Perceptions of social strategies in intercultural relations: The case of Ethiopian immigrants in Israel

Social strategies are a central component of intercultural competence, and are vital in understanding, theoretically and practically, the immigration and acculturation process. This study focused on an immigrant group experiencing identity threat, namely young Ethiopians in Israel, and examined their perceptions of social strategies in intergroup relations. Thematic analysis was performed on two types of qualitative data: (1) newspaper articles in which members of the Ethiopian community addressed aspects of their social strategies (31 reports collected from seven newspapers and magazines) and (2) data from two focus groups conducted afterwards with young adult members of the Ethiopian community (five to seven participants in each group). A major pattern emerging from the immigrants’ reports is the adoption of the hosts’ perspective and attitudes regarding the effective norms of social behavior. In their daily coping, on the other hand, the immigrant youth tended to exhibit a complex and at times ambivalent variety of behavioral patterns in their social interactions with members of the host culture. This spectrum of social strategies suggests dynamic processes of trial and error and reflects the unique complexity of intercultural competence. Findings were analyzed in terms of the immigrants’ perception of the threat to their identity and of their ways of coping with those threats.     

Learning language that matters: A pedagogical method to support migrant mothers without formal education experience in their social integration in Western countries

BackgroundCourses for migrants in Europe are mostly aimed at literacy in western languages as a means for participation in society. These curricula are not suitable for migrants without previous basic education, which leaves groups of migrants vulnerable to alienation and without support for social integration.MethodThe IDEAL-programme (Integrating Disadvantaged Ethnicities through Adult Learning), which takes a participatory didactic approach and in which daily personal and family life is the starting point for learning, was provided and evaluated in the Netherlands and Sweden in 2011–2013. The participants (N = 16) were migrant mothers of Berber and Arabic origin without formal educational experience. The teachers shared the same background and served as role model facilitators and social brokers.ResultsThrough exploring their personal narratives, the participants showed new insights, skills, and attitudes on the topics of communication, health and parenting. All participants showed progress in language acquisition and participation in society. The Dutch group of migrant mothers reported to use less physical punishment and threats to their children, and to practise more positive parenting skills instead.DiscussionLiteracy oriented programmes for social integration are not suitable for all migrants and do not encourage acculturation. The proposed method offers a feasible alternative, so that migrants may be more adequately supported in their efforts for social integration in receiving societies. In order to advance the future development of participatory programmes for civic education, several key intervention design principles and political conditions are discussed.     

Intercultural Communication Schemas of Deaf and Hearing Adults: Visuospatial Decision-Making During Deception Detection

ABSTRACT

Some cultures rely heavily on visual channels for gathering information. One specific group is the Deaf and hard of hearing community who often rely on signed languages to communicate. Language and thought are woven, therefore this study examined whether bicultural-bilingual schemas can be activated via the visual channel. A sample from a Deaf community were compared to hearing participants via a decision task whereby judgments were made regarding the veracity of a suspected liar. The results of the experiment reveal that it is possible to activate culturally appropriate schemas for decisions about veracity in a visual task during intercultural communication.     

合作原则在中西文化中的映射

格赖斯提出的合作原则作为一种会话准则 ,在一定程度上具有普遍性。然而 ,人们对此原则的阐释和运用在很大程度上依赖不同的文化背景 ,即不同的社会和文化可能具有其独特的会话交往规则。这篇文章试图从东西方文化在运用合作原则时存在的差异这一角度出发 ,探讨东西方文化的不同点 ,从而尽量避免在跨文化交际中出现的交际失误     

社会心理学视角中的东西方跨文化交际

跨文化交际在大学外语教学中的重要性随着社会的发展日益明显。由于东西方观念的迥异 ,产生了跨文化交际中的语用失误。本文从社会心理学角度 ,通过对中国传统文化中的人际关系和西方的哲学、宗教等文化背景的对比性分析 ,用大量语言学研究实例 ,说明东西方跨文化交际在大学英语教学和实际运用中的语用和教学意义     

An Exploration of the Relationship Between Intercultural Communication Competence and Bilingualism

Research in intercultural communication competence (ICC) has flourished in the past several decades, arguably due to its relevance in an increasingly multicultural world. In fact the pervasive pragmatic relevance of effective and appropriate engagement with cultural diversity has spurred intercultural or cultural “competence” research in a variety of disciplines. While some scholars question the very concept of ICC as a Western formulation, researchers’ interest in studying the phenomenon of authentic, positive connection between individuals from different cultures is indisputable.     

相敏检波在GJT-400型金属探测仪中的应用

金属探测仪是广泛应用在工矿企业、食品加工企业的一种检测设备，本文详细论述了相敏检波在GJT－400型金属探测仪中的工作原理，对输入信号干扰的抑制能力和一些具体的实验结论。     

Assessing students’ intercultural competence: Construction and psychometric evaluation of a brief measure

Intercultural competence has been placed increasing attention in globalized educational systems. The study presents a series of qualitative and quantitative investigations to construct and validate scores on a brief self-report measure assessing intercultural competence of university students. Following a comprehensive literature search and qualitative expert reviews in the scale construction process, 50 potential items were classified based on the attitudinal, cognitive, and behavioral intercultural competence framework. In the psychometric evaluation process, a unidimensional structure was obtained to represent the 50 items. Item response theory analysis was performed to yield a brief measure of five content-specific items measuring intercultural competence, capturing cross-cultural self-efficacy, cultural knowledge application, perspective taking/suspending judgment, and behavioral regulation in intercultural situations. Not just contributing to measurement advancement, but the newly developed and validated instrument holds promise for guiding the design of intercultural competence educational programs and assessing students’ intercultural competence performances/gains.     

广义强非线性拟变分包含解的灵敏性分析

在空间中引入并研究一类新的极大单调映射的广义强非线性拟变分包含。通过运用隐预解算子技巧证明了这类变分包含解的存在性与唯一性，且分析了其解的灵敏性。     

An analysis of the use of autobiographical narrative for teachers’ intercultural learning

The currency of intercultural education has risen worldwide in response to increased diversity within societies resulting from migration and global flows of populations. As intercultural education becomes a core responsibility of schooling, critical, detailed analysis of pedagogies for teachers’ own intercultural learning is largely absent in education research, in contrast to attention to developing students’ intercultural capabilities and theoretical and policy analyses. In beginning to address this limitation, this article offers a critical, reflexive analysis of our use and the efficacy of using autobiographical narrative for teachers’ intercultural learning. Framing theories include interculturality, autobiographical narratives for teachers’ professional learning, reflexivity, and the effects of silence and silencing in relation to diversity and intercultural relations in schools. Three instances of teacher autobiographical narrative elicited as part of a large-scale, longitudinal study of intercultural education in Australian schools are deconstructed to elucidate their explicit and hidden meanings and effects. The analysis reveals that while autobiographical narrative has productive potential as a strategy for stimulating teacher reflexivity about cultural identities and intercultural relations, it also contains hidden dangers and traps that caution against viewing it as a pedagogical cure-all in the development of teachers’ intercultural knowledge and skills.