Intercultural communication in the global workplace, critical approaches

The critical intercultural turn in intercultural communication and cross-cultural management research has begun to question dominating traditional (positivist) approaches. Therefore, preparing people for the global workplace requires understanding of intercultural communication informed by critical scholarship: questioning the theory and practices of the “metropole” (or developed “North”), it also requires complementary research, education, and training that gives voice to those in the “global South” who may be marginalized, disenfranchised, poor, and exploited. Community diversity and interconnectivity, whether through communication technologies or movement of people, have placed new demands on preparing critical intercultural citizens for communication in the global workplace: people who can appreciate similarity and difference; who are capable of taking nonessentialist approaches to cultures, languages, and communities; who understand the role of the intercultural speaker; and who acknowledge the multiple languages and lingua franca Englishes at play, and the translingual, transcultural practices this recognition entails

Mobile students’ appraisals of keys to a successful stay abroad experience: hints from the IEREST project

Per offrire assistenza agli studenti universitari nel corso dell’esperienza di mobilità, è importante capire il loro punto di vista riguardo il soggiorno all’estero. Questo articolo si concentra su un gruppo di studenti (N = 990) iscritti a corsi di studio vari, che si trovavano in fasi diverse della mobilità al momento dello studio (alcuni non erano partiti, altri si trovavano all’estero, altri ancora erano già tornati). La domanda aperta posta loro chiedeva di menzionare i tre fattori che più di altri determinano il successo dell’esperienza all’estero. Questa domanda faceva parte di un questionario somministrato in Europa dal progetto IEREST (http://ierest-project.eu). Una procedura di analisi dei dati mista e sequenziale ha portato all’identificazione di sei temi: lingua e comunicazione, contatti sociali, questioni pratiche, sviluppo personale, vantaggi accademici, e viaggi. Questo articolo presenta l’analisi dei primi tre temi, e mostra che, sebbene la competenza linguistica sia l’aspetto più frequentemente menzionato, gli studenti attribuiscono particolare importanza allo sviluppo personale (all’“apertura”) e ai contatti sociali (tra cui le amicizie). All’interno di IEREST, questi risultati sono serviti a sviluppare materiali di educazione interculturale per studenti Erasmus, ma offrono indicazioni utili a educatori e ricercatori anche in riferimento ad altri contesti di mobilità studentesca.In order to provide better support for students in higher education throughout a mobility experience, it is important to understand their point of view regarding stay abroad. This paper analyzes the responses of pre-departure, while-abroad, and upon-return students of different academic backgrounds (N = 990) to an open question that asked them to name the three most essential factors for making their stay abroad experience successful. This question was part of a wider online questionnaire distributed in Europe by the IEREST project (http://ierest-project. eu). A sequential mixed-method procedure identified six themes that were frequently cited: language and communication, social contacts, practicalities, personal development, academic advantages, and travel. This paper presents a more detailed analysis of the first three themes. It shows that although language proficiency was the single most frequently mentioned aspect, students attached particular importance to aspects of personal development (in particular with respect to openness) and social contacts (crucially including friendship). These findings informed the development of teaching materials within IEREST for supporting intercultural learning in the Erasmus context and may also be relevant to educators and researchers in various other study abroad contexts

Exploring Intercultural Learning and Second Language Identities in the ERASMUS Context

This chapter investigates a teaching activity from the European project Intercultural Education Resources for Erasmus Students and their Teachers (IEREST), which is titled 24h Erasmus Life and was conducted at the University of Bologna with 33 participants. Students and teachers worked online for six weeks using forums, videoconferences, chat rooms, and a course blog. The authors gathered data from the blog postings and employed thematic analysis, focusing on the students\u2019 language experiences, including identity-related features of language proficiency, linguistic self-concept, and second-language-mediated personal development. The outcomes of this study contribute to understanding the multifaceted nature of second language identity development during study abroad and its links to intercultural learning within a non-essentialist theoretical framework. Some pedagogical implications for mobile student preparation are also considered