ERIC Number: EJ1141490
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0143-4632
EISSN: N/A
Framing Interculturality: A Corpus-Based Analysis of Online Promotional Discourse of Higher Education Intercultural Communication Courses
Hua, Zhu; Handford, Michael; Young, Tony Johnstone
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, v38 n3 p283-300 2017
This paper examines how intercultural communication (ICC) and the notion of culture are framed in on-line promotional discourse of higher education (HE) ICC courses. It analyses a specialised corpus comprised of 14,842 words from 43 course websites of master's programmes in ICC in the UK and the US--internationally, the two largest providers of such programmes. Through combining corpus tools with a "situated meaning" approach, the analysis reveals that while a small number of courses acknowledge cultural "complexity", culture is still very often reduced to an essentialised and static notion, despite growing criticism against such an approach in ICC literature. ICC is valorised as a combination of desirable skills and knowledge conducive to effective communication of different cultural groups and for those working in international arenas. Significant differences between the UK and US courses are identified with regard to the extent of associations with diversity-related social categories. The lack of interpretive, critical, and constructivist positions on culture in promotional discourse is discussed in the context of neoliberal discourse and the current thinking towards professional competences dominant in Britain, North America, and other parts of the world.
Descriptors: Intercultural Communication, Computational Linguistics, Higher Education, Discourse Analysis, Web Sites, Masters Programs, Course Descriptions, Cultural Awareness, Criticism, Cultural Differences, Constructivism (Learning), Student Recruitment, Word Frequency, Foreign Countries, Indexes
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Information Analyses
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United States; United Kingdom
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A