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Exploring Intercultural Communication

Routledge Introductions to Applied Linguistics is a series of introductory level textbooks covering the core topics in Applied Linguistics, primarily designed for those beginning postgraduate studies, or taking an introductory MA course as well as advanced undergraduates. Titles in the series are also ideal for language professionals returning to academic study.

The books take an innovative 'practice to theory' approach, with a 'back-to-front' structure. This leads the reader from real-world problems and issues, through a discussion of intervention and how to engage with these concerns, before finally relating these practical issues to theoretical foundations. Additional features include tasks with commentaries, a glossary of key terms, and an annotated further reading section.

Exploring Intercultural Communication investigates the role of language in intercultural communication, paying particular attention to the interplay between cultural diversity and language practice.

This book brings together current or emerging strands and themes in the field by examining how intercultural communication permeates our everyday life, what we can do to achieve effective and appropriate intercultural communication, and why we study language, culture and identity together. The focus is on interactions between people from various cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and regards intercultural communication as a process of negotiating meaning, cultural identities, and – above all – differences between ourselves and others.

Including global examples from a range of genres, this book is an essential read for students taking language and intercultural communication modules within Applied Linguistics, TESOL, Education or Communication Studies courses.

Book Information

Complimentary Exam Copy

Exploring Intercultural Communication Cover

Resources

Glossary

Affordance: originating from Gibson (1979), it describes the interrelationship between an individual’s capacity / properties and the environment that allows the individual to interact with the environment. It is a useful concept to differentiate what a learner is exposed to and provided for from what is accessible to a learner.

Assimilation: the process by which an ethnic group or migrant community adopts the characteristics of the dominant group.

Audience design: a sociolinguistic model proposed by Allan Bell (1984, 2001) to account for the fact that speakers adjust their speech styles in response to their audience.

Aural learning style: a type of learning style in which learners use auditory aids to remember or understand words or concepts

Autonomy: a term to refer to one’s ability to take charge of one’s own learning.

BELF:  standing for Business English Lingua Franca. It is the study of situations where English is used as a shared language of communication and where at least one interaction participant does not speak English as his or her native language.

Co-culture: a term describing the co-existence of cultural groups.

Collectivism:   a cultural orientation that promotes interdependence between members of groups and emphasises priority of group goals over those of individuals.

Communication Accommodation Theory: a psychological model originating from Howard Giles’s work (Street & Giles, 1982) which proposes that one adjusts ways of speaking (including accent, speech rate, patterns of pausing, utterance length, gesture, posture, smiling, gaze, etc) to either converge to or diverge from those of one’s conversation partner(s).

Communicative competence: a term proposed by Dell Hymes (1972) to describe knowledge of how to use and interpret a language according to social and linguistic norms of the speech community.

Community of practice: Originated in Lave & Wenger’s work about learning theory (1991), the concept describes an aggregate of people who have a shared domain of interest and engage in joint activities and practice.

Competence: when used in contrast with performance in Chomsky’s work (1965), the term refers to one’s implicit knowledge of what is permissible or not in a language.

Contact theory: the theory proposed by Allport (1954) which suggests that prejudice between members of different groups may be reduced through intergroup contact under four conditions: equal group status, common goals, intergroup cooperation and institutional support. 

Contextualisation cue: a term developed by Gumperz (1982, 1992) to refer to the verbal and non-verbal signs in interactions that help conversation participants to evoke the relevance of particular contextual features.   

Conversation analysis:  abbreviated as CA, a theoretical and analytical approach to natural conversations with the purpose of understanding how meaning is produced, interpreted and negotiated in conversation through an analysis of linguistic or non-linguistic features, such as turn-taking, sequences, pauses, and how ‘trouble’ in conversation is solved, etc.

Critical incidents: brief descriptions of significant events in encounters with people from various backgrounds.

Crossing: a phenomenon in which speakers use the language varieties of social and ethnic groups to which they do not normally belong.

Cultural acculturation: a term developed by John Berry (Berry, et al, 2006) to describe cultural and psychological changes as the result of the contact between cultural groups.

Cultural adaptation: a process of adjusting to a new culture over a period of time

Cultural artefact: things that represent a culture significantly and meaningfully. 

Cultural assimilators:  a pedagogical tool in intercultural education and language learning. It typically includes a critical incident followed by a question. It is used to raise awareness about cultural differences.

Cultural dimensions: the key features or characteristics that differentiate various cultural groups. 

Cultural iceberg model: an analogy of what culture is by comparing visible and invisible aspects of culture as well as the inter-relationship between these two parts to an iceberg.

Cultural identity: referring to a set of qualities attributed to or shared by a given population. It can include ethnicity, race, nationality, gender, abilities, age, spirituality and socioeconomic status.

Cultural onion model: an analogy of what culture is by comparing the various internal levels and layers of culture to that of an onion.

Cultural schema: a term used by Sharifian (2005) to refer to a subtype of schemas about norms and patterns of interactions which emerge from a cultural group’s collective knowledge and are shared by members of a cultural group.

Cultural script: an analytical framework used by Anna Wierzbicka and her colleagues (e.g. Wierzbicka, 1997b) to describe a cultural key word or practice using a metalanguage which consists of a set of simple, indefinable and universally lexicalised concepts such as I, you, do, good, bad, etc.

Cultural tourism: a type of tourism emphasising visits to historical or architectural landmarks, museums, galleries, heritage sites, artistic performances, festivals, etc.

Culture of learning: a term proposed by Jin & Cortazzi (e.g.1998) to describe culturally based and transmitted ideas about teaching and learning, which include but are not limited to ideas about appropriate ways of learning and participating in class, relationship between teachers and students, etc.

Culture shock: a term developed by Kalvero Oberg (1960) to describe anxiety one may experience when moving to a new culture.

Culture with a Capital C:  a term to describe the artistic aspects or refinement of culture such as art, music, literature, etc. 

Culture with a small c: a term to describe the behaviour and practice of everyday life.

Deep learning: a type of learning approach which focus on understanding and developing knowledge rather than gathering information. It also sees reflection as the key component of learning.

Deficit model: a way of thinking which regards anything different from main, dominant practices as less adequate and in need of improvement.

Diaspora: the term originally referred to Jews who were forced to leave their homeland. Nowadays it is used interchangeably with migrants to refer to groups of people who live outside their home countries for a considerable length of time.

Dugri talk: Dugri talk refers to a communication style of straight talk, originally found among Israelis. Dugri means ‘straightforward, direct’.

Emic: an approach in studies of human behaviour across cultures whereby a researcher uses local cultural terms to interpret a cultural phenomenon. 

Environmental bubble: a term suggested by Cohen to describe the way tourists seek to maintain routines, habits, or comfort of their home cultures during tourism.

Essentialist view of culture: an approach that believes that people from a cultural group share the same characteristics, and misunderstanding in intercultural interactions can largely, if not all, be attributed to group differences.   

Ethnicity: referring to a set of qualities attributed to a given population who are perceived by themselves and/or others to share history, descent, belief systems, practices, language, religion, etc. It is a term often conflated with cultural identity or race.

Ethnicity: the term refers to a group of people sharing cultural heritage, traditions, religion or sometimes language too. Similar to race, the term has been used as a social category by some in recent years.

Ethnography of speaking: the field of study concerned with the way speech communities communicate. It can be used as a methodology, referring to the use of field work and observation as a data collection method.

Etic: an approach in studies of human behaviour across cultures which involves comparing one culture with another using culture-general constructs.  

Experiential learning: also known as learning by doing. It is a pedagogical approach that believes that learning is best achieved when people have direct or simulated experiences.

Face:  a term used in politeness theory to refer to the public self-image a person affectively claims for himself.

Face-threatening acts: a term used in politeness theory to refer to acts that challenge the face want of conversation participants.

Femininity: a cultural orientation in which caring and nurturing behaviours are preferred.

Foreign language learning: a type of language learning situation in which students learn to speak a language to which they have little access in their daily life.

Foreigner Talk: a concept proposed by Charles Ferguson (1975) to describe the simplified speech register native speakers often adopt when speaking to non-native speakers with low linguistic proficiency.

Global Citizenship:  a term to describe a social ideal which calls for commitment to humanist principles and respect for human equality and diversity. Also known as cosmopolitan citizenship.

Grand Tour:  a term describing the educational journey taken by young aristocrats around Europe in the 17th and 18th century. It is regarded as the origin of modern tourism.

High involvement style:  a type of spoken discourse style in which speakers try to show connectedness through active participation in interaction. It was first proposed by Tannen (1984). The linguistic features of high involvement include faster rate of speech, faster turn-taking, avoidance of inter-turn pauses, cooperative overlap, and participatory listenership.

High uncertainty avoidance: a cultural orientation in which people try to avoid uncertainty and ambiguity in communication and practice.

Hofstede’s value dimensions: the model proposed by Geert Hofstede to differentiate between various cultures. It includes individualism vs. collectivism, high vs. low uncertainty avoidance, high vs. low power distance, masculinity vs. femininity and long-term vs. short term orientation.

Horizontal communication: a term referring to communication between individuals at the same hierarchical level but in different units or subsidiaries. This type of communication has a primary aim of coordination and information relay.

Illocutionary act:  According to Austin (1962), a speech act consists of three acts: locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act.  Illocutionary act is what is intended by the speaker.

Individualism: a cultural orientation that emphasises personal independence and priority of individuals’ goals over those of the group.

In-group:  the group with whom one feels emotionally close and a sense of belonging such as family or friends. (cf. out-group).

Intercultural Communicative Competence: ICC for short, the term, broadly speaking, refers to the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in intercultural encounters. The term is referred to by various names in different models. Although what constitute ICC precisely varies across different models, they tend to draw on components of awareness, knowledge, attitude and skills.

Language broker: the term to describe the function of children or younger members of migrants’ families who often act as translator or interpreters for their families.

Language dominance: the fact that among the languages used by a speaker, one language may be stronger than others in some, if not all, aspects of language use, such as speaking, listening, etc. 

Language ideology: speakers’ views or beliefs about the sociocultural values of different languages.

Language socialisation: the process by which children or new members of a community learn to speak the language of the host community in an appropriate way and adapt to social-cultural values associated with various ways of speaking.

Learning strategies: a term to describe specific behaviours or techniques one uses to enhance her learning.

Learning styles: a term to describe general approaches that one uses in learning a subject.

Legitimate Peripheral Participation: a concept proposed by Lave & Wenger (1991) to describe their view that individuals acquire skills and become competent members through participation with experts in an activity. Novices must be allowed to be part of the activity even if their participation is peripheral.

Linguistic determinism: a (strong) version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis of the relation between language, culture and thought, which asserts that language controls thought and culture.

Linguistic penalty: a term proposed by Celia Roberts and her colleagues (Roberts, 2011; Roberts & Campbell, 2006) to describe the fact that first generation ethnic minority candidates tend to fare poorly in job interviews, not from their lack of fluency in English, but from the largely hidden demands on candidates to talk in institutionally credible ways and from a mismatch of implicit cultural expectations. 

Linguistic relativity: a (weak) version and a moderate claim of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis of the relation between language, culture and thought, which argues that language influences thought and world views and, therefore, differences among languages cause differences in the thoughts of their speakers.

Locutionary act: According to Austin (1962), a speech act consists of three acts: locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act. Locutionary act is the actual utterance and its ostensible meaning.

Long-term orientation: a cultural orientation that focuses on traditions (cf. short-term orientation).

Low uncertainty avoidance: a cultural orientation in which people accept uncertainty and ambiguity.

Masculinity: a cultural orientation in which ambition, achievement, and money are favoured.

Mass tourism: a type of tourism in which a large number of people travel for pleasure in a foreign country.

Membership Categorisation Device: abbreviated as MCA, a term proposed by Sacks (1972) as an analytical concept to describe how people use language to order the objects of the world into categories such as family, mother, student, etc.

Migrant: a general term to refer to anyone who lives away from his or her home country for a considerable length of time.

Modern language studies: a type of language studies in which target languages are still in use, as opposed to classical language studies.

Monochronic time: a cultural orientation in which people prefer one thing at one time.

Out-group: a group with whom one feels few emotional ties or little sense of belonging (cf. in-group).

Passing: a phenomenon in which speakers use the language varieties of social and ethnic groups to which they do not normally belong in order to be perceived as one of them.

Performance: the term is used to contrast with competence in Chomsky’s works (1965). It refers to actual production of a language either in spoken form or writing.

Perlocutionary act: According to Austin (1962), a speech act consists of three acts: locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act.  Perlocutionary act is the consequence of what has been said.

Phatic communion: a term, usually attributed to Malinoswki (1923), refers to the type of speech in which the bonds among the speakers concerned are maintained or created through a mere exchange of words. It is often used in contrast with other types of speech which have clear transactional goals.

Point-making style: a rhetoric style referring to how speakers state and support their communicative intent such as wishes, demands, etc.

Politeness Theory: the study of linguistic behaviours that address each other’s face wants in conversation. It was proposed first by Brown & Levinson (1987). 

Polychronic time: a cultural orientation in which people prefer multi-tasking.

Pragmatic failure: a term used by Thomas (1983) to refer to the phenomenon of misunderstanding in interactions with second language users. There are two types of pragmatic failure: pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic failure. The former is the type of pragmatic failure in which pragmatic force in an utterance by a second language user does not match that by a native speaker. The latter occurs when second language users make inappropriate assessment of the degree of imposition, cost/benefit, social distance, relative rights and obligations, etc.

Proxemics: the term proposed by Edward Hall to describe the study of personal space.

Race: when used in contrast with ethnicity, it refers to biological and genetic make-up of a given population. In some contemporary academic discussions, race is regarded as a social and cultural construction instead of biological.

Rapport: a notion proposed by Spencer-Oatey (2000) to take motivational concerns of participants such as face wants and relationship building into account in interpreting interactions.

Re-entry shock: the feeling of lost and disappointment when one returns home after being away for a while.

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: the observations by Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf on the interrelationship between language, culture and thought. There are different versions of the hypothesis. The most well-known are Linguistic Determinism and Linguistic Relativity.

Schema: the collection of knowledge of past experiences which is stored in memory and retrieved when prompted to guide our behaviour and sense-making.

Schwarz’s value orientations: the classification scheme of human values proposed by Shalom Schwarz. It includes benevolence, tradition, conformity, security, power, achievement, hedonism (the need or motivation for pleasure), stimulation, self-direction, and universalism.

Second language learning: a type of language learning situation in which students learn to speak a new language which is used as primary means of communication in their daily communication.

Short-term orientation: a cultural orientation which emphasises the present (cf. long-term orientation).

Small culture: the term used by Holliday (1999) to refer to an approach which emphasises  the process of establishing commonalities shared by a small social grouping through activities rather than prescribing groupings at the start.

Small talk: non-task-oriented conversation in which speakers have no explicit transactional goals.

Stereotypes: over-generalisation about the characteristics of a cultural group.

Study abroad: the type of educational activities which involves students studying and living away from their home countries.

Subculture: a group which is different from the dominant group, or a small group within a large group.

Superdiversity: the term describes high level of social, cultural and linguistic complexity and diversity in a society.

Surface learning: a type of learning approach which focus on memorising information rather than developing a good understanding of the subject under study.

Symbolic competence: proposed by Kramsch (2006, 2008, 2009a), the term refers to the learners’ ability to approximate or appropriate someone else’s language and to shape the very context in which the language is learned through the learner’s and other’s embodied history and subjectivity.

Talk about social, cultural and linguistic practices: an analytical tool kit proposed by Zhu (2008) to describe linguistic practice between parents and children, in which parents and children make comments about ways of speaking and associated social and cultural values explicitly or implicitly.

Thick description: a method of describing events and behaviours in detail and in their contexts as opposed to bare facts. It was proposed by Geertz (1973).

Third culture kids:  a term referring to children who accompany their parents during their stay in a foreign country.  The word ‘third’ is used to reflect the feelings experienced by the children, i.e. despite their experience in a number of cultures, they do not feel that they belong to any culture. 

Third culture/place: terms used by Kramsch (2009b) to describe a symbolic place where one’s own and target culture interact with each other.

Tourist’s gaze: a term used by John Urry (2002) to describe tourists’ practices in searching for differences. It includes the way tourists gaze upon things extraordinary as well as how the gaze is constructed, anticipated and fulfilled.

Transformative learning theory: a theory that was initially developed for adult learning. It proposes that learning is a process of perspective transformation through reflection on experience and engagement with experience.

U-curve: the process and various stages of culture adaption and culture stage have been described as a U shape with satisfaction level highest upon arrival and then the lowest when experiencing culture shock, followed by a recovery.

Vertical communication: a term referring to the communication between head office and divisions/subsidiaries at different hierarchical levels. This type of communication has a primary aim of control and information relay.

Visual learning style: a type of learning style in which learners use visual aids or mental images to remember or understand words or concepts.

Wakimae: a Japanese cultural key term, referring to the fact that people are expected to observe social norms in society.

W-curve: the process of relocating to another culture and returning to one’s home culture is often compared as a W curve. When relocating to another culture, one’s level of satisfaction is highest upon arrival, goes down very soon and rises again during recovery. The similar process applies when one returns home: highest satisfaction when arriving at home and then feeling of loss and disappointment, followed by recovery.

Resource List

The last decade has seen a rapid expansion of textbooks, handbooks, readers and book series in the field of Intercultural Communication. Below is a selective list up to 2013.  It contains:

  • Key textbooks
  • Key handbooks
  • Key readers
  • Key book series
  • Key journals

Key textbooks

Bowe, H. & Martin, K. (2007) Communication across Cultures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

The book provides an introduction to linguistic matters that either result from or impact on cultural differences. It is written primarily from a cross-cultural comparison perspective.

Jandt, F. E. (2010). An Introduction to Intercultural Communication: Identities in a Global Community (6th edition). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

An introductory textbook covering a wide range of issues in communication and culture. There is a wealth of examples, case studies, and cultural features to aid classroom use.  The book has various editions. There is an accompanying reader,Intercultural Communication: A Global Reader by the same author.

Liu, Shuang, Volćić, Z., & Gallois, C. (2011). Introducing Intercultural Communication: Global Cultures and Contexts.  London: Sage.

The book provides an introduction to communication theory and practice in the context of globalization. Topics include international conflict, social networking, migration and the role of technology, the mass media, etc.

Neuliep, J. (2009). Intercultural Communication: A Contextual Approach (4th edition). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

An intermediate-level textbook on the general issues of intercultural communication. Using a contextual model, the book identifies a number of interacting factors contributing to the success of Intercultural Communication.

Piller, I. (2011). Intercultural Communication: A Critical Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

The book adopts discourse analysis and sociolinguistic perspectives and provides an up-to-date review of themes and issues of intercultural communication. 

Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., & McDaniel, E. R. (2006). Communication between Cultures (6th edition). Belmont: Wadsworth.

An intermediate-level textbook providing an overview of issues and theories in Intercultural Communication.

Scollon, R., Scollon, S. W., & Jones, R. H. (2012). Intercultural Communication. A Discourse Approach (3rd edition). Oxford: Blackwell.

A research monograph written from a discourse analysis perspective, with a specific focus on the discourse of East Asians especially Chinese. The latest edition includes some current examples and new topics such as gender discourse, information technology.

Spencer-Oatey, H., & Franklin, P. (2009). Intercultural Interaction. A Multidisciplinary Approach to Intercultural Communication. New York: Palgrave.

The book provides a multidisciplinary introduction to some key concepts in intercultural communication. Topics include culture, developing and assessing intercultural interaction competence, rapport, adapting to new cultures and research ideas.

Zhu Hua (2013). Exploring Intercultural Communication: Language in Action. London: Routledge.

The book first explores practical intercultural communication issues across a range of contexts in everyday life, discusses how to communicate effectively and appropriately with people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds and then critically reviews three theoretical questions underpinning intercultural communication studies.

Key handbooks

Astante, M. K., Miike, Y., & Ying, J. (Eds.). (2008). The Global Intercultural Communication Reader. London: Routledge.

A collection of articles that adopt a non-Eurocentric approach to issues of intercultural communication. Mostly written from communication and cultural studies perspectives.

Gudykunst, W. B., & Mody, B. (2001). Handbook of International and Intercultural Communication (2nd Edition). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

The handbook is written largely from communication studies perspective. It is divided into four parts: cross-cultural communication, intercultural communication, international communication, and development communication.

Jackson, J. (Ed.) (2012). The Routledge Handbook of Language and Intercultural Communication. London: Routledge.

The most recent handbook providing an introduction to the sub-field of language and Intercultural Communication from a variety of disciplinary perspectives including communication studies, cultural psychology and applied Linguistics.

Kotthoff, H. & Spencer-Oatey, H. (Eds.) (2007). Handbook of Intercultural Communication. Berlin: Mouton.

A handbook covering various issues and aspects of Intercultural Communication from an applied linguistics perspective. It provides a synthesis of the main issues and uses authentic interactional data and empirical findings from a range of contexts.

Nakayama, T. K. & Halualani, R. T. (Eds.). (2010). The Handbook of Critical Intercutlural Communication. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

A collection of articles which focus on issues of power, context, socio-economic relations, and historical/structural forces in intercultural communication encounters. It defines the scope of the newly emerging field of critical intercultural communication.

Orbe, M. P. & Harris, T. M. (2001). Interracial Communication: Theory into Practice. Stamford, USA: Thomson Learning.

While interracial communication is typically seen as one subset of many forms of intercultural communication, this textbook focuses on race and ethnicity-related issues in the field.

Paulston, C. B., Kiesling, S. F., & Rangel, E. S. (Eds.). (2012). The Handbook of Intercultural Discourse and Communication. Malden, MA.: Wiley-Blackwell.

A collection of articles on discourse and intercultural communication by scholars from the fields of  Sociolinguistics, Discourse analysis & Pragmatics.  

Sharifian, F., & Jamarani, M. (Eds.) (2013). Language and Intercultural Communication in the New Era. London: Routledge.

The collection defines the scope of the field in the new era and reviews theoretical advances and new and emerging themes in the field. 

Trosborg, A. (Ed.). (2010). Pragmatics Across Languages and Cultures. Berlin: Mouton.

A collection of articles that focuses on common concerns relevant to intercultural communication among various sub-fields of pragmatics including contrastive, cross-cultural, intercultural, interlanguage, and second/foreign language pragmatics.

Key readers

Holliday, A., Hyde, M., & Kullman, J. (Eds.) (2010). Intercultural Communication: An Advanced Resource Book (2nd edition). London: Routledge.

A resource book written from a cultural studies perspective. It is built around three themes (identity, otherisation and representation) and follows the format of a three-tiered discussion (introduction, extension and exploration with essential readings).

Kiesling, S. F., & Paulston, C. B. (Eds.). (2005). Intercultural Discourse and Communication. The Essential Readings. Malden, MA.: Blackwe..

A selection of readings on discourse and intercultural communication grouped under headings of Approaches to Intercultural Discourse, Case studies and Issues of Identity.

Martin, J. & Nakayama, T. K., & Flores, L. A. (Eds.). (2002). Readings in Intercultural Communication: Experience and Contexts (2nd edition). Boston: McGraw Hill.

A collection of readings on a wide range of intercultural communication issues including history, language, non-verbal communication, popular culture, transition, relationship, conflict and ethics.

Monaghan, L., Goodman, J. E., Robinson, J. M. (Eds.). (2012). A Cultural Approach to Interpersonal Communication. Essential Readings. Malden, MA.: Wiley –Blackwell.

A collection of readings from the fields of cultural and linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics and communication studies that provide insights on interpersonal communication. The underlying methodological framework is Ethnography.

Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., McDaniel, E. R. (Eds.). (2009). Intercultural Communication: A Reader. Boston: Wadsworth.

The latest edition of the reader includes conventional topics such as approaches to intercultural communication, identity, diversity, multiculturalism, contexts, messages and ethical considerations.

Zhu Hua (Ed.). (2011). The Language and Intercultural Communication Reader. London: Routledge.

A resource book of key classical and contemporary readings on the interplay between language and intercultural communication. Topics include relationship between culture, language and thought, cultural approaches to discourse and pragmatics, communication patterns across cultures, teaching and learning cultural variations of language use, intercultuarlity, and intercultural communication in a professional context.

Key book series

Routledge Studies in Language and Intercultural Communication, published by Routledge and edited by Zhu Hua & Claire Kramsch.

Language for Intercultural Communication and Education, published by Multilingual Matters and edited by Michael Byram and Alison Phipps. 

Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, published by John Benjamins and edited by Andreas Jucker.

International and Intercultural Communication Annual, published by Sage. With the first volume published in 1983, it is the earliest and longest series on Intercultural Communication.

Critical intercultural communication studies, published by Peter Lang, and edited by Nakayama Thomas K.

Post-Intercultural Communication and Education, published by Cambridge Scholars and edited by Fred Dervin.

Intercultural Press has published many books on intercultural communication including practical guides and videos for intercultural training and learning. 

Key journals

Journal of Pragmatics (Elsevier) is a long-established international journal published monthly. Pragmatics is defined broadly as language use in context. Many frequently-cited articles on Language and Intercultural Communication have appeared in this journal.

Multilingua (Mouton) is a journal dedicated to cross-cultural and interlanguage Communication.

Language and Intercultural Communication (Routledge) publishes articles that investigate the intercultural dimension of language learning and teaching and the implications of linguistic and intercultural issues for workplaces.

Intercultural Pragmatics (Mouton) publishes theoretical and applied Pragmatics research from an intercultural perspective.

Pragmatics (quarterly publication of International Pragmatics Association, IPrA) publishes on a spectrum of subfields and disciplines in Pragmatics.

The following journals very often publish articles on Intercultural Communication:

  • Applied Linguistics
  • Business Communication Quarterly
  • Communication Monographs
  • Communication Reports
  • Communication Studies
  • Cross-Cultural Management: An International Journal
  • Cross-Cultural Psychology Bulletin
  • Cross-Cultural Research
  • Discourse and Society
  • Discourse Processes
  • Discourse Studies
  • ELT Journal
  • European Journal of Cross-Cultural Competence and Management
  • Howard Journal of Communications
  • Human communication Research
  • Intercultural Education
  • International Journal of Applied Linguistics
  • International Journal of Cross-Cultural management
  • International Journal of Cross-cultural Research
  • International Journal of Intercultural Relations
  • International Journal of Multicultural Education
  • International Journal on Multicultural Societies
  • Journal of Asia-Pacific Communication
  • Journal of Communication
  • Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology  
  • Journal of Intercultural Communication (free on line)
  • Journal of Intercultural Communication Research
  • Journal of International and Intercultural Communication
  • Journal of International Business Studies
  • Journal of International Management
  • Journal of Language and Social Psychology
  • Journal of Multicultural Counselling and Development
  • Journal of Multicultural Discourses
  • Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural development
  • Journal of Politeness Research
  • Language and Communication
  • Language in Society
  • Language, Culture and Curriculum
  • Language, Learning & Technology
  • Research on Language and Social Interaction
  • TESOL Quarterly
  • Text
  • Text and Talk
  • The Journal of Business Communication
  • Western Journal of Communication