Instructional practices are fundamentally influenced by teacher beliefs. Cultural and pedagogical belief differences in EFL teachers can fuel a lack of professional understanding among teachers with contrasting perspectives about effective teaching practices. The present study examined the alignment between the beliefs of Chinese English teachers…

This article discusses and compares how Chinese and English postgraduate students manage a harmonious relationship with university instructors by managing rapport and doing relational work in their academic request emails. The rapport-management strategies were explored and then further evaluated in relation to the taxonomies of relational work…

The assumption that each culture has its own distinctive identity has been generally accepted in the discussion of cultural identities. Quite often identity formation is not perceived as a dynamic and interactive ongoing process that engages other cultures and involves change in its responses to different challenges at different times. I will…

This paper explores difficulties students may experience in giving opinions in class, drawing on data gleaned from the administration of questionnaires and interviews to Japanese and British students. The results show that the students from both groups regard highly of giving and exchanging opinions in class; however, there is a marked difference…

In gatekeeping interviews, candidates must rely on narrative strategies to demonstrate their suitability for a position. This includes the ability to project in their accounts "an institutional self." Compares native and nonnative English-speaking candidates and considers how culturally based differences in communicative background affect the…

This paper explores the interplay between Western conceptions of education and students from other educational traditions, most specifically Japan, through the lens of the author's practice in international education. He examines models of the private and public spheres and public discourse advanced by Hannah Arendt and Jurgen Habermas in relation…