The Routledge Handbook of Language and Intercultural Communication (original) (raw)
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It is commonly noted that, owing to technological advances in transportation and communication, the redistribution of production and labour, and other reasons, the potential for intercultural contact is currently greater than it has ever been in human history. Moreover, with an estimated 6,900 languages across the approximately 200 countries of the world (Lewis 2009), it is very likely that intercultural contact will involve encounters between people who speak different languages. Sometimes, these encounters take place between members of groups with a long history of interaction and thus they are rather routine, such that personal and normative expectations regarding language use effectively guide the communication process to predictable, if not mutually satisfying, outcomes. At other times, we are less well acquainted with our interlocutors' practices, and so part of the process of communication involves grappling with the acquisition of new verbal and nonverbal communication systems. Regardless of the level of familiarity, a variety of sociopsychological and sociocultural processes operate within every intercultural interaction. In this chapter, we focus on how the languages we speak are linked to feelings of identity in intercultural encounters. This relation is a reciprocal one: the languages we learn and use open up possibilities for new identities, while at the same time our identities can have implications for engagement in language learning and use. We begin with a review of how scholars in social psychology, communication studies and applied linguistics have defined identity and described its function in intercultural communication. We discuss some prominent themes that reverberate (or not) across disciplines, particularly as they relate to notions of identity, language and culture, and we consider what the various conceptualizations of these constructs imply for research methodology. In so doing, we highlight areas where we believe that theory and research can be informed through interdisciplinary rapprochement. 2. Disciplinary perspectives on identity, language and intercultural communication Social psychology The view on language, identity and intercultural communication taken by many social psychologists might be described as an 'intergroup' perspective, in that it focuses on the social
Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2023
The Handbook edited by Jane Jackson has been released in contemporary and transnational times where interculturality-related challenges continue to emerge. Some of these challenges include "the rise in populism, elevated fear of difference, and heightened anti-immigration sentiments" (Jackson, 2020, p. 1) and may, to varying degrees, influence individuals' lives and well-being. To tackle these issues and foster greater equity, diversity, and inclusion in intercultural communication and research practices, the Handbook presents 34 chapters to introduce interdisciplinary studies of language and intercultural communication for senior undergraduate students, graduate students, and scholars from multidisciplinary backgrounds (e.g., language education, anthropology, sociology, business, tourism) who are interested in language and intercultural communication research. Each chapter not only critically assesses field-specific theories and research methods, but also discusses practical recommendations and future directions for conducting research. The Handbook categorizes chapters into five parts. Part I, 'Foundations of language and intercultural communication studies', contains five chapters mainly reviewing the (re)conceptualizations of language and intercultural communication research, with a particular focus on historical developments across the globe (Chapter 1), culture and power (Chapter 2), identity and communication (Chapter 3), intercultural competence and citizenship (Chapter 4), and criticality and reflexivity (Chapter 5). Part II, 'Core themes and issues', shares a similar theoretical orientation with 14 chapters structured under three themes to discuss the relationships between language and other constructs such as culture, identity, and global citizenship education. Diverging slightly in focus, Part III, 'Theory into practice: Towards intercultural (communicative) competence and citizenship', looks at some important practices such as intercultural education for second language teachers (Chapter 20), intercultural responsibility and glocal critical citizenship (Chapter 21), digitally mediated development of intercultural competence (Chapter 22), equity-and diversity-focused global citizenship education (Chapter 23), and intercultural learning assessment (Chapter 24). Exemplifying interdisciplinary approaches, Part IV, 'Language and intercultural communication in context', provides diverse contexts in which intercultural communication takes place, such as international education (Chapters 25, 26, & 27), business education (Chapter 28), workplace (Chapters 29 & 30), health services (Chapter 31), legal discourse (Chapter 32), and tourism (Chapter 33). Finally, Part V, 'New debates and future directions', includes a closing chapter (i.e., Chapter 34) synthesizing ongoing debates and highlighting the need to strengthen socially just research and practical efforts so as to promote interculturality across public and private domains. This edited volume possesses several strengths. An important aspect is that all chapters exhibit a high level of criticality and reflexivity. Chapter 5, for example, explains the interconnectedness between these two notions and increases the visibility
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
The Routledge Handbook of Language and Culture presents the first comprehensive survey of research on the relationship between language and culture. It provides readers with a clear and accessible introduction to both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary studies of language and culture, and addresses key issues of language and culturally based linguistic research from a variety of perspectives and theoretical frameworks. This Handbook features thirty-three newly commissioned chapters which: cover key areas such as cognitive psychology, cognitive linguistics, cognitive anthropology, linguistic anthropology, cultural anthropology, and sociolinguistics offer insights into the historical development, contemporary theory, research, and practice of each topic, and explore the potential future directions of the field show readers how language and culture research can be of practical benefit to applied areas of research and practice, such as intercultural communication and second language teaching and learning. Written by a group of prominent scholars from around the globe, The Routledge Handbook of Language and Culture provides a vital resource for scholars and students working in this area.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2012
Reviewed by Jane Woodin University of Sheffield This book is a highly welcome contribution to intercultural communication literature, which, as the author rightly states, has been dominated until relatively recently by often stereotyped accounts of cultural differences described along national lines. In recent years this trend has been challenged by a number of alternative approaches, and Piller's contribution stands out within them for a number of reasons. First, she combines discourse-analytic and sociolinguistic perspectives, highlighting the central role of language in intercultural communication and emphasizing the need for both micro-and macro-analysis in understanding in-context intercultural interactions (see also for example, Hua 2011). Second, Piller advocates a social justice and contextual approach to intercultural communication cautioning against the use of culture differences as a means for masking power difference and social exclusion. Piller supports her position using a wide-ranging array of research which successfully demonstrates the real-world social and political implications of ignoring cultural and linguistic difference or indeed explaining away injustice as cultural difference which can lead at times to fatal consequences. Her work is also peppered with personal and professional accounts as well as more formal research from her own and her students' and colleagues' lives, thus enabling readers of the book to identify with the content and arguments. Piller states that part of her motivation in writing the book is to represent more accurately the reality of everyday intercultural communication which is not clearly cut along national stereotypes but which is contextualized in real-life issues relating to language, access, equality and power: Intercultural communication in real life is embedded in economic, social and cultural globalization, transnational migration and overseas study. The main challenges of intercultural communication are linguistic challenges of language learning, the discursive challenges of stereotyping, and the social challenges of inclusion and justice.' (p. 1). The 11 chapters take the reader on a journey from a discussion of the concept of culture (a standard starting point for intercultural communication textbooks) through to a justification of her position that the study of intercultural communication needs to consider the politics of inclusion and commit itself to equality and inclusivity. This position leads her to argue throughout her book for a change from the central question in intercultural communication studies from 'How does group X communicate?' to one drawn from Scollon and Scollon's (2001, p. 545) mediated discourse approach, bs_bs_banner Book Reviews ᭜ 417
Reviewed Work:Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approuch
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Editorial [in Language and Intercultural Communication]
2017
The relationship between language, actors and the specific social contexts in which they speak emerges as a prevalent theme in this issue. This is due in part to the mobilities of populations, amplified to varying degrees by the competing social forces of the 21st century: both the good, such as lifestyle and education; and the not-so-good, such as economic pressure and conflict. In various ways, the papers in this second issue of Volume 17 describe how this experience of mobility - both terrestrial and virtual – can vary in relation to the amount of capital, both economic and cultural, with which our sojourners travel: from Mendez-Garcia’s postgraduate sojourners in Spain to Park’s South-East Asian marriage migrants in Korea; from Lapresta, Huguet and Fernández-Costales’s inward migrants to Catalonia to Dong’s ‘空中飞人’ (‘flying people)’ in Beijing; from Chen’s Chinese students using social media in the USA to Akiyama’s eTandem intercultural interlocutors; and from Zhu’s university st...