This special issue on ‘metacommunication in instructional settings’ deals with the topic of language awareness in an integrated framework of interaction, context and communication. What brings the four contributions (Kress, Ogborn and Martins; Sarangi; Roberts; van Lier) together is a concern with the relationship between what is communicated in and through language vis-à-vis other semiotic sys...

With the development of global value chains misunderstandings due to different cultural habits and rules are a relevant issue. Studies show that lack of intercultural competence results in enormous losses and frictions in negotiations, sales and customer relationships. Despite the merits of training seminars general training will not be sufficient to solve the challenges of intercultural manage...

Hospitality organizations which are increasingly operating internationally create real challenges for their employees and managers to interact and effectively work with people from different cultural environments. Many problems may relate to intercultural communication between managers and employees as well as between employees and hotel guests from different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, th...

This study examines the metaphoric meanings in English and Chinese and explores the similar patterns and variations. With specific reference to metaphors with human bodies and animals, the study analyzes the cultural conceptions behind the metaphors and discovers that the interpretation of metaphorical meanings lies in the different cultural values and attitudes. The awareness of metaphor usage...

Located within a context of intercultural counselling research, this paper highlights the pertinence of the researcher's reflexivity and cultural awareness in relation to research relationships. It draws on an excerpt between a white European interviewer and an Asian trainee counsellor discussing the latter's experience of intercultural counselling practice. A reflexive analysis of a short pass...

This study investigates the Integrating Critical Thinking into Exploration of Intercultural Awareness in an EFL Context. The aims to find out role critical thinking skill improving university students’ intercultural awareness competencies. population represented English language teaching staff Sudanese universities as well students. sample is a randomly chosen group (240) teachers and Data will...

the need for intercultural awareness and skills emerges strongly in both distance learning courses, and in social life in multicultural societies. the study of online language transactions is therefore an important aspect of the emerging culture and sociolinguistics of computer mediated communication. the research reported in this paper concerns perceptions held by students in an iranian univer...

This paper discusses a basic scenario of m-learning activities for a situated in-the-field examination of cultural diversity with the Linguistic Landscape approach, i.e. a systematic examination of written displays of minority languages in the public space. Enabling learners to participate in content exchange via the Web 2.0 paradigm, where learners act both as both media consumers and media cr...

Portable multimedia devices shape the intensity of intercultural contacts not only through content consumption but also through content creation. Enabling learners to participate in content exchange via the Web 2.0 paradigm (audiences as both media consumers and media creators) can be employed to create new forms of acquiring knowledge. This study demonstrates an application of m-learning in a ...

Awareness information, information about others’ presence and activities that allows us to determine their availability for conversation, plays an important role in workplace communication, as people often gather and act on it in the process of negotiating mutual availability. This paper presents a laboratory experiment examining how gathering awareness information is affected by the cultural b...