Articles
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Preschool Heads’ Notions of Digitalized Staff–Parent Communication: The Need to Move from Monocultural to Intercultural Communication in Multicultural Sweden
Abstract: Drawing on a preschool digitalization project, this article presents the findings from a survey of 75 Swedish preschool heads. One main question guided the survey: how do Swedish preschool heads describe the use and usefulness of digital tools for interaction with parents? These findings are discussed in regard to intercultural differences, intercultural communication competence, and discursive blind spots, where two additional questions are... [...] Read more
International Student Mobility and Transformative Intercultural Learning in Estonia and Denmark
Abstract: Attracting the best students into universities is a policy agenda driven by the state and universities in Estonia and Denmark. While the policies on internationalization of higher education (IoHE) in Estonia and Denmark are well crafted, the value that international graduates add to the learning environment and culture are hardly explored. Adopting a phenomenological approach, this study aims to describe transformative intercultural learning... [...] Read more
The Centrifugal Sponsorship: Exploring a Globalization-Force Partnership Failure
Abstract: This article provides support to the prioritization of cosmopolitanism ethics as an enduring principle for global organizations in three ways. First, it introduces the seven-year corporate sponsorship between Chevrolet and Manchester United as a globalization-force partnership failure. Second, it provides an overview of the theoretical nuance between definitions of globalization and cosmopolitanism as a foundation for ethical guidance. Third,... [...] Read more
A Facebook-based Debate Through English as a Lingua Franca: A Move Toward Intercultural Awareness for a World of Differences
Abstract: Against the increasingly internationalized nature of higher education across the world using English as a lingua franca (ELF), the research reported by this paper is focused around an eight-week Facebook-based debate course to assist university learners of English in Iraq and their international counterparts in the US to negotiate and share social practices and other meanings through intercultural communications using ELF. Baker’s... [...] Read more
“Wallah! I Beg Your Pardon...”: A Cross-cultural Study of Apology Speech Acts
Abstract: This study explores the cross-cultural pragmatic features of apology speech acts generated by Arabic native speakers, English native speakers and advanced Saudi learners of English. The instrument employed for this study was a discourse completion task (DCT). The DCT included eight situations that elicited apologetic responses from 69 participants. Results revealed that Arabic native speakers and Saudi learners of English use apology... [...] Read more
Mexican Postgraduate Students’ Expectations and Perception of UK Academic System: Cultural Differences During the Early Weeks
Abstract: Based on Hofstede’s (1986) 4-D model of cultural differences, this article explores the expectations for institutional support as well as the initial perception of the educational system of a group of Mexican postgraduate students in a British university. The data presented here derive from a doctoral case study. They involve a qualitative questionnaire, focus groups, and individual interviews with ten participants enrolled for the 2016-2017... [...] Read more
An Analysis of Skype Exchanges for Promoting Intercultural Learning and Understanding Among University Language Students
Abstract: This paper reports on a project designed to promote intercultural learning and understanding between language students across three universities in Australia, Mexico and Germany. It examines students’ self-recorded Skype exchanges and assesses them within the debate over the inclusion of interculturality in language learning and teaching. By examining the negotiation of meaning that occurs between exchange partners, the study highlights the... [...] Read more