Within the communicative language teaching approach, current instructional materials often lack explicit guidance or fail to provide L2 learners with a wide range of resources in the target language. Conversation analysis (CA), which focuses on authentic talk, has been proposed as a potential resource for language classrooms. This study examines…

Silence as a communicative act in face-to-face spontaneous interaction has been under-investigated in linguistic politeness research in Thailand. With the recent increase in the influx of foreign students gaining admission into Thai universities yearly, the result is that such universities will be a coexistence of cultures. This study therefore…

One of the most frequently touted benefits of higher education is the opportunity to interact with people different from oneself, yet these interactions do not automatically lead to positive outcomes. The purpose of this study is to explore how one particular context for diversity interactions, service-based alternative break programs, may provide…

Four academic deans investigated when and how they used interpersonal/negotiating skills to function effectively in their positions. For two full weeks, the deans coded their on-the-job interactions during scheduled meetings, informal meetings, spontaneous encounters/meetings, telephone calls, and select email. Analyses revealed that the…

As universities seek to provide cost-effective, cross-cultural experiences using global virtual (GV) teams, the "soft" communication skills typical of all teams, increases in importance for GV teams. Students need to be taught how to navigate through cultural issues and virtual tool issues to build strong trusting relationships with…

This research explores the professionalization of Library and Information Science (LIS) students who participated in a peer-tutoring service, "Research Rescue." Research Rescue was a collaboration of the Chapman Learning Commons and the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS) at the University of British Columbia. The…

The need to collaborate in the fields of business, health care, and technology is not a new concept. Educational institutions, however, have been slow to recognize the need to teach collaboration skills (Brownell & Walther-Thomas, 2002; Jackson, 2004). This article focuses on the development of the Collaboration Self-Assessment Tool (CSAT). The…