Communication and learning across cultures is always a challenge during the development of educational internationalization. Higher education institutions worldwide are progressively under pressure to support and embrace multicultural student bodies and intercultural exchange. In recent years, some overseas universities have conducted…

There are important cultural differences in attitudes towards and use of electronic text communication. Consistent with Hall's high-context/low-context conceptualization of culture, electronic inter-cultural communication, just as verbal inter-cultural communication, is affected by the culturally-specific assumptions and preferences of message…

This study reports the development of a scale to evaluate the speech act performance by intermediate-level Chinese learners of English. A qualitative analysis of the American raters' comments was conducted on learner scripts in response to a total of 16 apology and request written discourse completion task (WDCT) situations. The results showed…

Many TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) programmes focus on providing professional knowledge to Asian teachers who are pursuing their degrees in English-speaking countries. However, not much attention is given to their expectations, personal lived experiences and identity construction while studying in these countries. These…

This paper is motivated by the premise that little is known about the use of requestive strategies in request emails in Chinese English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) context. Specifically, the paper examines and compares requestive strategies in request emails between two groups of university students, namely English majors (EM) and non-English…

This article examines whether there are changes in students' teaching practices as a result of their experiencing an overseas professional development course (PDC); the process of any such changes; and whether any changes found are sustainable in the long term. Three forms of data gathering are used, lesson observation, in-depth interviews, and…

Background: Recognition of the importance of the development of intercultural competence (ICC) has placed intense pressure on teacher education programs to infuse a global perspective into their programs. Several studies have proposed integration of global elements into teacher education programs. Although the use of online tools for…

Email has revolutionised the way in which professionals work and companies operate, and yet has received surprisingly little scholarly attention in English for Specific Purposes and has an unexpectedly muted presence in many Business English textbooks. The dearth of research into email use in globalised business settings may be one of the factors…

This study investigated the negotiations and challenges experienced by five Chinese ESL (English as a second language) students of Commerce through their engagement in an academic presentation in a regular content course at a Canadian university. Multiple sources of data were collected, including interviews, class observations, group discussions,…