Intercultural Communication Competence: Higher Education Students' Perceptions

Author(s):

Niina Kovalainen

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 02 B, Student Expectations and Competencies in Higher Education

Paper Session

Time:

2009-09-28

11:15-12:45

Room:

HG, HS 30

Chair:

Yann Lebeau

Contribution

This research aims at exploring the issue of transnationalism through intercultural communication competence. The interconnectedness between language, culture, communication and transnationalism are strong and will inevitably take different forms in social contexts such as work, home and studying. The paper is a part of a project by the Academy of Finland, "Recognition of Cultural Diversity in Everyday Life in Finland: Case Studies in Intercultural Interaction Arenas" is to analyze the transformation processes surrounding the increasing cultural diversity and the emergence of transnational social spaces. The focus rests in individual respondents, immigrants and native Finnish people, their daily living conditions, experiences and conceptions. The links between participation and the sense of belonging of the immigrants are of central importance -who are included to the sphere of “us” and who are regarded as “the others”? This includes questions about the social positions and political-social-cultural-economic activities as well as the well-being of the respondents on different arenas. Respondents are also encouraged to approach the issues connected with communication, language skills and culture, especially their own conceptions of self-perceived intercultural communication competence. Throughout the project, the phenomena in question will be assessed at various spatial levels (local/national/transnational/global) and integrative domains (political/social/cultural/economic/educational). We try to find out how successful intercultural interaction can be fostered in different interaction arenas.

Method

During autumn 2008 and spring 2009 interviews for the whole project were made in various interaction arenas. The present study concentrates on one of the interviewed groups, namely higher education students. Students were interviewed in three Finnish cities: Helsinki, Tampere and Joensuu, and the cities represent large, medium and small cities. Interviewees were from both universities and universities of applied sciences. In each interaction arena, both students of foreign origin and Finnish origin were interviewed with a semi-structured questionnaire. The students of foreign origin named their strongest Finnish contact form that arena (in this case, university) and both of them were interviewed separately. This way we were able to receive a more rpfound picture of intercultural communication in that one, realistic interaction arena. Altogether 30 students were interviewed by the researchers after which all the interviews were transcribed for analysis.

Expected Outcomes

Analysis and description of the interconnectedness of transnational competence and foreign language skills, (inter)cultural knowledge and verbal/ nonverbal communication. Expected outcome should also illustrate the perceptions of 'otherness' and the feeling of belonging to a certain new environment as an immigrant.

References

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Author Information

Niina Kovalainen

University of Tampere

Department of Education

Tampere

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