Learning new languages potentially gives people vital skills to build more successful relationships, and understanding the social influences at work today may help us to know which type of language education is most beneficial. This article explores three social influences--globalisation, localisation and glocalisation--from the perspective of…

It is a widely accepted belief that the best way to master a new language is to live in the country where the language is spoken. For young people, one of the most popular ways of immersing themselves in the host environment is to become an "au pair:" move in with a family and look after their children to get first-hand experience of the culture…

Having grown up in an age of rapidly developing electronic communication technology, today's students come to higher education with high levels of comfort and familiarity with computer-mediated communication (CMC, hereafter). The students' level of comfort with CMC, coupled with CMC's promises of enabling supplemental class discussion as well as…

This article presents an interview with Stella Ting-Toomey, an author of several books and articles on communicative interaction. Ting-Toomey's interview focuses on the factors that play in the relationship between culture and communication. She also talks about the role of conflict in culture, the underlying characteristics of international…

This article explores the way tertiary level Chinese students in the UK adapt, in varying degrees, to their new learning and living environment. A questionnaire and interview study that includes both Chinese students and their British teachers attempts to ascertain key issues with a view to helping sojourning students adapt to their environment,…

Bearing in mind the relevance of immigration in Spain, we consider the linguistic idiosyncrasy of the autonomous community of Catalonia in the present study to describe and analyse language attitudes to Catalan and Spanish in a sample of 225 students of immigrant origin living in different parts of the region. We focus on language attitudes in so…

This article explores the potential usefulness of translation activities in the learning of intercultural competence. First, the theoretical framework adopted and the problems involved in the use of translation activities for formative evaluation are discussed. Then, a pedagogic tool which implements the data provided by the students' translations…

An analysis of linguistics texts based on Indigenous community fieldwork raises questions of authority, contribution and accreditation of linguists and community representatives. The recommendations of various professional practice guidelines are considered, and possible theoretical understandings introduced. Uninterrogated writing practices may…

This cross-cultural discourse analysis examines the construction of environmental issues on Greenpeace web pages in China, Japan and Germany. To uncover the semantic representation of environmental activism on these sites, the authors sought to identify discursive homogeneity and divergence and to bring to light embedded cultural assumptions. The…

This paper takes issue with recent claims regarding the impossibility of the transcultural narrative. After demonstrating the possibility of such narrative, a metaphorical model is proposed as a useful means of approaching the transcultural narrative. It is shown how an intellectual process of analogy and an affective process of empathy enable the…

Globalisation has accelerated the spread of English internationally, challenged nationalisms and put nation states in a dilemma in which they have to promote English, a foreign language, in addition to their national languages. Focusing on the proposal in January 2000 to establish English as an official language of Japan, this study attempts to…

This paper argues that there is often tension between language learning policies that promote intercultural communication and persistent traditions of language teaching that identify languages with national cultures. Interviews with teachers confirm these tensions, revealing that the mindset of teachers may privilege a bicultural nationalist…

Due to the overriding power of World English in the global economy, media, academy, entertainment, etc., EFL education has become a crucial curricular element in the educational systems of developing societies. English language learning has therefore been portrayed either as a fundamental tool that unquestionably brings professional success or one…

This article presents an interview with Professor Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Santos is a professor of Sociology at the University of Coimbra, where he is the director of the internationally renowned Centro de Estudos Sociais. He offers a rich vein of theoretical reflection and translation for language(s) and intercultural communication.

Through an analysis of three settler narratives about new lives in Spain, Stewart (1999), Kerr (2000) and Lambert (2000), the paper explores three elements of these intercultural narratives that contribute to the formation of the settler's new sociocultural identity: the physical environment, explorations of the other through signs of the…