and arguing for the relevance of emotion understanding in intercultural communication, the present study examined whether emotional vocabulary (EV), a marker of the ability to understand emotions, predicts intercultural problem solving above verbal intelligence and personality, and whether it (partially) mediates their effects on the criterion. Participants were 336 university students from Serbia, assessed on EV, verbal intelligence, the Big Five, and intercultural judgment and decision making (CJDM). A hierarchical regression analysis found verbal intelligence, Openness, and Extraversion (Step 1), and EV (Step 2) to significantly predict CJDM, with EV incrementally explaining 2% of criterion variance. A path analysis yielded excellent fit indices for a model postulating EV as a partial mediator of the effects of verbal intelligence and Openness on CJDM. The study thus provides first evidence of the specific contribution of emotion understanding to solving intercultural communication problems, the implications of which for both EI and intercultural research are discussed.     

福建省少儿体操运动员本体感觉敏感性特点研究

通过对福建省少儿体操运动员、非体操项目运动员及未参加运动训练少儿的本体感觉敏感度的测试和统计学处理,分析福建省少儿体操运动员本体感觉性特点,为福建少儿体操训练和科学选材提供参考依据。     

Communicating love: Comparisons between American and East Asian university students

This study examined cultural differences in communicating love among 143 young adults from the US and East Asian countries of China, Japan, and South Korea. Through inductive analyses we examined similarities and differences in the activities and beliefs Americans and East Asians have about love in friendship and marriage, as well as the activities and ways in which love is expressed. Americans and East Asians reported that caring, trust, respect, and honesty were all important beliefs about love in friendship, and trust was an important belief about love in marriage. Love in marriage was seen as important and unconditional for Americans, while East Asians were more likely to report caring as an important belief. Sports, preparing food, and shopping were activities associated with expressing love for Americans, while talking and preparing food constituted activities for expressing love for East Asians. Finally, both US and East Asian students expressed love to a friend through acts of support, open discussion, and the sharing of common experiences, while they expressed love to a spouse through physical intimacy, acts of support, and expressions of love such as “I love you” and “I miss you.”     

高度重视跨文化交际对语言学习者的重要性

本文论述了跨文化交际的意义与跨文化交际中存在的问题，提出在外语学习中应重视对文化交际内容与方法的学习。在此基础上论述了几点关于跨文化交际中出现的文化差异和学习方法及策略，强调在意识上对跨文化交际的教学要有所认识，有所了解。以期学习者更好地掌握跨文化交际的方法以及合理地解决跨文化交际中存在的问题。     

Intercultural Communication Competence Scale: Invariance and Construct Validation in Portugal

ABSTRACT

This article explores the psychometric validation of an Intercultural Communication Competence (ICC) scale. Three studies were performed: (1) psychometric evidence pertaining to the scale’s reliability and factor structure and an analysis of the measurement invariance; (2) assessment of convergent and predictive validity; and (3) analyzes the association between ICC and affective and cognitive dimensions of cultural empathy. A three-factor model with eight items yielded the best fit to the data. The scale showed non-invariance between genders, but proved to be a predictor of intercultural contact. Convergent validity were demonstrated.