商务日语教学中跨文化交际能力的培养

商务日语专业的教学目的是培养学生在商务环境中用日语进行跨文化交际的能力和技巧,因此跨文化交际能力的培养是商务日语教学中不可或缺的一部分。分析了跨文化交际能力培养的必要性,阐述了其构成,并对如何培养学生的跨文化交际能力提出五点建议。     

我国跨文化交际研究与国际主流研究的差异

通过内容分析的方法对比我国跨文化交际研究与国际主流研究,可以发现,我国跨文化交际研究与国际主流研究之间还存在着较大差距,主要是目前我国相关课题研究范围狭窄和缺乏科学研究的方法,同时真正的跨文化交际研究仍然太少。要与国际主流研究接轨,必须采用更为科学和多样的研究方法来进行跨文化交际研究。     

Establishing a framework for blending intercultural education with differentiated instruction

Despite the fact that both intercultural education and differentiated instruction are based on the premises of inclusion, equality, and equity, most research and publications have focused on one in isolation of the other. Scholars from each tradition often use the same argumentation, propose similar strategies and reach similar conclusions. Nevertheless, the emphasis is different: while intercultural education celebrates students’ cultural backgrounds and draws upon culture for the development of effective classroom instruction and school environments, differentiated instruction focuses on academic aptitude, therefore, requiring a systematically planned curriculum and instruction that meets the needs of academically diverse learners. Differentiation of instruction focuses on the individual and its prerogative for success and happiness; intercultural education is focused on the community and therefore, it is mostly concerned about the preservation of collective identities. The aforementioned distinction helps us realise that the challenge for educators in contemporary multicultural classrooms is twofold: to sustain collective identities and to facilitate individual academic success. Visiting both approaches and utilising an eclectic approach, this paper discusses the rationale for the development of a comprehensive framework that can be useful for theory deliberation as well as a guide for instructional practice.     

美国例外论视域下的美国文化外交

文化外交是一个国家通过文化交流传播以促进彼此间相互了解,塑造自身良好国家形象,从而实现国家利益的一种外交形式,同时文化外交也是一种跨文化传播活动。美国是世界上在文化外交方面影响力最为强大的国家。美国政府进行文化外交的过程深受“美国例外论”的影响,表现出强烈的“美国中心主义”和文化优越感,忽视文化的特点、违背文化传播的规...     

Developing intercultural competence of teachers of English as a foreign language through an international project

This paper reports an international project which took place at Nicolaus Copernicus University, where students and teachers from four European universities met for a two-week summer school. The main objective was to develop intercultural competence of teachers of English as a foreign language and their ability to demonstrate this skill during an English lesson. The paper depicts the tools implemented in the project and shows how they affected the learning outcomes by presenting the students’ and teachers’ perspectives.     

Are Turkish EFL pre-service teachers ready to manage intercultural challenges?

English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers, as the backbone of language teaching system, are expected to raise the awareness level of students’ intercultural communication competence by helping them relate their own culture to foreign cultures, empathise with foreign cultures’ perspectives and tolerate the ambiguities or differences. This study examines the relationship between certain personal factors such as age, gender, year of study, overseas experience and students’ preferences for Turkish movies over foreign ones and three predictors of intercultural communication competence namely, ambiguity tolerance, empathy and open-mindedness. The sample group of the study consisted of 145 prospective English teachers in the Educational Faculty of a state university in Turkey. The participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire consisting of two parts which investigated their background and perceived levels of ambiguity tolerance, open-mindedness and empathy in Turkish EFL context. The results indicated that half of pre-service EFL teachers had poor intercultural communication competence. In particular, males, the final-year students and those who had been abroad indicated higher levels of tolerance than their respective counterparts. Besides, age and students’ preferences for Turkish or foreign movies were not significant factors in any of the predictors of intercultural communication competence.     

A renewed perspective on the measurement of cross-cultural competence: An approach through personality traits and cross-cultural knowledge

The concept of cross-cultural competence (CCC) has generated considerable interest in the area of international business, but research still lacks solid measurement tools for this multidimensional construct. CCC is frequently operationalized with its components such as personality traits, but to what extent are those really linked to another dimension of CCC and therefore indicative of cross-cultural knowledge? This study combines measurement tools for two components of CCC: personality trait scales and critical incident technique. The tools are validated on a multinational sample of a working population. A structural model shows that most of the personality traits generally presented as predictive of CCC, do not significantly determine cross-cultural knowledge.