The world has become seemingly smaller with the advancements of technologies, instead of taking days to receive a written letter, it takes seconds to get an email. While the connection is obvious there still seems to be a barrier between the majority of the world's population: Language. Though it seems irrelevant in people's small communities, the…

Originally conceptualized by Chester Pierce (1970), microaggressions have taken on increasing utility in recent years as a tool to teach undergraduate students about everyday forms of oppressive behavior. As the concept gains increased currency in educational contexts, however, it is important to consider the ways in which individuals understand…

18 qualitative investigations of families of children with disabilities from nondominant communities and their perspectives on home-school partnerships were included in this meta-synthesis. Included studies used a qualitative research design to examine the perspectives of families of children with disabilities from nondominant communities in…

In this paper, through a personal narrative discourse, I explore the influence and the contribution of my cross-cultural study experience in China on my development as a young researcher. Through the Chinese academic culture, I learned some best practices that I consider essential for the blossoming and development of a student. Nonetheless, I…

An investigation of the process of language teaching as communication in a cross-cultural context shows that there is potential for misunderstanding. Examples of types of errors that are pragmatic rather than grammatical are discussed. A model is presented to help understand the pragmatic error. (DF)

Misunderstandings and impoliteness can occur among people from different countries because of differences in cultures and languages. Observations about British, American, and other European cultures concern set phrases, word connotations, intonation, forms of address and reference, grammar, and nonverbal behavior. (SW)

Examples of cross cultural misunderstandings are examined in this paper to show how cultural (contextual) meaning must be regarded as an integral feature of the overall semantic meaning of an utterance. The examples, taken from the Filipino dialect Tagalog, illustrate how ignorance of the cultural assumptions and attitudes associated with an…

Taboo or forbidden topics of conversation are compared for Taiwan, the Republic of China, and United States. Emphasis is on the conveyance of conversational conventions in second language teaching. First, the concept of conversational taboos is examined, noting the non-transferability of taboos across cultures and languages. Four kinds of taboos…

After describing scenes that reveal a pattern in which whites regard blacks' speech behavior as threatening, aggressive, or hostile, and in which blacks disagree with their interpretation, this paper explores differences between black and white cultural assumptions, values, and conventions of aggressive behavior to account for the different…

A comparative study of turn-taking in North American and Spanish conversation investigated (1) differences in styles for the two cultures and (2) any resulting misinterpretation of communicative intentions. Data for the first were drawn from two dinner parties, one with four American women, conducted in English, and one with four Spanish-speaking…

A set of procedures for coding internal state words (those words representing mental states and perceptual experiences), developed for application to data on the language of young children and those with whom they converse, is described in this report. The report first discusses the rationale for studying cultural variation in vocabulary use, the…

The paper attempts to illustrate the importance of an accurate sociocultural description of a number of unconscious verbal and gestural behaviors which help to distinguish a Frenchman from an American. An accurate description of many of the most elementary signs and gestures is needed to help to dispel the notion that there is a one-for-one…

Students from different cultures follow differing norms for communication, affecting the classroom and students' grades. Such patterns are found in class discussions, question-and-answer sessions, small-group interactions (issues include cooperation, structure, competition, and gender), and formal class presentations. While no single teaching…