This project offers a strategy-based curriculum designed to increase academic competence in technical reading for Taiwanese students of English as a foreign language. Strategies include acquiring specialized vocabulary words, enhancing background knowledge, and increasing metacognitive awareness.

This study attempted to investigate whether there were differences in the conflict behaviors chosen for members of the same culture versus members of a different culture when accounting for Chinese cultural value conservation.

The present study draws on uses and gratifications and media system dependency perspectives for examining factors related to Internet usage behaviors of international students and their motives to use their home-country Internet resources.

This diploma thesis focuses on cooperation in international teams and the impact of cultural differences on the function of these teams. The aim of the thesis is to analyze the influence of cultural differences on team work. This work focuses on teams, their development, roles that the team members accept, team performance and their motivation. The thesis also examines culture and cultural models of Hofstede and Lewis. The attention is focused on the specifics of international teams and leadership within those teams, intercultural competency and aspects of intercultural communication. The thesis includes empirical research exploring possible problems and advantages of work in cross-cultural teams. The aim of the empirical research is to identify culture-related factors that influence cooperation in cross-cultural teams. Qualitative research was conducted in the form of semi-structured interviews with Czech managers of international teams. Keywords: international human resources management, cultural diversity, cross-cultural teams, management of cross-cultural teams, intercultural cooperation, intercultural communication

Dans une société où nous souhaitons désormais donner du sens à notre travail, remplir une mission, les organisations à but non lucratif (OBNL) constituent de plus en plus un milieu professionnel attrayant. Cet intérêt s’est également répandu au sein de la communauté scientifique qui cherche à comprendre la particularité de ce contexte organisationnel. Certain.e.s chercheur.e.s remarquent que les conflits sont mal perçus dans ce type d’organisations qui prône la collaboration, tandis que d’autres soulignent l’omniprésence de conflits dans toutes organisations. Les concepts de face et de figuration sont souvent utilisés pour analyser le conflit organisationnel. Cependant, peu de recherches, voire aucune, adoptent ce cadre théorique pour étudier le conflit dans des OBNL. La face et la figuration étant co-construites durant l’interaction, ce mémoire s’intéresse ainsi particulièrement à ce contexte analytique « méso ». Au sein de celui-ci, il est d’ailleurs primordial de prendre en compte la dimension interculturelle qui est intrinsèque à tout milieu organisationnel, notamment à Montréal. À partir d’une étude qualitative réalisée au sein d’une organisation à but non lucratif montréalaise, ce mémoire cherche à comprendre, au moyen d’observations de réunions d’équipe et d’entrevues, la manière dont les membres d’une OBNL gèrent leur face et leur figuration lors d’interactions interculturelles. Grâce à une analyse des actes de langage, les résultats de cette recherche révèlent que les tensions sont effectivement perçues comme inappropriées, mais que les participant.e.s utilisent des stratégies de figuration pour les diminuer ou les cacher et orienter leur figuration vers des objectifs transcendants. / In a society where many workers seek to engage in meaningful, mission-centered work, non-profit organizations (NPOs) are an increasingly attractive workplace. NPOs’ focus on employee engagement, participation and collaborative practices has sometimes meant that scholars have neglected the unique challenges of managing conflicts in this organizational context. Some researchers state that conflict is viewed as inappropriate for NPOs, whereas others argue that conflict is ubiquitous in all types of organizations. Although, the concepts of face and facework are often used to examine organizational and intercultural conflicts, few if any empirical studies have analyzed conflict in NPOs using this theoretical framework. As face and facework are co-constructed in and through interaction, this thesis focuses specifically on this “meso” analytic level, while also taking into account the intercultural dimensions of interactions. Based on observations of team meetings and interviews with team members of a culturally-diverse NPO in Montreal, this thesis aims to understand how members of the organization managed their face and facework during intercultural interactions. Relying on an analysis of speech acts, the results revealed that tensions are indeed viewed as inappropriate, but that participants used facework strategies that avoided or minimized them and oriented their facework to transcendent objectives.

This study explored the ways in which intercultural relationships are affected by cross-cultural transition through the lens of the female experience. Specifically, this research examined (1) in what ways women felt that cross-cultural transition impacted their relationship, especially with regards to cultural values and male-female role taking; and (2) what kinds of benefits women experienced in their relationships as a result of moving across cultures with their partner. A total of 15 non-Chilean women in intercultural relationships with Chilean men were interviewed; all women had lived with their partners in her home country and then moved together to Chile. Results revealed that all 15 participants maintained at least some of their own core cultural values regardless of conflicting societal pressure after moving to Chile. In addition, 11 women reported adopting Chilean values of being more relaxed surrounding time and schedules as well as openly expressing affection, which directly benefited their families. Female participants who reported gender role shifts in their relationship either described it as circumstantial since they simultaneously became stay-at-home mothers, or as a direct result of moving to a culture that adhered to stricter notions of male-female role taking. Although about half of the women reported having to make career sacrifices, most felt their roles as females, wives, and mothers directly benefited from moving to Chile due to more affordable domestic help and living in a more child friendly culture. Finally, although most women discussed some of the challenges of moving across cultures with their partner, 11 women felt their relationship had been strengthened as a result. They also described a number of skills for achieving relationship maintenance: practicing patience, good communication, and a willingness to continually negotiate with one another were the most important abilities for sustaining a highly mobile yet stable intercultural marriage.

The subject of this master’s thesis is communication with foreign customers in the company TEMPISH Ltd. The thesis is divided into two parts connected to each other and complements each other. It is the theoretical basis and its subsequent practical use. The theoretical part is focused on clarifying the concepts of communication, customer and their forms. In the practical part of the thesis communication with customers in the company TEMPISH Ltd. is characterized. This part also covers analysis of survey results. Based on the findings proposals to improve the current state of communication, especially with foreign customers, are described.

PhD (English) / Department of English / This study sought to analyse the discourse strategies in the editorials of the Daily Graphic newspaper as texts constructed in an African English as a Second Language (ESL) setting and the editorials of the New York Times of America as texts constructed in an Anglo-American English environment. The objective of the study was to discover the differences and the similarities that exist between the discourse strategies of the editorials of the Daily Graphic newspaper and the editorials of the New York Times. This objective is achieved by analysing five features of text. First, the rhetorical structure of the two editorials were analysed to find out the rhetorical strategies used in composing the editorials. Second, the micro-genre variation between the two editorials was examined. In addition, the thematic development of the two editorials was carried out. Also, the study investigated the rhetorical appeals preferred by the editorials from the two different socio-cultural settings. Finally, as newspaper editorials, the use of attribution was studied to find out how the editorials disclose the sources of their information to make it clear to their readers where they get their information from. The findings of the study revealed some differences and some similarities in the discourse strategies employed by the two editorials. The Daily Graphic as a newspaper published in an ESL setting in Africa exhibited the unique use of some discourse features that reflect the socio-cultural setting different from that of the New York Times as a newspaper published in the socio-cultural environment of Anglo-American English. / NRF

<p>This study aimed at investigating the divergence in attitudes between Saudi students who have lived in the United States for four years or more compared to Saudi students who have not lived outside Saudi Arabia for more than a three-month period. A survey was designed based on the main aspects of Saudi culture for this study as surveys are found to be the most common means for measuring attitudes. Two samples of Saudi students were recruited, one sample included students who have lived in the United States for four years or more, and the other sample consisted of those who have not lived outside Saudi Arabia for more than three months. A statistically significant difference between the two samples was found; students who have lived in the United States for four years or more were found to be more tolerant than those who have not lived abroad for more than three months towards the issue of sex segregation in mixed environments.<br> </p>

This dissertation approaches environmental discourse from the perspective of intercultural communication research. As a discipline, intercultural communication has encompassed a range of analytical levels, from micro-analysis of everyday communicative interactions to the macro-level structural factors that were brought into light by the critical turn. In light of planetary environmental issues, some researchers have called for an “ecological turn” as a new research paradigm. However, the complexity of integrating communication, culture, and the natural world into a coherent research program poses significant conceptual and methodological challenges. This dissertation seeks to provide both a methodological and conceptual framework for discourse at the interface of human cultures and the natural world.