WACC Regular Events

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010 - 2008

Members of WACC meet approximately every two weeks during term-time and these sessions are open to anyone interested, both internal and external to the university. For more information, please contact one of the co-convenors, Jo Angouri and Daniel Dauber. Our archive of events can be navigated to either by year (see above) or by theme (see below).

Event themes: The Influence of Culture; Motivation and Intercultural Interaction; Culture and the Workplace; Adjusting to new work or study environments; Cultural Integration; Collecting Critical Incident data; Intercultural Issues in Research; Intercultural Relations in Education; Culture and Identity in the Workplace; Intercultural Interaction and Education; Researching Intercultural Experiences; Intercultural Adaptation; What is intercultural effectiveness?

[Please note: for copyright reasons, links on this page to copyright material are only accessible to staff and students at the University of Warwick.]

2015

Main Theme: Intercultural Team Research

June 24 (all day)

WACC MEETING & PG Conference

In the week of 24 June, we will hold our annual PG Conference. Thus, the entire day is devoted to our WACC Research Group and we hope you are able to attend several of our sessions.

In addition to that, we also have (yet another) guest speaker at the same time:

Hierarchy and Harmony in Japanese Business Discourse: How Can Japanese Managers Modify Their Communication Style for International Business?

Misa Fujio

June 17

No meeting

June 10

12pm, A1.05

Our next WACC meeting is a planning meeting to look ahead into the next year and also take stock of what we have done so far. In light of recent projects that have either started already or are about to start, it is time to properly plan ahead to ensure that WACC's profile is best represented and reflecting within and outside Warwick.

June 3

12 noon, A1.05

In this meeting, we will kick off our Term 3 PhD student presentation series again. This is a great opportunity for our PhD students to showcase their work in progress, receive additional feedback and advice as well as keep the entire group up-to-date about their ongoing research.

Kyoung-Mi Kim will be the first one in this year's series.

27 May

12 noon, A1.05

In this WACC meeting we will take a look at the following article about peer evaluation in team work.

Ohland, M., Loughry, M., Woehr, D., Finelli, C., Bullard, L., Felder, R., ... & Schmucker, D. (2012) The Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness: Development of a Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale for Self- and Peer Evaluation, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Vol. 11, No. 4, 609–630.

You can download the article here.

Please take a particular look at Appendix B, which contains the assessment tool which we would like to discuss in light of other possible ways of peer assessments, in particular in light of the higher education context.

20 May

1pm, A1.05

In this WACC meeting we warmly welcome Bethan Davies from the University of Leeds. She will talk about:

'Diachronic Critical Discourse Analysis: Analysing the representations of road users in The Highway Code over time'.

Abstract

The Highway Code is an iconic publication in the UK; it encodes the legal requirements for all road users in a set of numbered ‘Rules’ alongside advice about how to use the road safely. Anyone learning to drive or ride a motorbike must pass a test on its contents. Children are inducted into its expectations via road safety training at School and (often) at home. First published in 1931, it has gone through at least 12 editions and increased in size from something resembling a pamphlet (24 pages) to 93 pages in the current 2007 edition.

This talk will present a diachronic analysis of selected features of these texts, using the synchronic analysis of the current edition as a baseline (Davies, in prep.). Through this kind of approach, we can trace how discourses of road use have changed over time and how this is indexed through textual modifications. In particular, it will focus on the way in which pedestrians and cyclists have been increasingly displaced from the road as cars have gained increasing hegemony over its use. Vehicles that are not cars and pedestrians are now difficult to see and require the more vulnerable road user to take responsibility for their own safety by changing what they wear and/or how they interact with the road. Because they are difficult to see, they have become special cases which are othered and somehow not expectable in the road environment. In addition, supposedly generic rules for all drivers and riders relating to the use of the road have increasingly shifted to constructions that imply or presuppose the implied reader is a car driver, thus further marginalizing other road users. Other than Fairclough (1993), who offers a brief diachronic analysis of University prospectus pages over a 20 year period, such a diachronic approach is rare. However, it can offer many insights as it demonstrates how discourses now perceived as common sense have been gradually sedimented over time in successive versions of the ‘same’ text. In this case, it highlights a conflict between stated government policy in relation to transport – the promotion of ‘active travel’ – and the dominant discourses in an official text designed to both train new drivers and regulate road use.

13 May

1pm, A1.05: In our upcoming WACC meeting we will continue the discussion of the following article:

Salas, E., Cooke, N. J., & Rosen, M. A. (2008). 'On teams, teamwork, and team performance: Discoveries and developments. Human Factors': The Journal of the
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 50(3), 540-547.

29 April

12pm, A1.05: In our upcoming WACC meeting we will follow up with this year's theme 'intercultural team research'. This time we invite you to read and discuss the following article: Salas, E., Cooke, N. J., & Rosen, M. A. (2008). On teams, teamwork, and team performance: Discoveries and developments. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 50(3), 540-547.

We have chosen this article not only because it has become a popular publication, but also because it is not set in the business context as much as
our previous papers were. We hope you enjoy reading it and look forward to our joint discussion. If you would like to download the article you can do so by clicking here.

22 April

Abstract

Media act as filters of everyday reality (Silverstone, 1999) and structure our ways of thinking (Bennett and Edelman, 1985; Liu et al., 2011). By drawing ‘symbolic boundaries’ (Loseke, 2007:661), they affect the way we perceive ourselves and others and construct in that way identities (Schneeberger, 2009; Georgiou, 2006; Derman and Ross, 2003). The present paper draws on data collected in a 2014 project, which investigated issues of Turkish-Greek relations from an identity perspective, making use of the phenomenon of Turkish TV series transmission in Greece. Using as starting point attitudes of Greek people towards Turkish TV series shown by Greek channels, the aim was to shed light on the way participants constructed the image of Turks. The data collection process of the study included the distribution of 100 questionnaires and the conduction of 10 semi-structured interviews with permanent residents of the city of Thessaloniki, in Greece. The paper conceptualises identity under social constructionist terms, as socially constructed through discourse and as constantly negotiated between participants. Identity is also conceived as relational. That is, the constant confrontation of self with others involved in it are supposed to be ubiquitous in its construction (De Fina, 2010; Andreouli, 2010). Due to space restrictions, in the present paper I present only a part of the qualitative part of the study, which was analysed thematically. More specifically, I choose to focus on the way participants perceive ‘Europe’ and on the terms under which they negotiate their belonging to it. The current research area was not part of my initial research questions, but emerged so forcefully in my analysis that could not be left out. At the same time, the idea of Europe and European integration offer be default a prominent source of identification, so it was conceived as highly relevant to the construction of the identity profile of my participants. The findings demonstrate that Europe is associated to notions like education, democracy, Christianity, transparency and safety. At the same time, Europe is constructed in the minds of the participants as the positive pole in the binary opposition Europe-East. Their position though in terms of Europe-East lies somewhere in the middle. Contradictory perceptions on their ‘Europeanness’ co-exist, revealing the fluid and multi-level character of identity. Finally, insightful conclusions can be drawn also with regards to the transformative power of media on the audience’s perceptions of the Other.

11 March

3-4pm: Coaching for Intercultural Competence. Navigating the Maze of Frameworks and Tools

Prof. Helen Spencer-Oatey will give a webinar for the International Coach Federation and can arrange access for you if you wish to take part in it. Please let Helen know in advance by 2 March (Helen.Spencer-Oatey@warwick.ac.uk)

10 March

2pm, B2.02 (Chemistry and Science Concourse)

Why are intercultural issues relevant to business, and how to respond as external consultants?

In this session Nigel Ewington – Director of TCO International and WorldWork Ltd - will look at some of the main issues that business faces in adapting to a global world, particularly focused on leadership and teamwork. He will present some of the client challenges he has been presented with as a consultant delivering training and coaching for the professional market. He will be ready to answer questions to those interested in acting as professional service providers in the area of intercultural management.

25 February

2pm in A1.05

In this WACC meeting we welcomed Miya Komori-Glatz who gave a guest talk about intercultural teamwork in a higher education context.

Intercultural teamwork at Europe’s largest business university

Miya Komori-Glatz
WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria

Abstract
At WU Vienna, Europe’s largest business university, almost half the master’s programmes are taught in English, attracting students from all over the world. Teamwork plays a large role in the course structure, and students often have to work in intercultural groups where English is usually the lingua franca.

This presentation outlines my PhD project, which explores language and interaction in three groups from two master’s programmes (one focusing on sustainability in global supply chains, and the other on market entry in South-East Asia). The data set for each group includes audio and video recordings of their group meetings (around 20 hours per group), their group Facebook chats, the finished product (presentations and reports) and reflective interviews with each of the group members. I am currently working on the conceptual framework for analysing this data, which will be based on Dafouz and Smit’s (2014) discourse-centred EMEMUS (English-medium education in multilingual university settings) framework.

The specific focus of the presentation will be conceptualising intercultural teamwork and its practices. This is based primarily on research from management and organisational psychology but also draws on recent studies with a focus on English as a workplace lingua franca. At the moment this synthesis is primarily structured along Salas et al.’s (2005) “Big Five of Teamwork” (team leadership, mutual performance modelling, backup behaviour, adaptability, and team orientation) and their three “supporting and co-ordinating mechanisms” (the development of shared mental models, the achievement of mutual trust, and engagement in closed-loop communication; p. 559).

I would particularly appreciate feedback on this conceptualisation of teamwork and its practices and look forward to discussing to what extent student teamwork can be seen as preparation for an intercultural/global workplace. I would also enjoy hearing about the experiences students at Warwick have had and how that compares to what I have observed at WU.

18 February

1pm, Room H0.60 (Humanities Building)

INTER-/INTRA-CULTURAL VARIATION THROUGH TRANSLATION

Maria Sidiropoulou (Faculty of English Language and Literature, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)

Abstract: Translation contexts are sites of encounter where mediated interaction is practiced, either in the sense of translation practice in professional contexts or in the sense of implicit transfer of meaning in the mind of a speaker who attempts to transfer meaning into a foreign language. The seminar highlights instances of English-Greek mediated interaction, drawing on institutional discourses, where genre, organizational hierarchies, politeness, gender and leadership shape construction of identities in discourse. The seminar intends to show that translation seems to be equally eloquent in revealing loci of difference in socio-cognitive aspects of experience. It is thus claimed to be able to make a considerable contribution to the study of inter- and intra-cultural communication , which would be of interest to professional communication analysts and language teachers.

11 February (4pm , A0.05)

In our next WACC meeting we will continue our discussion around teamwork, but this time with a particular focus on the actual merits of working in a multicultural team and in which relation they stand to the challenges faced when working in a culturally diversified team.

The article that we will use as a starting point is:

Stahl, G. K., Mäkelä, K., Zander, L., & Maznevski, M. L. (2010). A look at the bright side of multicultural team diversity. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 26(4), 439-447.

4 February (4-5pm, A0.05)

In our upcoming WACC meeting, Daniel (Dauber) will present first insights from the SB and ISB (International Student Barometer) data that he and Helen (Spencer-Oatey) collected and prepared for analysis. A particular focus will be put on students' perception of multicultural group work. We look forward to a lively discussion about the presented results.

28 January (4pm, A0.05)

In our next WACC meeting Jo and Daniel will provide an outline of WACC activities and also present a small project that they will lead on 'Decision-making in multicultural teams: A cross-disciplinary review of theories, methods and findings'. WACC members are invited to joint this undertaking which is aimed at producing a publishable paper at the end of term 3/during the summer. Particular emphasis will be put on synthesising findings and approaches to achieve a holistic perspective on multicultural team research and suggesting a future research agenda.

For Wednesday we would like to invite everyone to read the following article, which we will use to start a critical discussion about multicultural teams and their success or failure/performance, also from a research design angle.

Stahl, G. K., Maznevski, M. L., Voigt, A., & Jonsen, K. (2010). Unraveling the effects of cultural diversity in teams: A meta-analysis of research on multicultural work groups. Journal of International Business Studies, 41(4), 690-709.

21 January (4pm, S0.10)

Our first WACC meeting will be our planning meeting for CAL staff only. Not only do we aim to define the direction for WACC for the rest of the year, we also need to think about what to put into the 5 year plan, as well as reflect on our activities and their potential outcome and impact.

October - December 2014

Main Theme: Group Work

31 October

We welcome Petr Matous who will give a workshop on Social Network Analysis. Since all of the places were taken so quickly, we had to put people on a waiting list, but it looks very unlikely that additional places will become available. For a more detailed breakdown of the schedule and room arrangements for this workshop, please visit our dedicated website.

22 October, 2pm, A1.05

In this meeting, hosted by Thomas and Jo, we will be looking at group decision-making and decision making contexts. We would like you to read the article called "Cognitive Organization and Identity Maintenance in Multicultural Teams: A Discourse Analysis of Decision-Making Meetings" and focus particularly on the methodology for its strengths and weaknesses as a means of unpacking decision-making in teams. However, the findings may also be of interest. We will also discuss an audio recording, provided by Jo, which is of a group making decisions in an ‘airplane crash survivors’ scenario. Download article: http://we.tl/dJj2bTxWIl

15 October: WACC planning meeting

As you all may know, our next WACC meeting will take place tomorrow from 2-3pm. Our first gathering will be an internal meeting only to discuss the themes and plans for the upcoming term and in particular decide on what people want to contribute to WACC.

We hope many of you can manage to come along and help shape the way we run WACC this term.

May - June 2014

Main Theme: TBC

17 July, noon, A1.11

In our next WACC meeting we warmly welcome one of our new visiting scholars Farzad Sharifian from Monash University (Australia). He is a linguist with a multidisciplinary background in cognitive science, anthropology and education. On Thursday 17 July, Farzad will give a talk about Cultural Linguistics: The Development of a Multidisciplinary Paradigm.

Abstract

This presentation provides an account of the development of Cultural Linguistics as a multidisciplinary area exploring the relationship between language, culture, and conceptualisation. Cultural Linguistics grew out of an interest in integrating cognitive linguistics with the three traditions within linguistic anthropology of Boasian linguistics, ethnosemantics, and the ethnography of speaking. For Cultural Linguistics, many features of human languages are entrenched in cultural conceptualisations, including cultural schemas, cultural categories and cultural metaphors. In recent years, Cultural Linguistics has drawn on several disciplines and sub-disciplines, such as complexity science and distributed cognition, to enrich its theoretical understanding of the notion of cultural cognition. Applications of Cultural Linguistics have enabled fruitful investigations of the cultural grounding of language in several applied domains such as World Englishes, intercultural communication, and political discourse analysis. This talk elaborates on these observations and provides close examples of linguistic research from the perspective of Cultural Linguistics.

For more information about Farzad, please have a look at his university profile. We hope to see many of you there.

24 June: Keynote by Martha Maznevski

The WACC meeting will be the keynote speech of Professor Martha Maznevski at our annual PG Conference. None of the WACC members is required to pay conference fees to participate in this event since it is part of our regular WACC meetings. However, make sure you come early to get yourself a seat. We have more than 75 participants this year (not including the 20 committee members). Martha M. mentioned she would appreciate getting to know more about the research in WACC. It is certainly a great opportunity to exchange thoughts with a reknowed scholar in the field.

Her keynote speech will be about: Cultural friction, flow and turbulence: The role of within-culture heterogeneity

For more information about the 17th PG Conference, please have a look at the website.

19 June, 4pm, S2.85

In tomorrow's WACC meeting our two PhD students Sherry and Thomas will present the status quo of their dissertations.

We hope many of you can manage to come. Needless to say that feedback to our PhD students is crucial in helping them to improve their research or simply gaining more confidence in what they plan to do.

It promises to be a very interactive meeting, with plenty of ideas and suggestions to take away for them.

12 June, 4pm, S2.85

In this meeting Claudia will give a talk on: Intercultural Competencies for entering the global workplace – a possible approach to assessment and validation

Abstract: Intercultural competencies (ICC) gain increasing importance as employability skill for graduates entering the global workplace (CIHE 2012). Measuring graduates’ cognitive preparedness for the global workplace could help facilitate this transition. However, current approaches to assessing ICC often lack reliability, validity, feasibility or empirical underpinning (Matsumoto & Hwang 2013). I will present a data-driven approach to conceptualising and assessing cognitive preparedness of graduates entering the global workplace. The research I present is still work-in-progress and focuses on the main stages of test development with a view to validating each step, hereby referring to data collected so far and preliminary analyses run.

In a first step, needs analysis examined the issues newcomers face when entering workplaces in multicultural settings, and competencies they should be equipped with in order to deal with these issues. Thematic analysis of interview (n=51) and questionnaire (n=260) data lead to a conceptualisation of issues and challenges, which is currently validated by experts and novices in global workplaces.

Furthermore, CIs were distilled from the needs-analysis data to examine the test construct. Five of these CIs were trialled in an open approach with a total of 14 participants. The videos are currently examined for cognitive processes and competencies needed to interpret the CIs, informing the competency model and the development of MC options reflecting different ICC ‘levels’.

The paper ends with an outlook on the next steps, encompassing construct validation, test specification in order to characterise tasks and items, test development, IRT-/regression analysis-based construction of competency levels, and validation studies accompanying each of the steps.

5 June, 4pm, S2.85

It is that time of the year again where we ask our PhD students to give us an update on how they progress and also offer them to ask us crucial questions about their research. Sherry (Xiaozhe Cai) and Thomas (Greenaway) will take over the floor for the upcoming WACC meeting.

29 May, 4pm, S2.85

In our next WACC meeting June (Xue, Huijuan) will talk about: Cultural Adaptation and Career Enhancement: A Study of Past Chinese Students’ Experience in UK Higher Education

Abstract: While undertaking international education has become increasingly popular in our globalising world, cultural adaptation in a foreign institution with different cultural values and social norms, particularly with a language barrier to overcome, is a pivotal factor that affects students’ academic success and career development. This research is based on 12 past Chinese doctoral students in UK HE, drawing on qualitative data from semi-structured in-depth individual interviews and complementary quantitative data from closed-questions, as well as data such as English test scores, English learning history and their learning outcomes in UK HE. Employing Bourdieu’s cultural capital theory, the talk explores how this cohort experienced cultural adaptation and personal capital formation by examining their real study and life experiences during their stay in the UK¸ with a focus on the association between UK education and career development. It concludes that only after they acclimatise themselves to the British educational culture and surmount the English language barrier can Chinese students form their personal cultural capital and ultimately complete their international education, which will subsequently underpin their career development.

22 May, 4pm, S2.85

In our next WACC meeting, Andy Davidson and Sophie Reissner-Roubicek will be talking about the Global TIES course developed by CAL in collaboration with the British Council, Japan. They will be talking about the genesis of the e-learning course, course content, their approach to its delivery, and how the course has been received by participants in Japan. They would also like to share with us their draft of the standalone (self-access) version of Global TIES Module 1: Understanding Culture for Work. Andy and Sophie hope to release this product soon and so our feedback on this e-learning course will be very much welcome.

May 8, 2-3pm, A1.11

In our next WACC meeting we are pleased to welcome Dr. Dorte Lønsmann who will talk about 'Negotiating positionality in ethnographic investigations of workplace settings: expert, consultant or confidante?’. (If you missed this highly interesting talk then please view the video here.)

Thursday 1 May 2014, 16.00 - 17.30 (S2.85)

Lynette Richards and Dr. Sophie Reissner-Roubicek will be giving a presentation titled 'Intercultural training as action research: Case study of a student teamwork exercise in the Statistics department’. We very much look forward to their talk and hope you will join us for a fruitful discussion.

January - March 2014

Main Theme: The Influence of Culture

27 March from 2-3.30pm in S2.85.

13 March from 4-5.30pm

TBC

Thursday 6 March 2014, 14.00 - 15.30 (Room tbc)

Stereotypes: Cognition or Culture?

For ninety years stereotypes have been viewed as rigid overgeneralisations. This has led to the research question: why do people use them if they are inaccurate? This is particularly important as stereotypes have been linked to prejudice and discrimination. A range of explanations have emerged, such as personality (authoritarianism) or cognitive simplicity. The dominant view in psychology is that the nature of cognition requires categorization and simplification in social perception. This seems to imply that stereotyping is inevitable. To avoid this, social cognitive theorists have argued that we can be sensitive to our use of stereotypes and, whilst stereotypes may be activated automatically in social perception, they can be consciously controlled, and suppressed in decision-making. This presentation will argue that the cognitive approach has ignored the importance of culture in the construction and use of stereotypes. Through the framework of social representations theory it is proposed that stereotypes are not rigid overgeneralizations but cultural myths (and social representations) and are perpetuated through communication in culture. Stereotypes may owe more to culture than to cognition.

Dr Perry Hinton has degrees in Mathematics from the University of Warwick and Psychology from Birkbeck College, University of London. Since receiving his doctorate in cognitive psychology from Oxford University, he has worked in four British universities, in positions ranging from lecturer to head of department, often in a multidisciplinary team. He has taught a wide range of psychological topics, but primarily in the area of social cognition, culture and media. His books include: The Psychology of Interpersonal Perception and Stereotypes, Cognition & Culture. He is the editor of the twenty volume Psychology Focus series published by Routledge. Currently he is researching into the cultural context of media interpretation, particularly the representation of Japanese popular culture in the Western media.

Wednesday 12 February 2014, 11.30 - 12.45 in S0.10

Reports of Aviation Incidents: Interpreting hidden meanings
When cabin and flight crew write reports of aviation incidents, they are doing a lot of communicative work outside reporting of facts. This work includes constructing (a) their identities within the assumptions they have about themselves, other crew and institutional authorities, and (b) the context of the incident in question. Only through unearthing these motivational and contextual factors and understanding the communicative techniques employed can we begin to understand what an inflight incident report is telling us about a particular event – and the context in which it is situated.

In this talk, Barbara explores how to use techniques from linguistic anthropology to reveal the information that is buried within the text of incident reports. The fact that anything is being said, how things are said, and what is unsaid all give us clues to what actually occurred, but often other equally important facts are unconsciously masked by communicative performances.

Dr Barbara Clark is a linguistic anthropologist, and founder of You Say Tomato, which provides communication consulting services. Dr Clark spent ten years in the commercial aviation industry, giving her a unique insight into inflight crew communication and interaction, and the importance of crew cohesion to aviation safety and security. Her PhD research (Queen Mary, University of London) investigated how cabin crew’s use of language impacted on intercrew cohesion with pilots. Currently Dr Clark is working with the UK Civil Aviation Authority researching communication between pilots and air traffic controllers.

Tuesday 28 January 2014

Thursday 23 January 2014, 16:00 - 17:15 in S1.71

Dr YANG Xianju, visiting academic from Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, China, will be giving a talk on her research "Investigating the pragmatic competence of Chinese learners of English."

September - December 2013

Main Theme: Motivation and Intercultural Interaction

Tuesday 3 December 2013

Thursday 28 November, 16.00 - 17.15 in A1.11

Dr CHEN Shen, visiting academic from the University of Newcastle, Australia, will be giving a talk entitled Promoting Intercultural Awareness of L2 Teacher Trainees Through In-country Experience.

Abstract

My talk aims to invite criticism and comments on a longitudinal investigation on in-country experience conducted at University of Newcastle, Australia. Three key questions will be raised and discussed in terms of how to promote intercultural awareness of L2 teacher trainees. (1) What is the place of intercultural awareness in the curriculum for L2 teacher training? (2) How should students be prepared for language teaching and learning in another cultural environment? (3) What are the learning outcomes of in-country experience? The discussion attempts to evaluate three existing strategies used for preparing in-country experience. Firstly, an “additive model” combines an element of “explicit cultural studies” with a L2 program. Secondly, an “integrative model” focuses on target language use in communication in a specific cultural environment. Thirdly, an “interactive model” is based on the intercultural interaction and the post-structuralist view of language education. It is also proposed a “three dimensional approach” of learning to know, learning to do and learning to interact.

Wednesday 20 November, 14.30 - 16.00 in MS.05 (Maths building)

Professor Andrew Linn from the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics at the University of Sheffield will be giving a guest lecture on
Going West: migration, language and lessons from history

Abstract

Large-scale movements of populations are by no means unique to the contemporary world. One of the most dramatic migrations of the past was that of around one million Norwegians who left for the promised land of America in the 19th century. We know a lot about why they left and how they developed their new communities across the USA, but, although this chapter of history contains a million personal dramas, it is difficult to grasp the human experiences amongst all the statistics and the old-fashioned-looking black-and-white photographs. A project at the University of Sheffield (funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council) is creating the on-line virtual world of a Norwegian peasant leaving his home in rural Norway in the 1880s and travelling via England to New York. As well as the fun of building a virtual world, this project is exploring whether virtual world technology can function as a historical research tool.

Professor Andrew Linn will present this project and take the audience on a tour in the virtual world. He will also discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this pioneering methodology and consider possible future research opportunities. One of the principal challenges for the Norwegian emigrants was learning English, and Prof. Linn will also talk about how the teaching and learning of English was addressed in this context. He will conclude his talk by arguing why understanding the historical experience of migration and language learning is important to us today as we learn about the challenges of crossing cultures.

Thursday 7 November, 16.00 - 17.15 in S1.71

Thursday 24 October, 16.00 - 17.15 in S1.71

Thursday 17 October, 16.00 - 17.15 in S1.71

Ema Ushioda will be leading a discussion on the following article: Dunne, C. (2013) Exploring motivations for intercultural contact among hostcountry university students: An Irish case study. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 37, 567– 578.

Monday 7 September, 15.00 - 16.30 in A1.11

Guest lecture by Professor Janet Holmes, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Helping refugees find work: sociopragmatic dimensions of workplace talk

Abstract

This paper will discuss the direction of the most recent research by the Wellington Language in the Workplace Project team, which has involved analysing data from workplace sites where recently arrived refugees are likely to seek work. I focus in particular on the challenge of developing relevant sociopragmatic skills for use in such workplaces, illustrating from both the transactional (directives) and relational (small talk, humour) dimensions of workplace interaction. The worksites used for exemplification are unmistakably gendered as relatively more masculine, namely building sites, or relatively more feminine, namely eldercare residencies. Finally, the paper will provide some specific examples of how our research has been used in preparing people for real world workplace contexts.

May-June 2013

Main theme: Culture and the Workplace (Conceptualisation and Training issues)

Thursday 4 July, 14.30 - 16.00 in A1.11

Viewing and discussion of a video-recorded conference presentation by the renowned psychologist, Geerte Hofstede.

Thursday 27 June, 15.30 - 17.00 in A0.14

Talk by Keith Richards on "Using cognitive interviews in critical incident research".

Abstract

Since Flanagan’s pioneering paper on the Critical Incident Technique (CIT), work in this area has embraced a number of approaches and explored the concept of the critical incident from different perspectives. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the quality of data obtained in terms of how such incidents are described. This talk will briefly identify some of the problems associated with approaches to data collection based on the elicitation of narratives. It will then propose an alternative approach using techniques associated with cognitive interviewing.

The talk will explain what is involved in cognitive interviewing and suggest why it might be particularly suitable for use in collecting critical incident data. It will draw on data from three different cognitive interviews, comparing aspects of narrative accounts with descriptions arising from cognitive techniques and highlighting key differences between them. The talk will also touch briefly on issues of memory in the context of critical incident recall.

Thursday 6 June, 14.30 - 16.00 in A1.11

Thursday 5 June, 14.00 - 16.00 in S0.13

Thursday 23 May, 14.30 - 16.00 in A1.11

Thursday 16 May, 16.00- 17.30 in A1.11

Thursday 9 May, 14.00 - 16.00 in A1.11

January - March 2013

Main Theme: Culture and the Workplace

Thursday 14 March, Friday 15 March 2013: Intercultural Skills for Engineers (Two day workshop)

Thursday 7 March 2013: Integration Summit (all day)

Wednesday 20 February 2013, 15.30 - 17.00 in S2.85

Wednesday 6 February 2013, 14.50 - 16.00 in S2.85

Helen Spencer-Oatey will give a presentation on her research into 'Relating at work'. (pdf of ppt slides)

Abstract

In this talk I consider research into ‘relating at work’. Recent theorising in pragmatics has drawn attention to the importance of analysing relations, and yet the pragmatic study of relations is almost exclusively focused on issues of (im)politeness, face and rapport. I start by briefly reviewing this research, and then report a study on ‘relating at work’ in which leaders and interns were interviewed about their experiences of starting work in a culturally unfamiliar setting. I identify the complex web of interrelated facets that they talk about and propose that Relational Dialectic Theory (RDT) can provide a useful theoretical framework for conceptualising relations. Finally, I argue that RDT can only offer a descriptive framework and that face/rapport management theory is needed for explanatory/motivational purposes. The two are thus complementary to each other and should not be conflated.

Thursday 24 January 2013, 14.30 - 16.00 in S2.85

October - December 2012

Main Theme: Culture, communication and the workplace

Thursday 6 December (A1.11) 16:00 - 17:30

Guest Lecture by Professor Mike Handford (University of Tokyo) - "Moving beyond description in professional discourse analysis: international construction industry interactions"

Click here to watch the talk.

Candlin argues that the analysis of professional discourse should not stop at textual description and social interpretation, but needs to engage at an explanatory level with the community who have been researched (Candlin, 2006). In this talk I will discuss an interdisciplinary approach that aims to achieve these three aims (Handford, 2010).

The data discussed is mainly from a large joint venture construction project in Hong Kong, which is managed by a Japanese company. Data includes audio and video recordings of the English interactions, interviews with the participants and researcher field notes. The talk will explore three interrelated areas related to the analysed on-site communication: a corpus-driven description of verbal and non verbal communication (Handford and Matous, 2011), a discussion of problem-solving from a cultural perspective, and a brief outline of critical incidents that can be used for awareness-raising among engineering students, engineers and decision-makers in the industry. This research is intended to add to the growing body of work into ‘construction communication’ (Dainty et al, 2006).

Candlin, C. 2006. 'Accounting for interdiscursivity: challenges to professional expertise'. In M.Gotti & D.Giannone (Eds) New Trends in Specialized Discourse Analysis. Bern: Peter Lang Verlag.

Dainty, A., Moore, D. and M. Murray. 2006. Communication in Construction: Theory and Practice. London: Taylor and Francis.

Handford, M. 2010. The Language of Business Meetings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Handford, M. and P. Matous. 2011. ‘Lexicogrammar in the international construction industry: A corpus-based case study of Japanese-Hong-Kongese on-site interactions in English'. English for Specific Purposes, 30/2: 87-100.

Bio data

Michael Handford, PhD (Nottingham) is professor in international education at the University of Tokyo, where he teaches and lectures on intercultural communication, discourse analysis, lecturing skills, and professional communication. He is the author of The Language of Business Meetings (Cambridge University Press, 2010), and co-editor, with James Paul Gee, of The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis (2011). He has also published journal articles and book chapters on metaphor and conflict in business meetings, genre, corpus linguistics, sociopragmatics and language learning, and international professional communication. He is winner of the 2011 Horowitz Prize for best ESP journal article. He also works as a communication consultant with several Japanese multinationals, and is co-author of the Cambridge University Press business course book series, Business Advantage: Theory, Practice, Skills.

Thursday 15 November (A1.11) 16:00 - 17:30

Guest Talk by Glen Burridge, geologist and consultant to the oil and gas industry (NDB Consulting)

Intercultural Issues in the Oil and Gas Industry

By definition international, highly complex technologically and operationally, the upstream oil and gas business provides a fascinating crucible of inter-cultural issues of all kinds. Working through the prism of the inter-relationship between national, organisational and technical cultural tensions, where risks are potentially huge and uncertainties often ungoverned, it’s an industry that tests the competency of international managers to the limit.

While setting the scene of the complex national and organisational picture, I’ll focus particularly on the often neglected technical cultural issues facing such managers and the battle between formalisation and creativity of thinking that marks many of the conflicts and provide some thoughts on how the industry may find a solution. (ppt of talk)

Wednesday 31 October (S0.13) 14:00 - 15:30

Guest Lecture by Professor Robin Goodwin (Dept of Psychology, Brunel University)

Social Change and Personal Relationships

Large-scale societal changes and challenges can have a substantial impact on our personal relationships. Some changes – such as modernization - may be relatively gradual, with shifts in values eventually influencing relationship choices. Other, more rapid social changes may directly influence relationship behaviours; these, in turn, can help promote new relationship values and ways of interacting. Rapid challenges to a society – such as new pandemics - may amplify existing relationship dynamics, bringing together partners and families, whilst exacerbating existing out-group hostilities. In this talk I discuss previous research on modernization, cultural adaptation and close relationships alongside some of my own recent work on terrorism, pandemics, earthquakes, and their relationship consequences.

ppt of talk and Associated references/readings

Thursday 18 October (S2.85) 16:00 - 17:30

May - July 2012

Main Theme: Adjusting to new work or study environments

Wednesday 11 July (Room A0.23) 14.00 - 15.30

Tuesday 19 June (S0.19) 13.00 - 15.00 (A joint event with the ELLTA group)

Thursday 14 June (S2.85) 16.00 - 17.30

Wednesday 30 May (S0.19) 14.00 - 16.00

Attitudes to migrants and the challenge of integrating into a culturally different workplace

Over the last few decades, New Zealanders have increasingly begun to perceive their country as a relatively diverse and multicultural society. People migrating to New Zealand often find, however, that their experience does not always live up to this rhetoric. Drawing on a theoretical model developed to analyse workplace discourse in its wider socio-cultural context (Holmes, Marra and Vine 2011), this paper examines research evidence of the attitudes of New Zealanders towards skilled migrants as they enter the professional New Zealand workforce. Data from interactions between migrants and their workplace mentors is used to analyse these attitude, with some encouragingly positive results.

The recorded data used in the analysis was collected by migrants enrolled in a communication skills course with an internship component which provided them with experience in New Zealand workplaces. These new citizens are people with tertiary qualifications, relevant workplace experience, and a high level of proficiency in English. Their experiences provide useful insights into the accommodations required by all parties in the process of joining a new community of workplace practice. The paper concludes with some reflections on ways in which applied linguists can work with members of the wider workplace community to identify and research areas of mutual concern, presenting research which is paradigmatically “applied linguistics applied” (Roberts 2003).

Wednesday 16 May (S2.85) 16.00 - 17.30

Wednesday 2 May (S2.85) 16.00 - 17.15

January - March 2012

Main theme: Cultural Integration

Wednesday 28 March (A1.06) 14.00 - 15.30

Thursday 8 March (F1.07 Engineering) 10.30 - 18.00

Thursday 23 February (Room S2.85) 14.00 - 15.30

Thursday 9 February (Room S2.85) 14.00 - 15.30

Thursday 26 January (Room A1.06) 14.00 - 15.30

Thursday 12 January (Room A0.14) 14.00 - 15.30

September - December 2011

Theme: Collecting Critical Incident data

Thursday 1 December (S0.18) 14.00 - 15.00 - Special Guest Talk

Professor Jean-Marc DeWaele, Birkbeck College, University of London, gave a talk on: Emotions in applied linguistic research and foreign language teaching.

Abstract MP3 recording
In this lecture I will present an overview of the recent surge of interest in the field of emotion and multilingualism. I will show how cognitive psychologists, anthropologists and applied linguists collaborate using a combination of different research methodologies in order to answer common research questions. I will look at emotion words and expressions (swearwords, anger, declarations of love), which are generally perceived to be more emotional in multilinguals’ first language. However, in some cases it is the foreign language that becomes more emotional. I will also consider the effect of foreign language instruction on the communication of emotion and on affective variables in the foreign language.

References
Dewaele, J.-M. (2008) The emotional weight of ‘I love you’ in multilinguals’ languages. Journal of Pragmatics, 40, 1753–1780.
- - - (2008) Appropriateness in foreign language acquisition and use: Some theoretical, methodological and ethical considerations. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 46, 235–255.
- - - (2010) Emotions in Multiple Languages. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
- - - (2011) The differences in self-reported use and perception of the L1 and L2 of maximally proficient bi- and multilinguals: A quantitative and qualitative investigation. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 208, 25-51.
- - - (2011) Reflections on the emotional and psychological aspects of foreign language learning and use. Anglistik, 22, 23-42.

Thursday 17 November (S2.85) 15.30 - 17.00.

Thursday 10 November (S0.19) 14.00 - 15.00.

Thare Machi Education makes very simple life-changing and life-saving messages (e.g. on HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB, diarrhoea, safe water and childcare) accessible in audio-visual format in the languages of the developing world. Over the last few years, many students in the Centre for Applied Linguistics have used their proficiency in different languages and their understanding of local cultures to help the charity with this work. In this talk, Steve will be outlining and demonstrating the work of the charity, and explaining how you could become involved if you wish. For more information about the charity, please see http://www.tme.org.uk/

Thursday 3 November (S2.85) 15.30 - 17.00.

Thursday 20 October (S2.85) 15.30 - 17.00.

Tuesday 27 September (S2.85) 16.00 - 17.30.

May - July 2011

Main Theme: Intercultural Issues in Research

Tuesday 31 May (S0.18) 14.00 - 15.30.

Thursday 2 June (Cowling Room) 10.00 - 12.00.

Wednesday 11 May (S0.18) 14.00 - 15.30.

January - March 2011

Main Theme: Intercultural issues in Research

Tuesday 8 March (A1.07) 13.30 - 15.00

Tuesday 1 March (A0.05) 14.00 - 15.30.

This talk presents findings that are emerging from a qualitative study of international teams within a multinational company headquartered in France.
The presentation will begin with a brief overview of the research focus and of the two main methods of data collection: (1) non-participant observations of intercultural team interactions; (2) in-depth interviews conducted with over forty international managers, from more than a dozen countries, who were involved in these interactions.

In the second part of this talk, the presenter will share some preliminary findings from her analysis of the data that stand out as crucial components in the corporate teambuilding process. Insights from her research to date underline the impact of a context of trust on language behavior and communication processes. In today’s global workplace, the level of trust contributes to enhancing meaningful communication and working towards achieving common goals. Where confidence is lacking, there is a greater likelihood of misunderstandings and conflict.

Mary Vigier is Chair of the Intercultural Communication Department and a Professor of Business English at ESC Clermont School of Management in Clermont-Ferrand, France. She has been a part-time post-graduate research student at the Centre for Applied Linguistics, University of Warwick, since September 2008. Her research focuses on becoming a team player in an MNC.

Tuesday 22 February (A1.07) 13.30 - 15.00.

Monday 7 February (S2.85) 13.30 - 15.00.

Monday 24 January (S2.85) 13.30 - 15.00.

Discussion of the following paper: McAllister, L. et al. (2006) Reflection in intercultural learning: examining the international experience through a critical incident approach. Reflective Practice 7(3): 367-381.

October - December 2010

Main Theme: Intercultural Relations in Education

Monday 29th November (A1.05) 15.00 - 16.30.

Thursday 18th November (A1.05) 16.00 - 17.30.

Monday 15th November (A1.05) 15.00 - 16.30.

Monday 1st November (A1.05) 15.00 - 16.30.

Monday 18th October (A1.07) 15.00 - 16.30.

Summer 2010

Theme: TBC

Tuesday 21st September in B0.41/43 14.00 - 15.30.

Tuesday 24th August in S1.71 14.00 - 15.00

April - July 2010

Theme: Culture and Identity in the Workplace

Thursday 1st July in A1.05 13:00 - 14:00

Monday 28 June in A1.06 14:00 - 15:00.

Thursday 29 April in MS.03 (2nd floor of Mathematics and Statistics) 14:00-15:30 hours.

January - March 2010

Main Theme: Culture and Identity in the Workplace

Thursday 18 March in S2.85 16:00-17:00 hours.

Wednesday 3 March in S1.71 14:00 - 15:00 hours.

Tuesday 16 February in S1.71 16:00 - 17:00 hours.

Wednesday 03 February in S0.17 13:00 - 14:00 14.00 - 15.00 hours.

Tuesday 26 January in S1.71 16.00 - 17.00 hours.

October – December 2009

Main Theme: Culture and Identity in the Workplace

Tuesday 24 November in A0.14 16.00 - 17.00 hours.

Tuesday 17 November in A0.14 16.00 - 17.00 hours.

Tuesday 3 November in A0.14 16.00 - 17.00 hours.

Tuesday 20 October in A0.14 16.00 - 17.00 hours.

April – May 2009

Main Theme: TBC

Thursday 28 May in S2.85 13.30 - 15.00 hours.

Friday and Saturday 15 and 16 May

Thursday 30 April in S2.8513.30 - 15.00 hours.

January – March 2009

Main Theme: Intercultural Interaction and Education

Thursday 5th March in S2.85 13.30 - 15.00 hours.

Wednesday 18th February in S0.20. 14.00 - 15.30 hours.

Wednesday 11th February in S0.11. 15.30 - 17.00 hours.

Thursday 22nd January in S2.85 13.30 - 15.00 hours.

October – December 2008

Main Theme: Researching Intercultural Experiences - Data Collection Methods & Conceptual and Analytical Frameworks

11th December

27th November

13th November

30th October

16th October

April – June 2008

Main Theme: Intercultural Adaptation

Discussion paper

Francis, June N.P. 1991. When in Rome? The effects of cultural adaptation on intercultural business negotiations. Journal of International Business Studies 22 (3): 403-428.

Talk

Emily Austin, international student development manager

Discussion paper

Lee, Theresa Man Ling (2005) Intercultural teaching in higher education. Intercultural Education 16 (3): 201–215.

Talk

Judith Kennedy and Dr Annamaria Pinter, on their research on the adaptation of international students

January – March 2008

Main Theme: What is intercultural effectiveness?

March

Revisiting the conceptualisation of intercultural effectiveness

March

Research student talk: Jiang Xiaoli 'Constructing concepts of learner autonomy in language education in the Chinese context: a narrative-based inquiry into university students' conceptions of successful English language learning.'

February

Discussion paper: Belz, J. and Muller-Harmann, A.(2003) Teachers as intercultural learners: negotiating German-American telecollaboration along the institutional fault line. The Modern Language Journal 87 (1): 71-89.

February

Guest talk: John Twitchin, intercultural trainer

January

Discussion paper: Draft chapter on Intercultural Competence from Spencer-Oatey and Franklin (forthcoming) Intercultural Interaction: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Intercultural Communication. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

January

Conceptualising intercultural effectiveness. Group discussion