This study seeks to analyze book group discussions on translated fiction in terms of micro public spheres. The paper explores the potentials of this perspective based on ethnographic data collected through participant observation with reading groups located across Britain. The discussion demonstrates the public sphere in operation beyond the…

This paper investigates the role of interpreters in addressing cultural differences in the context of a cross-cultural collaborative teacher professional development project. Based on positioning theory, this study employed interpreter-mediated interactions and interviews to reveal the complex roles that interpreters played when interpreting…

This paper seeks to address the question how people go about intercultural differences in an institutional setting which aims to mediate between the socio-legal system and the 'outsiders' of the system, i.e. ordinary citizens, through an investigation of professional interactions between a legal advisor and her clients of Eastern European…

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…

The terms used to designate ordinary relational identities seem easy to learn and translate. However, these interpersonal identities reflect complex mental constructs that are very sensitive to the variables that interact in human communication, particularly cultural variation. This paper describes a pilot project developed at the University of…

Higher Education mirrors the shifting nature of society and work. Mobility may provide unparalleled learning opportunities for all stakeholders; however, in order to live and work in plural societies as socially responsible and intercultural knowledgeable citizens, intercultural awareness and intercultural communication skills need to be mastered.…

This paper examines the connection between translation and narratives of history, with particular attention to Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" and its Spanish version, "La otra historia de los Estados Unidos". It is argued that translation interacts with history in many ways: translation is fundamental to history and, in…

Virtual intercultural communication is of great interest in intercultural research. How can a researcher gain access to this field of investigation if s/he does not or only partially speaks the languages used by the subjects? This study is an example of how categories relevant to research can be accessed through in-depth interviews. The interview…

Chinese translation to and from Japanese and English verifies the hypothesis that power differentials influence the flow and reception of translations. The Chinese tradition of translation has been characterised by fluency, but some scholars have recently advocated foreignisation for English to Chinese translation, and domestication for Chinese to…

This paper is a report of a research project on critical multiliteracies and multimodality in Brazilian education. In the context of a growing concern for the construction of images in contemporary society, the paper discusses the interrelations between image, language and interpretation. The specific object of the investigation described below is…

Two fundamental features of globalisation are the overcoming of spatial barriers and the centrality of knowledge and information. These developments, which result in the increased mobility of people and objects and a heightened contact between different linguistic communities (mass tourism, migration, information and media flows) signal, in spite…

The incorporation of "creole" vernacular languages into texts written in "standard" languages is an especially fraught crossroads of intercultural communication. This article considers the difference between a kind of literary tourism in which non-Caribbean readers "taste" the flavour of creole language within…

Translation is a regular phenomenon for news production, even if this is not always explicitly indicated. It is quite common that journalists themselves perform translations in their text production processes. Online media have added new possibilities to these processes. This paper looks at the transfer between print and online media texts from…