LINGUIST List 25.2364
Sat
May 31 2014
Review: Applied
Linguistics; Sociolinguistics: Sharifian &
Jamarani (eds.) (2012)
Editor for this issue:
Monica Macaulay <monicalinguistlist.org>
Date: 01-Dec-2013
From: Gail AlHafidh
<ghafidh
yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Language and
Intercultural Communication in the New Era
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Book announced at
http://linguistlist.org/issues/24/24-345.html
EDITOR: Farzad Sharifian
EDITOR: Maryam Jamarani
TITLE: Language and Intercultural Communication
in the New Era
SERIES TITLE: Routledge Studies in Language and
Intercultural Communication
PUBLISHER: Routledge (Taylor and Francis)
YEAR: 2012
REVIEWER: Gail AlHafidh, Higher Colleges of
Technology
SUMMARY
“Language and Intercultural Communication in
the New Era”, a volume edited by Farzad
Sharifian and Maryam Jamarani, brings together
articles written by renowned experts in the
field of linguistics to address key issues
related to intercultural communication in the
context of today’s globalized and increasingly
technical society. The book is organised in
three sections: Theoretical Advancements, New
Technologies and Intercultural Communication,
and Intercultural Communication in Context. In
the opening chapter, Sharifian and Jamarani
provide a brief history of the study of
intercultural communication and an overview of
what they consider to be the growing
complexities associated with the study of
intercultural communication.
Part 1: Theoretical Advancements
Part 1 addresses the first of those
complexities: theoretical advancements. Claire
Kramsch’s paper, “History and Memory in the
Development of Intercultural Competence”, adds
a new dimension to the notion of intercultural
competence. In previous writings, Kramsch has
argued that language is culturally bound but
that culture itself is constantly evolving;
hence the dynamic nature of intercultural
communication (Kramsch, 1993, Kramsch, 1998).
Here, she explores the connection between
individual and collective narratives and
further notes the subjectivity of both and its
impact on students trying to learn a foreign
language. If students of another language want
to excel in that language, since language and
culture are interdependent, Kramsch argues that
they also need to understand the historical
context behind the target language and culture,
as part of their understanding of the
discourse. The issue, however, is that
histories are written from a variety of
perspectives, further confusing the learner.
Kramsch examines the portrayal of historical
events in two German language textbooks, one
from the U.S. and one from Germany. Her
conclusions reveal that textbooks can present
topics with decontextualized prompts and an
assumed familiarity with the events described,
disregarding the complexity of multiple
perspectives.
In the third chapter, Istvan Kecskes separates
linguistic knowledge from ‘encyclopedic
knowledge’, or knowledge of the world. Kecskes
argues that interculturality has both fixed and
emergent, dynamic components, in contrast to
Nishizaka (1995) and Blum-Kulka (2008), for
example, who argue that it is a situationally
emergent phenomenon. Kecskes’ socio-cognitive
framework makes the commonplace assertion that
communication is a two way process with both
parties co-constructing the discourse. However,
he extends this idea to include the notion of
interlocutors relying on pre-existing
encyclopedic knowledge (the norm) and of that
that emerges in the interaction. This results
in an evolution of intercultures as
interactants from different mother tongues
communicate via a common language while
representing different cultural norms. Kecskes
could have argued further that even two such
interactants would represent different
perspectives of their own ‘cultural norms’ so
that any interaction between two different
people would result in an emergent
interculturality, thereby producing a
multiplicity of interculturalities. He
concludes his chapter by reiterating the notion
of intercultural discourse being about
‘transformation’ of knowledge and behavior
rather than simply a ‘transmission’ of
knowledge.
In the final chapter of the first section,
Farzad Sharifian discusses the emerging field
of Cultural Linguistics and explores its
application in the study of varieties of
English, intercultural communication and
metacultural competence. He reflects on the
fact that cultural knowledge, even within a
given cultural group (if such a thing exists)
is “heterogeneously distributed” (p. 63)
thereby recognizing that individuals within
that group will all exhibit variations in the
understanding of their own culture, and that
understanding is not static as it is
co-constructed and reconstructed with each
interaction. This chapter successfully draws
together the first three chapters by
recognizing the need for further research into
the many different factors affecting cultural
and intercultural competence.
Part 2: New Technologies and Intercultural
Communication
Part 2 starts with an exploration by Fred
Dervin of the notion of ‘interculturality’ and
by taking a social construction approach, he
looks at the politics of identity construction
using sociodigital technologies. His findings
suggest that interculturality is far less an
obvious or tangible construct than previously
asserted and that following on from the
findings of Banks and McGee Banks (2009), there
are many other influences on the construction
of identity in addition to culture, such as
gender, class, generation and so on.
Wendy Anderson and John Corbett also focus on
CMC (computer-mediated communication) and look
at how online interactions can deliver
opportunities for students to develop
intercultural competence without physically
experiencing the target culture by visiting it
personally. Similarly, Hyisung Hwang and David
Matsumoto look at CMC but with a focus on
non-verbal behavior (NVB) in online
intercultural interactions, suggesting that
awareness of its impact is equally important
there as it is in verbal communication.
However, they draw several distinctions between
CMC and FTC (face to face communication) in the
areas of temporality, anonymity, modality and
spaciality. Referring to current research, they
suggest that CMC can be synchronous or
asynchronous as with online chat rooms or
email, and anonymous since it is possible to
hide one’s identity in some modes. The modality
can be varied from written to spoken and can
include graphics, audio, and visual
enhancements, yet limiting in terms of spatial
control. Walther (1994) and Derks, Fisher and
Bos (2008) all conclude from their studies that
CMC is far less impersonal than previously
thought, and Matsumoto and Hwang point to the
fact that even text can carry NVB in terms of
discourse markers and punctuation marks to
express surprise, for example. Their study on
the interculturality of emoticons in text and
chat point to the fact that despite being
universal symbols of emotions, emoticons may
fail to express the degree of that emotion
through technical limitation,s and could lead
to misunderstandings and
misinterpretations.
Sarah Pasfield-Neofitou draws a distinction
between the users of CMC according to their age
and identifies them as ‘digital natives’ if
they have grown up with ICT (Information and
Communications Technologies), i.e. if they were
born after 1980. This is significant, she
argues, as current research suggest that there
may no longer be such a native/non-native
distinction between participants in CMC but
rather a distinction in their use of technology
to communicate. She concurs with Matsumoto and
Hwang in their conclusion that the use of
emoticons and their interpretation, but also
net-slang and technological skill can be
culture- and language-specific and therefore
digital intercultural competence requires an
added set of skills for the interactants.
Magda Stroińska and Vikki Cecchetto focus
specifically on the use of emails between
international students and their instructors
and the effects of email language on perceived
levels of politeness, specifically in making
requests. They conclude that since students use
so many different forms of CMC informally
(chat, texting, social networks) this informal
writing style spills into what might have been
a more formal interaction previously and could
be misconstrued as rudeness or lack of
formality. They suggest that it is the
responsibility of the universities to set out
netiquette guidelines for all CMC users to
avoid confusion. Even with such guidelines,
however, emails are often misinterpreted
between native speakers since the text may be
written quickly and without much thought for
the impact of the message discourse.
In their chapter, Anthony J. Liddicoat and
Vincenza Tudini consider the power dynamics
between native speakers (NS) and non-native
speakers (NNS) in online chat situations. They
suggest that the NS takes on almost a
pedagogical role or ‘didactic voice’ and
assumes a certain status as a result, with an
asymmetry of power. If both interactants are
able to access each other’s language this does
not appear to happen.
Peter Cowley and Barbara E. Hanna in
“Anglophones, Francophones, Telephones: The
case of a disputed Wikipedia entry”, discuss
the potential use of Wikipedia as a source of
debate on intercultural representations of
‘fact’ in the classroom. They cite differences
in entries and quoted sources depending on the
language of entry into the Wikipedia site.
Wikipedia, they argue, could be viewed as a
rich forum for student discussion on
intercultural interpretation, and allow
opportunities for identifying culturally-bound
facts, sources and arguments.
Part 3: Intercultural Communication in
Context
The final section of the book looks at
intercultural communication in specific
situational contexts. In the first chapter, Jo
Angouri and Marlene Miglbauer consider the
working environment and challenge of operating
in a variety of languages in this increasingly
globalised society. IC, or intercultural
training, has become ‘de rigeur’ especially for
workers at management level in international
companies, but the authors raise a concern that
this training is often reduced to a set of
restrictive set of behaviours or linguistic
features that appear to be generic to the
target culture. They argue that there are other
varieties of language that feature in business
communication, not just the lingua franca of
the company. In some cases, there are multiple
L1s present in the workforce. There is also
‘corporate talk’ (business terms familiar to
those in the related industries) and ‘company
speak’ (acronyms and terms peculiar to one
company). The authors conclude by calling for a
more complex acknowledgement of multilingual
contexts in the workplace and urge that IC be
much less one-dimensional and move to embrace
all aspects that feed into the intercultural
communication process.
Mikaela L. Marlow and Howard Giles also look at
a workplace issue but focus on one specific
context: Chinese immigrant females seeking
healthcare in the U.S. They cite traditional
roles of women in China and suggest that
decisions such as those involving healthcare
may have previously been decided by fathers or
husbands, and that therefore the experience is
not within their schema. Research conducted by
Weitz (1989) and Berger (1979) draws attention
to the fact that situations such as these are
culture-bound and that these Chinese women may
not have either the cognitive framework or the
cultural knowledge to deal with the situation.
In healthcare scenarios, the ability to
communicate and understand information can be
life-saving. The authors suggest that an
accommodation framework modelled on the theory
of the same name (Gallois, Ogay, and Giles
2005) is essential to create equal access in
the U.S. for all patients. Suggested best
practices include using social networking to
transmit culturally relevant healthcare
information that accommodates linguistic
diversity.
Andy Kirkpatrick, John Patkin and Wu Jingjing
turn their attention to multilingualism both
teachers and students, and draw attention to
the fact that there are more NNS of English
than NS, although this statement is loaded with
a perceived notion of the meaning of the term
‘NS’. They positively endorse the benefits that
NNS teachers bring to the English classroom in
terms of richness of cultural diversity and
cultural proximity. For example, in the Asian
context cited, the teachers are able to discuss
through ELF (English as a lingua franca) topics
of common interest rather than a remote
culture-bound topic that may be presented in
the English textbook. Thus the profile of
intercultural competence is raised and the
important role of multilingual and
multicultural teachers is recognized.
The final chapter moves to Europe and a
discussion of the experience of ‘tandem
learners’ (NS and learners of each others’
language) and their different interpretations
of a word. Jane Woodin concludes that the
difference in perceived meaning of a word
between a NS and a NNS should be exploited by
teachers, as the distinction between NS and NNS
becomes evermore cloudy. Students need to be
aware that dictionary definitions are culture
and context-bound and that there may be
varieties of interpretation possible.
EVALUATION
This volume ties together key topic areas
concerning the relationship between culture and
language in our increasingly globalised world,
with particular reference to pedagogy and the
workplace context, and the impact of CMC on
those. Sharifian and Jamarani succeed in
presenting a snapshot of current research, and
in doing so, reflect the complexity surrounding
the issue of intercultural communication, both
its scholarly tradition and modern
interpretations. Their stated goal in the
introductory chapter is to provide a “forum for
exploring some of the challenges and
possibilities” (p. 17) for the study of
intercultural communication. The editors have
drawn on acknowledged experts in the field of
linguistics and the analyses and research
studies reflect that. While the volume is
clearly of interest to academics and students
of linguistics or language pedagogy, it is
written with accessible clarity that would also
allow non- experts in the field to draw a
deeper understanding of the main issues.
In terms of layout and structure, the book is
arranged thematically and this is largely
successful with section 1 focusing on the
definition of culture and the notion of what
intercultural competence entails. Section two
looks at the relationship between technology
and interculturality. This section flows
slightly less well if it is being read
chronologically. However, Cowley and Hanna’s
chapter on Wikipedia seems out of place and
might have been better suited to the more
general discussion of intercultural
communication in section 1. In section 3, there
is a collection of unlinked chapters that serve
their purpose as isolated contextual and
situational discussions of the phenomena of
interculturality.
Kramsch’s closing comment that “intercultural
education needs both memory and history” (p.
37) is a lofty goal, but one that is in
conflict with what publishers of textbooks are
likely to aspire to achieve. Publishers need to
sell textbooks that have a generic appeal, to
maximize sales, unfortunately. The
acknowledgement of the significance of the
historical context of language and culture is
clearly important but how far teachers and
learners can embrace this extra dimension
between teaching and learning linguistic
competence and that of intercultural competence
remains problematic and is not addressed in
detail in this chapter.
Kirkpatrick, Patkin and Jingjing’s article
captures the essence of the reality of the
emerging demands on teachers to be both
multilingual and multicultural. This phenomenon
needs greater attention and investigation.
Similarly, Kramsch’s article on the limited
perspectives currently presented in textbooks
highlights an important area for further
research. It would also have been useful to
have an additional chapter following the
current status of ELF to link to Kramsch’s
paper relating those discussions to the world
of academia for both students and teachers, and
the globalized business world in the context of
the ‘New Era’. A closing chapter by the editors
tying together and summarizing what they
perceive to be the emerging needs for further
research or clarification would have been
useful.
In summary, this edited volume successfully
highlights some of the current debates central
to intercultural communication by providing the
reader with a range of quality articles to
stimulate and promote discussion.
REFERENCES
Banks, J., McGee Banks, C. (2009)
“Multicultural education: Issues and
Perspectives”. 9th ed. New York: Wiley.
Berger, C. (1979). “Beyond initial interaction:
Uncertainty, understanding, and the development
of interpersonal relationships”. In Language
and Social Psychology, edited by Giles, H. and
St. Clair, R. Oxford: Blackwell.
Blum-Kulka, S., Blondheim, M., House, J.,
Kasper, G., and Wagner, J. (2008)
“Intercultural Pragmatics, Language and
Society”. In Unity and Diversity of Languages,
edited by Sterkenberg, P. Amsterdam:
Benjamins.
Derks, D., Fischer, A., and Bos, AER. (2008).
“The role of emoticons in computer-mediated
communication: A review”. Computer in Human
Behaviour Vol. 24, 766-785.
Gallois, C., Ogay, T., Giles, H. (2005).
“Communication Accommodation Theory: A look
back and a look ahead”. Theorizing About
Intercultural Communication, edited by
Gudykunst, W. Thousand Oaks, California:
Sage.
Kramsch, C. (1998). “Language and Culture”.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kramsch, C. (1993). “Context and Culture in
Language Teaching”. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Nishizaka, A. (1995). “The interactive
constitution of interculturality: How to be a
Japanese with words?” Human Studies
18:301-326.
Walther, B. (1994). “Anticipated on-going
interaction versus channel effects on
relational communication in computer-mediated
interaction”. Human Communication Research 20
(4): 73-501.
Weitz, R. (1989). “Uncertainty and the Lives of
people with AIDS. Journal of Health and Social
Behavior 30:270-28.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Gail Al Hafidh received her doctoral degree
(EdD) from the U.K's Open University and is
currently working as English faculty in the
Liberal Studies program at the Higher Colleges
of Technology in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
She holds a Masters in TEFL and Applied
Linguistics and has previously worked in the
British state school system (secondary level)
as a modern languages teacher, in the business
world as a management trainer and in further
education. Her interests include intercultural
communication, ELF, assessment of speaking
skills, and ESL/EFL/ELF Teacher Training.
Page Updated: 31-May-2014