PedRIO with Plymouth University: Internationalisation and the Student Experience 18/12/2013

1. An Exploration of Perceptions of Verbal and Non-verbal Communication Strategies on Intercultural Group Interactions and how they Impact on Learning and Teaching in Higher Education PedRIO with Plymouth University: Internationalisation and the Student Experience 18/12/2013 Anne Lawrie

2. Overview • Background • Perceptions • After four weeks of study • After ten weeks of study • Implications

3. Is this what we’re aiming for? • All students’ learning experience is maximised and enhanced during their studies (British Council, 2010:1) • Prepare students to function in an international and intercultural context (De Vita, 2005:76) • Openness, tolerance and culturally inclusive behaviour (Webb, 2005:110)

4. If so, how can we achieve this? Group work • Integral part of UK university education • Promote cultural awareness and collaboration between international and home students

5. But it’s not without its problems Working collaboratively in multi-cultural groups differs from mono-cultural group work Different cultural orientations can manifest themselves not only in mis-communication but also in no communication Language competency is perceived to be a barrier and a source of anxiety for home students

6. Language barriers are often easier to identify and are a natural indicator of difference, whereas, deeper cultural differences…are not (Hyland et al., 2008) Complications can arise when linguistic barriers are compounded by differences in non-verbal behaviour (Anderson and Wang, 2006:264)

7. Non-verbal communication/behaviour. What do I mean? • Paralinguistics is related to vocal cues: all of the sounds produced with our voices that are not words • Kinesics deals with body language: gestures, head nods, facial expressions, eye contact • Proxemics is related to the study of space and how it is used in communication, for example, the distance between speakers • Chronemics is related to the study of time in communication and how it is understood by the persons involved, for example, pauses, silences (Highlen and Hill, 1984; Furuyama, 2000)

8. Non-verbal messages • Reflect strong personal identity • Carry and infer feelings, emotions and attitudes by facial, bodily and gesture movements and use of voice But • Culture shapes the rules of when, how, what and with whom certain non-verbal behaviour is revealed or suppressed (Ting-Toomey, 1999; Ekman and Friesen, 1975; Ekman and Oster, 1979)

10. Approaches to Group Work and Assessment • MSc in Marketing • Multicultural groups • Students are assigned groups • Group assessment • MSc in TESOL • Multicultural groups • Students choose groups • No group assessment

11. Perceptions: Four weeks into their programmes* Verbal and Non-verbal Communication Home and European students noticed: “a lack of facial expression among Chinese students” (Interviewee, S9) “a lack of body language” (Interviewee, S7) Chinese students noticed: “ ‘European’ students laughed out loud and used their hands and face when they were speaking” (Interviewee, S3, S4) “they tend to use body language. Their face have much expression, they smile” (Interviewee, S6)

12. * Feelings Home and European Angry, frustrated “I never felt more angry in my life, you know, we got given this big sheet of paper and this A4 bit of paper with instructions, and I read it all to them and there was just silence, and I, and I, I was so ‘Ohhh, I’m going to explode!” (Interviewee, S9) Chinese: Comfortable, happy “Comfortable. Sometime they are too polite. Yeh, I think it's a good thing but sometimes they are too polite to communicate with me.” (Interviewee, S4)

13. * Roles within the multi-cultural groups Home and European “… I don’t know if it was..probably was it a mixture of kind of tone of voice and hand gestures, em, so I just had to be like ‘Right, so I’m going to give you this, and you’ve got 5 minutes to do it, and then come back to me’, but they responded better to that than me being a bit more…so I think maybe a mixtures of cultures, and they saw me as this leader figure, that they were waiting for a, for somebody to tell them what to do, then they were responsive, whereas if you tried to be ‘Oh we’re all..’, you know, ‘we’re all equal here’, they didn’t really respond to that, I think they preferred to have a dominant figure, and they didn’t want to do anything until I’d specifically said ‘Do this’”. (Interviewee,S9) Chinese “we are all the same and we discuss maybe one organise the meeting…a native speaker” (Interviewee,S5)

14. * Nationalitiesthey would choose to work with • Home and European Students • “definitely wouldn't choose an Asian group” (Interviewee, S3) • “I would choose anybody but the Chinese students” (S8) • “I just go in and where there's a seat I'll sit down. I'm not • really fussy” (S7) • “two friends from Stirling” (S9) • Chinese Students • “to be honest I would like to sit with native speakers” (S6) • “who work hard” (S4) • “Canadian… Scottish …and if there is a Chinese who can • accompany me that's better” (S2) • “some native speaker or some European students” (S5)

15. Perceptions: ten weeks into their programmes* Verbal and non-verbal communication Home and European students were aware they were: “nodding more” (Interviewees, S3, S7, S8, S9) “showing I’m interested more” (S3) “they [Chinese students] are laughing more” (S7, S9) Chinese studentswere aware they were “using more eye contact when speaking English”(S2, S6) “smiling more” (S4, S5, S6)

16. * Feelings (Marketing students had experienced groups not dominated by Chinese students) Home and European Students “communication was so much easier and so much better”; “it was good”; “happier” (Interviewees, S3, S9) Chinese Students “good…locals encouraged you…others didn’t want to work with you…” (S4) * Roles Home and European students “difficult…I went from being a leader to we didn’t have a leader” (S9) Chinese students “Everybody had their own responsibilities” (S5)

17. * Nationalities students would choose to work with Home and European Students “mixed but majority needs to be European – no Chinese males…’” (Interviewee, S3) “mixed but with at least one other home student” (S9, S7) “I think I would choose anybody but the Chinese students” (S8) Chinese Students “Scottish and Indian and other Chinese but only those that work hard” (S4) “I want to choose some native speaker or some European students” (S5, S2) “If I have choice to be honest I would like to sit with native speakers” (S6)

18. So what changed? Home and European students “learned how to adapt when working with International students” (Interviewee, S9) “I know I get better feedback when I underline verbal with non-verbal when interacting with other nationalities” (S3) Chinese students “I use more freer use of gestures”; “use more gestures than my Chinese friends” (S6) “If they [non-Chinese] see in my face that I don’t understand, they will use their gestures and some easy words to make me understand” (S2,S4)

19. Implications so far… • An awareness of verbal and non-verbal behaviour appears to improve interactions within multi-cultural group • Students appear to prefer to work in mixed nationality groups, as long as one other member is of their nationality • In mixed-nationality groups where the predominant nationality is Chinese, home and European students appear to be viewed as the group leader or ‘expert’

20. A step in the right direction? • Maximising and enhancing the learning experience of all students during their studies (British Council, 2010:1) • Preparing students to function in an international and intercultural context (De Vita, 2005:76) • Being open, tolerant and demonstrating culturally inclusive behaviour (Webb, 2005:110)

21. References Anderson, P. A. and Wang, H. (2006). Beyond Language: Nonverbal Communication Across Cultures in L. Samovar, R. Porter, and McDaniel, E. (Eds). (2009). Intercultural communication: A Reader. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning British Council. (updated 2010). Making it Happen:The Prime Minister’s Initiative for International Education. Available at: http://www.britishcouncil.org/eumd-pmi2-overview.htm [Accessed 20 February 2010] De Vita, G. (2005) Fostering intercultural learning through multicultural group work, in: J. Carroll and J. Ryan (Eds). Teaching international students. Improving learning for all Abingdon, Routledge Ekman, P. and Friesen, W. (1975). Unmasking the face. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Ekman, P. and Oster, H. (1979). Facial expression of emotion. Annual Review of Psychology, 30, 527-554. Furuyama, N. (2000) Gestural interaction between the instructor and the learner in origami instruction, In McNeill, D. (ed.) Language and gesture, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 99- 118. Highlen, P. S, & Hill, C. E. (1984). Factors affecting client change in individual counseling: Current status and theoretical speculation. In S. Brown & R. Lent (Eds.), Handbook of counseling psychology. New York: Wiley. Ting-Toomey, S. (1999). Communicating across cultures. New York: The Guildford Press Webb, G. (2005). Internationalisation of curriculum: an institutional approach in J. Carroll and J. Ryan (Eds). Teaching international students: Improving learning for all. Abingdon: Routledge