Performing India in America through Pragma-Cultural Markers

Intercultural Communication is marked in literary discourse in numerous ways. Diasporic literary discourse representing intercultural communication uses pragma-cultural markers such as food and music as tools of intercultural communication. This paper attempts to examine intercultural communication foregrounding these pragma-cultural markers as represented in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Queen of Dreams within the framework provided by Relevance Theory (:249). This paper foregrounds the manner in which writers like Divakaruni deploy pragma-cultural markers to express multiple linguistic and cultural perspectives in their literary narratives, thereby portraying an amalgamation of America and India and facilitating intercultural communication which is a dialectical process, as on the one hand the “America” that is in the hearts, minds, and words of these writers shapes their expressions and on the other, their growing presence in terms of their literary output is changing the definition of American art and culture.     

‘Recuperando la dignidad humana [Recovering human dignity]’: Shuar mothers speak out on intercultural bilingual education

This paper presents findings from interviews conducted in December 2011, with seven Shuar mothers of children in an intercultural bilingual school in the southern Amazon region of Ecuador. This study had two objectives: (1) to foreground the perspectives of Shuar parents towards intercultural bilingual education (IBE) as implemented in the Shuar pedagogical institute, and (2) to collaborate as an intercultural research team (North American-Shuar) to ensure linguistic and cultural authenticity of data collection, and analysis. As a Shuar mother herself, the co-author shares the same language and culture as the participants, which led to a deeper level of trust and openness in the interviews. Current studies claim that IBE is losing ground, partly because parents want their children schooled in Spanish – the language of power – and see the IBE system as inferior. However, these Shuar mothers expressed a different concern: IBE has been too intertwined with Salesian missions and must become decolonized in order to reflect authentic Shuar cultural values and educational practices.     

A narrative inquiry into the identity formation of Chinese doctoral students in relation to study abroad

The present study explores a topic which has been under-studied to date, namely the identity formation of Chinese PhD students in relation to study abroad. Underpinned by Giddens’ ‘reflexive project of the self’, which privileges agency and reflexivity, and using a narrative inquiry approach, it presents four students ‘stories’ collected through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. In building a picture of the ways in which students’ self-identity is shaped by and shapes their experience of study abroad, the stories illustrate individual agency, motivation, self-determination and reflexivity. In doing so, they challenge the essentialised view of Chinese students as a homogeneous and sometimes problematic group and point to implications for action by the host institutions.     

‘Can I borrow your glasses?’: a prescription for learning to see the cultural roots of identity terms and implicit categories through others’ lenses

Why is there so much confusion and conflict around common identity labels, a problem that extends well beyond any stereotypes that they may evoke? How do we escape the seeming paradox that we reject racism but still speak frequently of black and white? Who claims the power to determine or name others’ identities? The confusion and conflict about identity that play out on a surface level are often caused by starkly different but implicit understandings that operate beneath the surface. For example, terms like black, Jewish and Muslim may invoke several of our deeper conceptions or categories like race, culture, religion and ethnicity, and to varying degrees in different places. Critically, these categories themselves are culturally rooted. This article shows how our implicit categories can lead to both cross-cultural confusion and problematic misunderstandings in course content. Helping students to recognise and to understand the cultural roots of our implicit categories should be a deliberate learning outcome. This type of cultural understanding can be advanced significantly through guided reflection on experience and explicit instruction; in addition, some subjects and approaches – intercultural education, study abroad and Holocaust education among them – show particular promise for achieving this aim.     

Multi-ethnic school environment from the school leader’s perspective: challenges and approaches to improve multi-cultural competency among teachers in Malaysia

This study aims to identify the challenges and approaches to improve a multicultural competency among teachers in multi-ethnic schools environment based on school leaders’ perspective. Data collection method used in this study is qualitative method. A total of nine school leaders from the states of Kedah, Penang, and Perak were included in the interview session. The results of this study show that the challenges faced by teachers in practicing the multicultural competency are lack of experience toward cultural diversity. A late exposure to cultural diversity makes it difficult for teachers to accept and adapt in a multi-ethnic school environment. The approaches suggested by school leaders to improve the multicultural competency are as follows: (1) Courses on cultural diversity should be organized to enhance the knowledge about cultural diversity; (2) the development of more open and better policy for education system in Malaysia in order to prepare teachers with a higher multicultural competency for teaching students from diverse ethnic and cultural groups; (3) an early exposure to cultural diversity in order to increase the multicultural competency, especially during teaching practicum.     

美学的跨文化研究：从文化自觉到审美共识

美学的跨文化研究的提出本身就是当代语境中的一种跨文化现象.只有在跨文化的当代性视野之中,才能理清美学的跨文化研究的理论前提、研究路向与学术理想.全球化及其文化自觉构成了跨文化的当代语境,也构成了美学的跨文化研究的基本理论前提.美学对自身作为地方性知识的文化自觉及其在全球化语境中的互动认知是美学的跨文化研究的基本路向.在此路向中,美学的跨文化研究把探寻一种多元普遍的审美共识确立为自己的学术理想.     

文化迁移及其在大学英语教学中的作用

语言反映文化,文化影响语言,语言和文化密不可分。跨文化交际的语言常常受到目的语文化的影响,因此,对文化迁移现象的忽略或隔膜必然会形成跨文化交际的障碍,甚至导致交际的失败。弄清楚语言与文化的关系,正视大学英语教学中的文化迁移现象,可以帮助大学生发现和解决大学英语教学中普遍存在的一些问题。     

英汉色彩词联想对比的词汇学意义

词汇是语言三大系统中最为活跃的部分,词无定义,义随人生。色彩词的联想意义是由特定的民族文化所铸造的一种附加的或隐含的意义。语言具有承载文化的功能,色彩词联想意义的理解必须参照特定时代特定地域的民族文化,否则便产生失误。本文从文化语言学、及翻译学的角度探讨了英汉色彩词联想意义的共性与个性,分析了造成这些特点的民族文化心理,总结了英汉色彩词对比研究的词汇学重要性。     

对外汉语教学中的文化附加义探析

语言与文化的关系密不可分,第二语言教学不能忽视文化教学,特别是文化附加义的教学.讨论了文化附加义的特点、范围及其形成原因,指出跨文化交际中由于文化附加义的客观存在,从而导致交际的误解和冲突.对外汉语教学的目的是培养汉语学习者运用汉语进行交际的实际能力,因此,对外汉语教学中加强汉语文化附加义的揭示,是汉语学习者减少和避免跨文化冲突的有效途径.