Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Redefining Latine Identity Through Conversations With Those Who Live It, Antonio Matthew Martínez Jaworski

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

The institutionally created label “Latino/a/e” has long been a point of frustration among people who are placed under this pan-ethnic umbrella term. Many Latines feel that their unique cultures, national identities, traditions, and histories become ignored and melted together by this broad label. This label effectively erases the differences that exist between this heterogenous group of people. Ignoring the intricateness of Latine identity diminishes our individuality and to some extent our humanity. Viewing Latine identity as homogeneous makes it easier to generalize and create negative stereotypes that further enhance the idea that all Latines are the same. Throughout my thesis …

International Students’ Perception Of Intercultural Communication From Official University Sources, Liseth Hubbard

Communication Theses

Research on intercultural communication has centered on the difficulties that international students experience during their adjusting journey in their new residence away from home. However, there are relatively few in-depth studies that report on international students’ perceptions of communicative practices from university officials. Following a social phenomenological approach, this study focuses on understanding the impressions and experiences of 12 international students. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews centered on three sensitizing concepts: intercultural sensitivity (IS), intercultural communication competence (ICC), and intercultural learning (IL). Data were analyzed using an iterative phonetic approach as described by Sarah Tracy (2019). The findings were …

An Analysis Of Intercultural Research From 2000-2019., Isabelle Kramer

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In the last twenty years, advancements in information and communications technologies have fundamentally altered the face of intercultural communication (Shuter, 2011). While there is significant research regarding the impact of new media on intercultural communication, there is no published research that discusses the ways in which intercultural scholarship in the academic context has adapted to the evolving social media landscape. I will be conducting a content analysis on all intercultural articles published on the EBSCO database “Communication and Mass Media Complete” between January 2000 and January 2019. This research will illuminate trends in intercultural communications studies over the past twenty …

Applying Psychological Reactance Theory To Intercultural Communication In The Workplace: Dealing With Technological Change And Tolerance For Ambiguity, Oumaima Boulhna

Theses and Dissertations

Psychological reactance theory has yet to be applied to intercultural and cross-cultural communication, at least not to a sufficient extent. This study conducted a cross-cultural examination of psychological reactance in intercultural workplace communication situations. Using the theoretical framework of psychological reactance as well as the constructs of intercultural sensitivity and tolerance for ambiguity, this study expanded applications of PRT for technological change messages in the workplace. The present study extended the previous applications of psychological reactance theory and found a significant cross-cultural variation for trait reactance. The results also revealed that tolerance for ambiguity was negatively related to trait reactance, …

Allyship As An Act: The Performative, Power-Laden, And Contradictory Co-Cultural Strategies Of Straight Allies, David Dooling

MSU Graduate Theses

While the study of queer communities underscores the importance of responses to heteronormativity, this dual-method study challenges positionality by examining the co-cultural strategies of straight allies in predominantly queer conversations and spaces. Using Orbe’s Co-Cultural Theory as a lens, this study examines the co-cultural strategies and factors that influence straight allies’ communication when entrenched in queer ontology and dialogue (Study 1). Additionally, co-cultural strategies are measured among straight allies in hypothetical workplaces that are either predominantly queer or predominantly straight (Study 2) using Lapinski and Orbe’s (2007) Co-Cultural Theory Scales. Together, the results of these studies contribute to the ideas …

Intercultural Communication Apprehension: A Multidimensional Perspective Of Communication Between International And Domestic Students, Christina Van Essen

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This research looks at different factors influencing international students’ level of intercultural communication apprehension (ICA), the difference in the level of international students’ (participants) ICA experienced towards domestic and international students, and lastly the influence of this ICA on the social connectedness participants experience while living in the United States. Findings show that participants’ comfort in using English, and their cultural sensitivity had a significant influence on ICA when all variables were considered. Findings also show that participants are more apprehensive in communicating with American students as compared to international students. The combination of ICA towards American and international students …

Realidades Culturales De Argentina: Demystifying (Trans)National Ideologies In Study Abroad Curriculum, Matthew Hoeg

Communication ETDs

The study focused on discourses in a study abroad textbook titled Realidades Culturales de Argentina which was designed for students from the United States studying abroad in Argentina. The aim was to understand what educational texts in (trans)national spaces such as study abroad programs, are expecting of students in relation to communicative practices that extend beyond language learning. The study used a critical discourse analysis approach to deconstruct first the expectations of the students and second how these expectations worked in the (re)construction of (trans)national ideologies. Examining four recurring discursive practices in the textbook demonstrated that students were expected to …

What's In A Name? Exploring Anglicized Naming Practices Amongst Chinese International Students, Garrett R. Ruzicka

MSU Graduate Theses

This study seeks to use Kim’s Cross-Cultural Adaptation Theory to gain a better understanding of the process students from China go through when they choose to Anglicize their names. This thesis begins with a review of the literature and then discusses the limitations found within the current research on this topic in order to formulate research questions. Qualitative research was conducted using semi-structured interviews and focus groups with international students from China that resulted in various findings. These findings—barriers and adapting to barriers, choosing an “English” name, preferences between names, and problems with using “English” names—provide insight into a topic …

Creating A Climate To Realize Institutional Diversification Goals: A Phenomenological Study Of Campus Diversification Best Practices, S. N. Ross Canning

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the diversification plans and goals of four university or college campuses in California examining the insight and perspectives of their respective administrators. Diversification of the institution has been adopted as a strategic plan or mission goal. The investigation analyzes the strides made toward the goal by investigating the efforts of the institutions in the intercultural training of current staff and faculty. Where best practices for diversification of the institution at every level exist, I will review what is being done and contrast those findings with institutions where a diversification goal exists, but training programs for staff members …

Found In Translation : How Social Work Education Can Support Student Practice With Language-Discordant Client Systems, Martha Ann Early

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This study’s research question was "How can schools of social work support their students to work with language-discordant client systems (LDCS)?" In addition to the need for general support, social work students are preparing to enter a field where the patient population is growing increasingly diverse in terms of ethnicity, culture and language ability. Participants in the study described herein were current and recent social works students who were recruited for sample membership via broad social media outreach, supplemented with outreach to the researcher's professional network

The findings of this study indicate that the role of schools of social work …

The Captivity Of Opportunity: The Conversation Surrounding Church-Going Hispanic Immigrants, Nicolet Hopper Bell

Master's Theses

Immigration is a long-standing topic of discussion in the United States. Hispanic immigrants, or families of Hispanic immigrants, living in America face unique challenges. Through focus group interviews, participants from a predominantly Hispanic Protestant church narrated their experience of living in the United States. Guided grounded theory data analysis revealed three categories and 14 subcategories, or themes of conversation, surrounding this hot topic. Participants shed light on the distinctive challenges they faced, how these challenges affected them, and how they attempted to overcome these difficulties. By exploring these results through the lens of social stigma theory (Goffman, 2009) and intergroup …

Preferred Leadership Communication Styles Across Cultures, Joy J. Cherfan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reports the results of a two-part study investigating preferred leadership communication styles across multiple cultural clusters. Utilizing a survey, part one identified the three most preferred leader communication styles (i.e., dominant, dramatic, contentious, attentive, animated, open, friendly, relaxed, impression leaving) in six cultural clusters. Using focus group data, the second part provides insight into subordinates’ perceptions of how these communication styles are enacted by leaders in each cluster. Guidelines on how to better communicate are offered to expatriates in hopes of helping them more successfully complete overseas tasks. Such guidelines are needed due to the high percentage of …

The Push And Pull Of Language Ideologies : Multilingual Communicative Practices Among Youths In An Indonesian City, Kristian Tamtomo

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This thesis deals with the use of Javanese, Bahasa Indonesia and English in the spoken and written communication of high school youths in the city of Semarang, Central Java. The thesis aims to understand the patterns in which youths make use of these languages in various communicative contexts and the way youths use languages to either enact or negotiate the polycentric "push and pull" of the various language ideologies associated with local, national, and global language. Data collection was conducted using ethnographic methods, which involved participant observation, recordings of conversations, collection of texts, as well as interviews with youth groups …

Exploring Linguistic Challenges And Cultural Competency Development In A Small Multinational Corporation, Cindy J. Atchley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In 2016's global business landscape, the increase in workers moving across borders to find employment accentuates the language and cultural challenges for both employees and organizations. Employees working in a multinational environment need to have an understanding of language and culture to handle the complex nature of professional work in a multinational corporation (MNC). The purpose of this study was to explore what communication competencies employees in a small MNC needed to communicate across multicultural environments in the workplace. A dialectic approach of intercultural communication was used to explore these needs in one small MNC located in the Kingdom of …

Intercultural Communication Between Forensic And Clinical Psychologists, Brittany Schmeck

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

While working in clinical and forensic psychology settings, a communication difficulty between the two professions became apparent. Forensic psychologists often appeared cold and callous from the clinical psychologist’s perspective, while clinical psychologists often appeared naïve or too client centered from the forensic psychologist’s perspective. I wondered if viewing each subfield of psychology as a culture could facilitate better communication through intercultural communication. Guided by Intercultural Communication in Contexts (Martin & Nakayama, 2010) in approaching intercultural communication between the two professions, I explored factors contributing to each profession’s cultural identities. Once this was established, I attempted to explore the different ways …

The Representation Of The Individualism-Collectivism Cultural Value Dimension In Film Portrayals Of Intercultural Communication, Courtney J. Mcmullan

Honors Theses

Globalization and modernization have changed the world in which we live, bringing intercultural communication to the forefront in our daily lives. Cultural values vary around the world, and these values impact the way people communicate with one another. This study focused on the cultural value of individualism-collectivism and how it impacts intercultural, interpersonal communication and the way it is presented in film. The aim of this study was to conduct quantitative analyses of data gathered from intercultural films to identify the way in which nations' individualism-collectivism tendencies are displayed in film in comparison to a cultural value dimension scale and …

Cross-Cultural Bridges : Closing The Gaps In Direct Services With Immigrant And Diverse Populations, Lucy Chen

Graduate Student Independent Studies

The shifting cultural, racial, ethnic, and linguistic makeup of the United States is expected to become more diverse in the coming decades. This has important implications for direct service professionals, including social workers and educators. An overview of culturally sensitive, responsive, and competent practices is provided for work with immigrant and diverse populations to assist professionals in the process of crossing cultural bridges, overcoming privilege, and building bridges.

Work-Life Balance, Identity Salience And Break Taking Behaviors In Indian Expatriates, Pooja Bangalore Vijayakumar

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study focuses on the challenges faced by Indian expatriates working in the IT industry in the USA. It specifically examines participants’ work-nonwork role relationship quality, identity salience, and break taking behaviors. The sample for this study consisted of 415 Indian expatriates working in the IT industry. A computational tool called PROCESS was used to test the path analysis-based moderation and mediation analyses and their integrated form of conditional process models to determine whether work-nonwork role relationship quality mediates the relationship between work-related stressor and wellbeing. The relationships among work-related stressors, work-nonwork role relationship quality, and wellbeing were examined, while …

Identities And Interactions In A Transcultural Online Collaboration Project, Zsuzsanna Bacsa Palmer

English Theses & Dissertations

The traditional theoretical frameworks and assumptions about intercultural technical communication are no longer adequate to describe and teach intercultural communication now frequently happening through digital networks. My dissertation proposes to use the theory of cosmopolitanism as it has been recently applied in several social science fields as a framework for pedagogical project design in order to teach intercultural communication skills applicable in the global age.

The dissertation describes a transcultural online pedagogical project between Hungarian and U.S. students that I designed according to the principles of cosmopolitan theory. In this project, students were introduced to the basic tenets of cosmopolitanism …

Nurturing Global Leaders: The Influence Of Global Education Culture At International House, Leslie A. Weigl

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

International House at the University of Alberta (I-House) is a living-learning campus residence that aims to build a strong community from an intentionally diverse population of international and Canadian students. With global education programming that focuses on leadership through community building, I-House creates opportunities for new leaders to emerge in a culturally complex environment that is thought to foster global leadership development. Eighteen I-House alumni and residents who were recognized for their leadership contributions were interviewed in-depth to determine whether and how their experiences at I-House contributed to developing their global leadership capacities and to offer insight into best practice …

Multiculturalism As Reported By The European Online Press: A Qualitative Study On The Manifestation Of Othering Discourses, Shomik Chakrabarti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study critically examined how issues of multiculturalism and Muslim immigration are discursively constructed within the English language European online press. Through the use of a frame analysis as well as a more focused discourse analysis, an examination was undertaken to uncover how “us” versus “them” perspectives were manifest within a public discourse. A total of 132 articles from The Daily Mail, Le Monde Diplomatique, Dutchnews.nl, Spiegel Online and The International Herald Tribune were selected using a systematic sampling method based on the results of a search query for multiculturalism at each news site. The analysis of the data corpus …

Virtual Escapes And Intercultural Explorations: How Members Of Interpals Are Using Their Online Community As A Window To The World, Ryan Scott Bartlett

Theses and Dissertations

This study utilized in-depth, one-on-one interviews to examine the experiences, attitudes, and opinions, with regard to their use of the Internet for online intercultural communication (OIC), of a culturally diverse sample of 17 members of the global online social community, Interpals. The purpose of this study was threefold: first, the study sought to determine how OIC is shaping the intercultural perceptions of English-speaking Interpals members; second, the study sought to determine how OIC shapes and/or reinforces the cultural identities of English-speaking Interpals members; and finally, the study set out to examine the various ways that English-speaking Interpals members are using …

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …

Learn By Traveling Through Aiesec: The Importance Of Studying And Experiencing Intercultural Communication, Haley Gross

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Intolerance Of Uncertainty On International Students' Intercultural And Intracultural Conflict Management, Yekaterina Syrtsova

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the role of intolerance of uncertainty in international students' conflict management in intracultural and intercultural settings. International students at a large U.S. university were surveyed and their responses were analyzed using quantitative methods. Analyses indicated that the higher the intolerance of uncertainty scores, the higher the use of dominating and avoiding strategies. The results in this study also revealed that when controlling for sex, the higher the individuals' intolerance of uncertainty score, the lower their preference for integrating-compromising strategy. Finally, there were limited differences between the ways international students handle conflict with conflict partners from their own …

Teaching And Learning For Intercultural Sensitivity: A Cross-Cultural Examination Of American Domestic Students And Japanese Exchange Students, Yoko Hwang Sakurauchi

Dissertations and Theses

Global student mobility has become a dynamic force in American higher education. Integrating international students into diverse campus environments provides domestic as well as foreign students with enriched learning opportunities. However, a diverse campus climate itself will not make college students interculturally competent. Intentional curricular design is critical for overcoming issues such as resistance and reinforcement of stereotypes, but the research literature is extremely limited on effective pedagogical strategies for cultivating college students' intercultural sensitivity.

This paper explicates a research study to investigate college students' development of intercultural sensitivity through an intentional course design utilizing Kolb's (1984) learning styles cycle …

The World Is My Classroom, Dante Pisana Logie

Communication Studies

The purpose of this paper is to use retrospective sensemaking to analyze and dissect my experiences abroad. Retrospective sensemaking can be defined as the act of reevaluating past experiences and attaching in-depth meaning to them. In my case, I will outline different interactions I had abroad, and use other scholars’ research in intercultural communication, to form a more educational understanding of my trip. The first portion of my paper will be an introduction to the general themes of cultural identity and intercultural communication. After defining and analyzing these terms, I present a call to action for institutions to utilize intercultural …

We Can Work It Out : The Hidden Role Of The Workplace In Shaping Urban Crime Control, Chris E. Rees

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Ethnoracial minorities have rapidly integrated into American workplaces over the last half-century, yet little research has examined the effects of this integration on wider social processes. Drawing from minority threat theory and the contact hypothesis, this thesis examines the impact of workplace segregation on metropolitan levels of police force size during the year 2010. Findings indicate that, net of controls, workplace segregation is associated with higher levels of police forces size. Moreover these effects are a stronger predictor of police forces than residential segregation. The thesis concludes with a relevant discussion on the research and policy implications of these findings.

Adult Learners Of English Interacting With Native Speaker Teachers And Non-Native Speaker Teachers : Exploring Differences In Students' Language Use, Melody Hallenbeck Nadeau

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This mixed-methods study examined the lived experience of adult English Language Learners (ELLs) in classrooms led by native speaking teachers, compared with their experience in classrooms led by non-native teachers. The socio-cognitive approach to language and emergent common ground framed the development of the English classroom as a Community of Practice, in which students produced varying levels of complex, formulaic, metaphorically dense speech.

The Relationship Between Intercultural Communication Experience And College Persistence Among First Generation Appalachian Students, Meredith A. Garrison

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

This study seeks to explore the relationship between intercultural communication experiences and college persistence in first-generation college students from the Central Appalachian region. Because Appalachia has a rich and unique culture, which is often misunderstood, the literature review seeks to establish a basis for studying this relationship as a way to understand the multi-dimensional nature of low-educational attainment in the Appalachian region, particularly Eastern Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Using a survey-based quantitative method this study examines Appalachian first generation students attending college as an intercultural communication process through the frame of acculturation theory. Specifically, the study seeks information …