Intercultural training

Islamophobic sentiments in the Western world have gained scientific attention, particularly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. However, the effects of religious stigma on Muslim minorities’ identity formation have rarely been studied. Using structural equation modeling, this cross-sectional study examined direct and indirect effects of different forms of religious stigma on the national affiliation of 210 Norwegian-Pakistani and 216 German-Turkish Muslims. Furthermore, the study examined the mediator role of religious identity. Our results suggest that being a Muslim in Norway is more reconcilable with affiliating with the nation than being a Muslim in Germany. However, across the samples, the results indicated that various forms of religious stigma affected Muslims’ national identity and engagement in the public and private sphere in distinct ways. These effects were both positive and negative, differed between the two samples, and in Germany, were mediated by the participants’ religious identity. The findings indicated that the ways in which religious stigma influences Muslims’ national affiliation is context and culture bound.

Auto desk architecture interior course gives you opportunity to make future in following job prospects : 

1) Designing of products and systems for service providers
2) Agriculture and food processors
3) Government agencies
4) Research and development centres
5) Sales and marketing of new products
6) Patent development
7) Product research and development

L’expérience de la diversité culturelle fait aujourd’hui partie de la réalité quotidienne de la plupart des professionnels des métiers de l’humain, au nombre desquels les enseignants dont le rôle d’acteurs et de médiateurs culturels s’en trouve fortement ébranlé. L’offre de formation interculturelle des enseignants s’est étoffée ces dernières années dans notre pays, profitant notamment de la création des Hautes Ecoles Pédagogiques. Comment concevoir ces formations interculturelles ? Pour les formateurs d’enseignants, la connaissance des questions que pose l’interculturalité dans les contextes scolaires est bien sûr incontournable. Mais il leur est également indispensable de connaître leurs propres étudiants : quelles sont leurs représentations de l’interculturalité, à travers lesquelles sera « filtrée » la formation reçue ? En suivant un groupe d’étudiants tout au long de leur formation initiale, la recherche présentée dans cet article a comme objectif de rendre compte des questions que les étudiants, futurs enseignants, se posent – ou ne se posent pas – par rapport à la différence culturelle, une problématique à laquelle ils seront très probablement confrontés dans leur future pratique professionnelle. Les premières analyses permettent déjà de voir la diversité avec laquelle de futures enseignantes donnent sens à la différence culturelle, laissant entrevoir le besoin de formations interculturelles adaptées, et donc différenciées.

Based on language as a parameter; see <ethnologue.org> for the latest figure. 30 Dept. of Economic and Social Affairs (2009). 31 This was pointed out by the Worldwatch Institute, Washington, already in the 1990s (Biehahn 1993). Since language is a criterion, it should be noted that UNESCO reports 2500 endangered languages (Moseley 2010; Huaman 2011).

In this essay I examine the racial achievement gap in American education in terms of an impaired psychosocial developmental process. I argue that the well-documented academic underperformance of certain minority groups may stem from the unfavorable resolution of a key developmental crisis in constituent members’ early scholastic experience. I go on to suggest that individual educators can play an important role in eliminating the achievement gap by changing the way they teach in their own classrooms. In part, they may do so by adopting a "transcultural" pedagogy or teaching style, according to which both teachers and their minority students develop (at minimum) transcultural proficiencies and (at maximum) transcultural identities, as a promising way to achieve two important ends. First, the fostering of an academically-industrious self-concept in members of historically underachieving minority groups and hence, second, the closing of the achievement gap "from the bottom up"—one classroom at a time.

The political and spatial reorganization brought about by the progressive consolidation of the Spanish Estado de las Autonomías (State of Autonomies) is in line with a model of 'multiple ethnoterritorial concurrence'. This model relates sociopolitical sub-state ethnic mobilization to the competitive interplay among Spanish regions and nationalities pursuing political and economic power, as well as the achievement of the legitimation for their institutional development. Ten 'axioms' 'premises', 'principles', and 'rules' are identified as being mainly responsible for setting the conceptual boundaries of the type of plural competition and solidarity put into play in decentralized Spain.

The conflict in families disputing child custody cases across international borders continues to grow worldwide resulting in an epidemic of parental abduction. Governments and international bodies continue to work toward creating effective solutions through cross border family mediation programs. Ensuring a voluntary process that does not culturally alienate or marginalize participants is a challenge that often creates ethical dilemmas that may go unnoticed, minimized or ignored. When an individual is marginalized or disenfranchised during any alternative dispute resolution process as a result of cultural dilemmas, inequitability is created. Cultural bias and ignorance limits or prevents creative exploration of problem solving strategies, forcing parties into predesigned agreements. In 2012, the Hague Bureau on Private International Law released the first publication on mediation standards and guide for cross border family mediation as an extension of international family law. Building on these efforts, this paper provides a look at how culture shapes identity and influences problem solving in a multicultural context through a review of the literature and actual case examples.

A 15-month national research study of the effectiveness of cross-cultural training (CCT) in the Australian public and community sectors has produced statistically significant evidence that CCT is of
direct benefit to employees, their organisations and their clients.

The study, which involved a review of the literature, consultations with 195 stakeholders and five surveys involving 718 managers, trainers and participants, has also identified policy, planning and performance issues regarding the future provision of CCT.

Knjiga Interkulturalna interakcija i razvoj interkulturalne osetljivosti predstavlja savremeno i obuhvatno štivo, kojim se na kvalitetan način nadomešta nedostatak literature iz ove oblasti na srpskom govornom području. Knjiga je značajan referentni izvor za istraživače iz više naučnih disciplina i oblasti, nastavnike (u preduniverzitetskom i univerzitetskom obrazovanju), studente, organizacije u oblasti obrazovanja i međunarodne saradnje, ali i za sve one koji žele da bolje razumeju kulturne razlike i različite fenomene u domenu interkulturne interakcije. Autorka znalački vodi čitaoca od suočavanja sa značenjem osnovnih pojmova, preko teorijskih razmatranja i empirijskih istraživanja, do fokusa na oblikovanje obrazovne prakse koja je namenjena razvoju interkulturalne osetljivosti (prof. dr Blagica Zlatković).
Ova originalna i zanimljiva knjiga pruža obilje korisnih informacija o procesima i efektima interakcije između različitih kultura, korisnih za istraživače iz oblasti psihologije, sociologije, antropologije, ekonomije, politikologije, kao i za proučavaoce kulture, međunarodnih odnosa, međunarodnih studija, diplomatije i druge. Njena posebna vrednost leži u tome što ona može biti podjednako korisna i praktičarima. Zainteresovan čitalac u ovoj knjizi može naći odgovore na različita pitanja, među kojima su ona koja se tiču činilaca koji otežavaju uspešnu interkulturalnu interakciju i komunikaciju, strategija kojima pojedinci ili grupe određenog kulturnog nasleđa pribegavaju kada se nađu u novom i drugačijem kulturnom okruženju, kao i pitanja postojanja individualnih razlika u uspešnosti u interkulturalnoj interakciji (prof. dr Sunčica Macura Milovanović)

El presente manual responde a la intención de fundamentar teóricamente y aportar recursos didácticos las acciones de formación encaminadas a capacitar para dirigir y gestionar el factor humano multicultural en las organizaciones. El Proyecto Capital Humano Multicultural ha intentado fundamentar teóricamente el fenómeno de la interculturalidad en la empresa. Concretamente el presente manual pretende ayudar a los directivos de organizaciones, responsables de personal y técnicos de recursos humanos para que gestionar de manera equitativa e integrada sus plantillas culturalmente diversas. Así mismo, consideramos que el presente manual puede ser una útil guía para los agentes de intermediación laboral en cuanto a que al incrementar el conocimiento sobre las necesidades y estrategias para una mejora en las competencias interculturales, podrán diseñar y ejecutar acciones de orientación para la inserción de sus usuarios que respondan a estos determinantes. Este manual no es un curso a distancia, no es una obra teórica, pretende ser un recurso para que las personas responsables de actividades y programas formativos puedan programar e impartir acciones de formación. Ello implica la aportación de ¿ Una base conceptual ¿ Actividades formativas

Intercultural communication is the study and practice of communication across cultural contexts. It applies equally to domestic cultural differences such as ethnicity and gender and to international differences such as those associated with nationality or world region. Intercultural communication is an approach to relations among members of these groups that focuses on the recognition and respect of cultural differences, seeks the goal of mutual adaptation leading to biculturalism rather than simple assimilation, and supports the development of intercultural sensitivity on the part of individuals and organizations to enable empathic understanding and competent coordination of action across cultural differences. The following paragraphs expand on the definitions of " communication " and " cultural context " based on principles of constructivism [See the section on " Constructivism " for a definition and discussion of that term], and then summarize the development of intercultural sensitivity as the basis for exercising competent intercultural communication. Communication Communication is much more than a simple transmission of information: it is the mutual creation of meaning. Information is not, in itself, meaningful; it is only when information is intended and interpreted in some way that it attains significance. For instance, if you are telling me about a movie you just saw, you probably intend for me to understand what the movie is about and also something about your experience and evaluation of it. You pose the information in a language I know, use references to concepts and other films I might know, and in conveying your feeling you assume that I am able and willing to access your experience. For my part, I try to interpret the information in the way you intended it by using common meanings for words and concepts and by recognizing both our common experience of similar events and the uniqueness of your personal experience in this particular event. Of course, the exchange described above is an ideal that is seldom achieved in one pass (or many). What usually happens is that my interpretation is both more and less than what you intended. It is less in my probable failure to assign exactly similar meaning to words and concepts that you use, and it is more in that I probably project many of my own feelings about similar events onto your description. In my response (feedback) to your message, you may recognize some of my discrepant interpretation and correct it. Assuming that this is not your first communication with someone like me, you may have already anticipated some of my likely misinterpretation by tailoring your message to me in the first place. So both your intention and my interpretation are in play as we attempt to negotiate a mutually acceptable match. The final meaning of the communication event is neither just your intention nor simply my interpretation; it is our mutual creation of an agreeable position. Culture The sense of " culture " used in intercultural communication is that of " worldview. " Culture is a generalization about how a group of people coordinate meaning and action among themselves. One way they do that is through institutions such as religious, political, and economic systems, and family and USA & Europa www.idrinstitute.org

In the post-cold war era the concept of culture has moved to the centre of attention in international politics; it has even been claimed by some to be the main source of conflict in the new global order. Others argue that culture has been instrumentalized as an excuse in the War on Terrorism which was actually fought over geopolitical spheres of influence. The focus of the chapter is, however, not primarily political but educational. In the aftermath of the war, soldiers and other military personnel have found themselves in complex situations in regions of the world they know little about. To ameliorate this situation, training programmes have been designed to enhance intercultural competence in members of the armed forces. The analysis of such an intercultural training programme, Alelo’s Virtual Cultural Awareness Trainer, aims to show that culture is used in this context to divert attention away from political conflicts and interests. It serves as a tool for the conceptualization of the ‘other’ and as a resource to make them subject to control and intervention (Said 1983). The instrumentalization of culture raises, however, not only questions in relation to particular ideologies perpetuated in the context of military interventions and deployment but also about discourses of interculturality in general that envisage intercultural competencies as context-independent and measurable skills dispositions. I will argue that intercultural learning and increased empathy can only take place through embodied learning in particular contexts in which people have reasons to value specific courses of action over others.

Culture shock is a state of bewilderment that occurs when a person is suddenly exposed to a different culture and way of life. Unfamiliar welcomes and hand gestures, unusual food, challenging language difficulties, getting lost in a new city, or creating a cultural faux pas because you were unfamiliar with the local culture can all contribute to it. Confusion, worry, irritation, loneliness, and homesickness can all be signs of unfamiliarity. It can even because physical symptoms like insomnia caused by time zone changes, as well as colds and stomach illnesses caused by foreign foods and bacteria.

As a result of China's growing participation and importance in the process of internationalization and globalization a continuously rising number of Chinese students has gone abroad for further study. By the end of the last decade the number of Chinese students abroad made up the largest group of international students in the USA (surpassing those from India) and during the next decade this group will become the world's largest floating student population. Because of its size and the growing recognition of China and Chinese culture around the world, research on a wide range of problem areas among Chinese students abroad has been initiated, especially in Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand, the USA and Hong Kong. This article looks at the variety of research issues and attempts to provide a first overview in the light of international and comparative research on international students, their mobility and their recognition by host countries as well as their influence as cultural 'irritators'.

La formation et l’évaluation des compétences des enseignants pour agir en contexte de diversité interpellent autant les décideurs gouvernementaux que les milieux universitaires et scolaires. Cet article porte un regard comparatif transversal sur la formation du personnel scolaire en matière de diversité, d’équité et des rapports ethniques en éducation en France, au Québec, en Belgique francophone et en Suisse, notamment dans les politiques, référentiels de compétences, dispositifs, programmes, cours et contenus de formation. Ce regard comparatif sur quatre sociétés de la francophonie montre que chaque contexte a développé un discours, des orientations et des dispositifs de formation assez différents sur ces questions, mais quand même réunis par certaines lignes de convergence.

In konkreten Unterrichtsvorschlägen werden Möglichkeiten aufgezeigt, interkulturelle bzw. transkulturelle Kompetenz im Französischunterricht gezielt aufzubauen. Eine ausführliche Einführung gibt dem Unterrichtenden fachwissenschaftliche Hinweise und Tipps für die didaktisch-methodische Umsetzung. Auf der CD-ROM befinden sich Arbeitsblätter für den Einsatz im Unterricht.

Our understanding of the cross-cultural aspects of personal epistemology is limited. In particular, cross-cultural comparisons of elementary school teachers’ and students’ personal epistemology have received very little theoretical or empirical attention. The current chapter aims to examine German and U.S. elementary schools in terms of their philosophical and practical similarities and differences in personal epistemology. Both theoretical and empirical work will be reviewed to support a more holistic model of personal epistemology, the Educational Model of Personal Epistemology. In light of this model, we discuss our expectations for differences and similarities in the epistemic climate of elementary classrooms in the U.S. and Germany. Drawing from this discussion, we suggest that researchers should approach cross-cultural research in personal epistemology from a more holistic standpoint, employ a diversity of methods, and obtain a solid understanding of the educational context under study. Regarding educational implications, we propose a possible fusion of the educational philosophies held in the U.S. and Germany concerning the implementation of teacher training and classroom education. Finally, we recommend that fostering evaluativistic thinking (i.e., a way of knowing that focuses on the evaluation and decision-making among differing viewpoints) should be a main goal for education starting at the elementary level to ensure students’ future roles as productive citizens in Western societies and stress the role of the teacher in this endeavor.

L'approccio universalista della nostra scuola si deve oggi misurare e coniugare con le specificità e le storie di coloro che la abitano e con le trasformazioni della popolazione scolastica, intervenute in questi anni. Una di queste trasformazioni, forse la più rilevante, riguarda la presenza crescente nelle aule scolastiche dei bambini e dei ragazzi che hanno una storia , diretta o famigliare, di migrazione.
Una "Buona scuola" è una scuola buona per tutti e attenta a ciascuno.
Una "Buona scuola" è una scuola che produce uguaglianza.

Every person has his or her own individual way to learn and to solve problems in day-to-day situations. These personal cognitive strategies, acquired in a long socialization process are called ''learning styles'' and may differ depending on gender, age or culture.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the nature of the barriers and problems in intercultural communication that arise from our perception of the interlocutor, i.e. from the image of "Other". These problems concern the projection of our own desires and expectations in the image of another person, the conclusion based on wrong assumptions, the categorization of people based on stereotypes and prejudices. Based on the dialectics of Franco-German relations, I will show that a radical positive change of the image and perception of the Other is possible. I will also explore and explain the concept of stereotypes, as they have, especially ethnic, a tremendous impact on the way we experience those who do not belong to our ethnic, national or cultural community. I will explain the causes of forming, functions and types of stereotypes by comparing and analyzing the available scientific sources. I will also explain their specific functions in intercultural communication. Finally, based on the findings, I will make recommendations for communication barriers avoiding and improving communication quality.
Key words: intercultural communication, intercultural barriers, stereotypes, prejudices, identity, ethnocentrism, images of the Other, imagology, French - German relations, European Union

APSTRAKT

Cilj ovog rada je istraživanje barijera i problema u interkulturnoj komunikaciji koji proističu iz načina našeg viđenja sagovornika, odnosno iz slike “Drugog”. Ovi problemi tiču se projektovanja vlastitih želja i očekivanja u sliku o drugoj osobi, zaključivanja na osnovu pogrešnih pretpostavki, kategorizacije ljudi na osnovu stereotipa i predrasuda. Na osnovu dijalektike francusko- nemačkih odnosa pokazaću da je radikalna, pozitivna promena slike o Drugom moguća. Istražiću i objasniti koncept stereotipa, budući da su oni, naročito etnički, od ogromnog uticaja na način kako doživljavamo one koji ne pripadaju našoj etničkoj, nacionalnoj ili kulturnoj zajednici. Objasniću uzrok nastanka, pojavne oblike, funkcije i vrste upoređujući i analizirajući dostupne naučne izvore. Takođe ću objasniti njihove specifične funkcije u interkulturnoj komunikaciji. Na kraju ću, na osnovu dobijenih zaključaka, dati preporuke kako da se barijere u interkulturnoj komunikaciji izbegnu, time i njen kvalitet poboljša.
Ključne reči: interkulturna komunikacija, barijere, stereotipi, predrasude, etnocentrizam, identitet, slike o Drugom, imagologija, nemačko – francuski odnosi, Evropska unija

Japan has faced educational challenges associated with diversifying immigrant students for the last few decades since the government opened up the door to unskilled migrant workers. Despite the country's strong emphasis on egalitarian education, a large academic gap between Japanese and immigrant students suggests unequal distribution of educational opportunities. The goal of this chapter is to provide an overview of immigrant children's educational experiences and family processes in Japan. After presenting demographic and descriptive information about immigrants and immigrant students in Japan, I present trends and issues related to immigrant children's academic and school experiences. Based on literature review, I point out structural elements that bring challenges to immigrant students' academic processes and immigrant family efforts in supporting their children's education in Japan. The chapter concludes with discussion, suggestions for future studies, and recommendations for educational practices.

This lecture deals with the following 6 topics:
1) Presentation of the notion of “culture” and concrete examples.
2) Discussion of the notion of “cultural identity” is.
3) The scope of intercultural (or “cross-cultural”) communication.
4) Typical and recurrent obstacles that impede a successful intercultural communication.
5) (Negative or positive) impact of cultural (mis)communication
6) Possibilities to improve intercultural communication.

This is the pre-print version of the following publication:  https://www.igi-global.com/book/intercultural-foreign-language-teaching-learning/214898

By and large, culture has been approached from two widely different perspectives in intercultural communication and training, generally known as essentialist (associated with authors like Hall, 1976; Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov, 2010; Meyer, 2015) and non-essentialist approaches (e.g. Dervin, 2009; Hoffman & Verdooren, 2018; Holliday, 2013). Following some theoretical considerations, it is shown how two intercultural training activities can be applied from both essentialist and non-essentialist perspectives. Next, the paper argues that a non-essentialist approach to training adopts a dynamic notion of culture and pays attention to the complex and multiple identities of the self and the other. This is realized (1) by considering all factors, in addition to culture, which might impact the interaction; (2) by including the full gamut of human interactions, not merely focusing on difference and problematic interactions; and (3) by putting personal experience at the center and aiming at raising self-awareness, instead of focusing mainly on ‘the other’. Taking the next step, the paper argues how even cultural frameworks with origins in essentialist thinking can be applied in non-essentialist trainings as a heuristic device for articulating and jointly examining intercultural experiences. Two case studies of non-essentialist intercultural trainings conducted by the authors are discussed by way of illustration. The first involves Cuban academics with a management role in a capacity building project with Flemish universities (Belgium); the other is directed at Dutch university students participating in a study abroad program.

Films are considered as very valuable tool to classroom learning in a course on cross-cultural management as they communicate through their characters, story, context, dialogues and audioeffects at several levels to students. Films help students to internalize situations which they might not have experienced personally; hence help them to connect with various theories and concepts. This paper is an attempt to understand challenges coming in way of using popular movies in teaching course Managing Cross-Cultural Issues to MBA students. Two Hollywood movies Outsourced (2006, director-John Jeffcoat) and My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002, director-Joel Zwick) were used as teaching cases in the above mentioned course. Different clips from the selected movies were shown in the classroom in different sessions throughout the course and students were asked to write a reflection note on their classroom learning. Qualitative content analysis of students' reactions in their classroom learning notes reveals that students could connect content of movies to cultural theories and concepts very well and found movies very valuable and relevant to the course Managing Cross-Cultural Issues. This paper attempts to reflect on course instructor's perspective on selected movies as teaching resource and students' perception on learning effectiveness of popular movies in management classroom.

Sumario 1. ¿Una diversidad nueva? 2. La Mediación Intercultural (MI) como respuesta a la diversidad cultural. 3. Función, competencias profesionales y potencialidades de la MI. 4. Panorama general de la mediación intercultural en España. 5. Algunas reflexiones para no concluir. La mediación intercultural y la puerta hacia otro mundo posible 134 Documentación Social 148 Palabras clave: Mediación intercultural, diversidad cultural y religiosa, inmigración, resolución de conflictos, interculturalidad. ABSTRACT Intercultural mediation (IM) emerged very quickly in Spain as a response to cultural and religious diversity associated with immigration. However, cultural and religious diversity already existed in Spain, albeit less visibly (and in a much more concealed manner). What has changed with immigration is without doubt the perception of diversity, which no longer provides us with the refuge of ignorance and lack of responses. As a result of: -said ignorance of diversity, including ignorance of the very existence of diversity, and the consequent incapacity to dialogue with and recognise the «different» person -the incapacity to recognise ourselves in everyone, regardless of the real or apparent differences -sthe lack of adequate institutional and political responses to the needs and rights of people, families and society itself -sand even the social inequality in Spanish society, a historical phenomenon which predates the arrival of migrants IM has become indispensable as an instrument to facilitate mutual knowledge and understanding, to resolve conflicts and to build a society of common ground, involvement, and, ultimately, an intercultural society.

Abstact
The purpose of this study is to explore the factors influencing the development of intercultural competence among business students
at a Canadian university. A sequential mixed methods methodology is
utilized which includes:  1) a survey designed specifically for the current study, the Intercultural Competence among Canadian Business Students survey (ICCBS),  2) the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) (Ang, Van Dyne, Koh, Templer, Tay, & Chandrasekar, 2007), and 3) telephone interviews conducted with study participants. The research results indicate that although the university's business program does feature international content, few program components per se raise intercultural awareness.  According to participants, program components that explicitly raise their awareness about cultural differences, however, do improve their intercultural competence. The following program variables have the strongest positive association with study participants' self-ranked and reported intercultural competence development: comparisons of business practices in different cultural contexts; textbooks, articles, or videos originating from other countries; and extra-curricular activities. Participants view
the university's diverse setting as a valuable natural resource. However, the majority of students interviewed identify other students' attitudes as the key barrier to intercultural competence development. Data gathered in response to open-ended survey items and through interviews illuminate missed opportunities for developing intercultural competence, among business students. The CQS findings underscore
the need for including more intercultural learning opportunities. Research findings surprisingly indicate no statistical association
between participants' self-ranked intercultural competence and their composite CQ, even though CQ is measured with high reliability and the self-ranked competence seems subject to little social desirability. Together, these research results have important implications for business curriculum and co-curricular development, intercultural competence assessment and development, and future research.

The aim of this paper is to propose a heuristic field-map to navigate mission practitioners seeking to enter into an authentic and Christian encounter with non-Christian religious worldviews. Using Han Frei’s Types of Theology, I hope to encourage an Evangelical outlook that empowers a range of context-specific responses that are deemed tenable within diverse Evangelical traditions.

Intercultural Trainings have been regarded as an integral and effective preparation for international assignments. This book takes into account the current situation in Germany and highlights the missing theoretical basis and evaluates future perspectives of these specific preparation programmes. Beside this also an annotated bibliography is included.

Films are used as a tool for teaching cross-cultural and intercultural concepts in higher education and in corporate settings. However, the processes and outcomes of using films in intercultural training and education have not been systematically researched. This paper discusses the results of a collaborative project involving faculty and students from two universities, a large public university in the Midwestern United States and a private university in India. The goal of this action research project was to further develop a methodological approach to using a feature film, Outsourced, in teaching cross-cultural concepts to graduate students, and to understand how different cultural contexts affect the effectiveness of the use of films. The project involved development and implementation of the new approach and research on the factors affecting the effectiveness of using films in cross-cultural training.

The Desana Treasure has been well known since its discovery, or rather, since it was purchased on the antiques market in 1938 by the ‘Museo Civico di Arte Antica’ in Turin. The composition of the Desana treasure shows that is was ‘collected’ over centuries. A ring with gemstone and a chain from the 2/3rd century are the oldest elements and objects from early 6th century the most recent. The latter give the date for the burial. Though, most objects are from the late 5th / early 6th century AD, that is from the reign of Theoderich the Great. The composition of the Desana treasure is interesting from another point of view as well. There are male and female dress adornments and silverware in the form of spoons. This new analysis of the Desana treasure allows a fresh view on this complex and offers insights into society in Ostrogothic Italy, especially into the relationship between old Latin landowners and Ostrogothic nobility. The detailed description and photographs of the 51 objects give valuable information regarding the goldsmith’s art, which is extremely important because of the lack in Italy of burials of the same value belonging to that period. So, this description is crucial for future research about goldsmith’s workshops in the late antique Mediterranean.

Nuestro mundo global lleno de movimiento, caos e interacción ha hecho tomar
protagonismo a un fenómeno que ha acompañado a la humanidad desde que existen
los movimientos humanos y las relaciones interculturales, parejas a ellos: la
multiculturalidad. La presencia de inmigrantes, refugiados, transferidos, estudiantes
internacionales, etc, en las organizaciones, empresas, centros educativos y vecindarios
comporta retos y necesidades tanto para estas personas como para las personas de la
sociedad de acogida. Al abordar la cuestión del desempeño profesional en las
organizaciones multiculturales surgen una serie de cuestiones como: ¿Qué implica la
integración en una empresa intercultural?, ¿Qué significado debemos otorgar a la
cultura en este contexto?, ¿Cuáles serían las competencias interculturales que
permiten la integración en la empresa intercultural?, ¿Cómo se desarrollan? Las
siguientes páginas mostrarán las respuestas que hemos planteado a las mismas.

A cultural generalization is a statement about a group of people. For instance, saying that US Americans tend to be more individualistic compared to many other cultural groups is an accurate generalization about that group. A cultural generalization may become a stereotype if it is definitively applied to individual members of the group. For instance, it would be stereotyping a particular person to assume that he or she must be individualistic by virtue of being a US American. The term "stereotype" refers to a metallic template used in printing repetitive copies of something. As it is used in the context of intercultural communication, a cultural stereotype is a rigid description of a group (all people of Group X are like this) or, alternatively stated, it is the rigid application of a generalization to every person in the group (you are a member of X, therefore you must fit the general qualities of X). Stereotypes can be avoided to some extent by using cultural generalizations as only tentative hypotheses about how an individual member of a group might behave. We cannot and should not avoid making cultural generalizations. Generalizations are an inherent part of human perception. Every describable object of perception has been assigned to a category that associates it with other assumedly similar objects and contrasts it with other assumedly different objects. For instance, horses may be assigned to the category of domesticated work animals, similar to oxen and camels, but different than pets such as cats and parrots. Horses may also (or alternatively) belong to the category of food animals (along with cows and goats) in contrast to the category of competitive animals such as roosters and dogs. But there cannot be a horse or any other object of perception without some set of associations. The idea of " culture " is itself a categorization of people. In fact, it is impossible to refer to a group at all without making a generalization about what qualities are shared by members of the group. But like horses, people could be assigned to different cultural categories depending on what criteria are used for comparing them to other groups. Also, individual members vary in the degree to which they share the group's common characteristics. To deny that variation-to assume that every individual is a static representative of a single group-is the essence of stereotyping. It is possible to make accurate generalizations about prevalent qualities of a group without stereotyping individuals in the group. Accurate generalizations are based on the measurement of a chosen set of cultural criteria (for instance, " styles " or " values ") in a large number or a random sample of individuals. This process either generates groups based on similar patterns of criteria, or it describes the patterns that exist within a group based on other criteria, such as national boundaries. If the generalization rests on too small a sample, it may describe some unusual quality that is not represented widely in the group as a whole. This is why it is not a good idea to generalize from having met a few members of an existing group; they probably are not representative of the group. Basing a generalization purely on personal experience is likely to be inaccurate, but inaccuracy is not the basis of stereotyping. It is when generalizations – accurate or inaccurate – are rigidly applied to individuals that they become stereotypes.

This study aims at answering the question: “What is the culturally appropriate Cooperative Learning in the context of Asian-Confucian Heritage Cultures with special reference given to Viet Nam?”.

This study links theory directly to practice by formulating nine concrete CL instructional design principles to be considered in curriculum and task design with Vietnamese students in particular, and Asian-CHC learners in general, as target group. These principles are:

Principle 1: Consider including a mechanism for appointing a group leader.
Principle 2: Be aware that interpersonal competence is a leadership trait that is highly valued.
Principle 3: Consider applying reward structures on the basis of equality.
Principle 4: Consider using teacher approval as a valuable form of reward.
Principle 5: Consider avoiding the use of public disapproval towards individuals.
Principle 6: Consider the use of groupings based on friendship or other types of positive        social relationship.
Principle 7: Try to develop and foster new and cohesive groupings for students who do not                share a high degree of social attachment before undertaking CL activities.
Principle 8: Consider creating sufficient face-confirmation for each individual within group.
Principle 9: Consider creating milder types of face-confrontation between groups. This should be practised with an attentive role of the teacher to maintain a healthy learning environment.

The book addresses the issue of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) as a goal and desired outcome of the process of L2 learning and teaching, particularly in the very complex and controversial context of English as a foreign language. The book focuses on EFL learners in formal educational contexts in Serbia, and on the 'receiving' end of the communication channel, that is, the question of how EFL learners construct meaning through the interpretation of various cues in intercultural encounters. The monograph presents three previously unpublished empirical studies in which qualitative methodology was applied. The author emphasizes the importance of the study of spoken communication, in which, in addition to the issues of genre and register, level of formality, verbal and non-verbal elements of face-to-face communication and conversational context, the role of prosody is a particularly important but insufficiently investigated aspect. In these three studies, special attention is paid to the interpretation of prosodic cues by the participants, and the participants' awareness of the role played by intonation and other prosodic cues in communicating and interpreting meaning.

The Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) created by Milton J. Bennett is a grounded theory based on constructivist perception and communication theory. It assumes that the experience of reality is constructed through perception, and that more complex perceptual categories yield more complex (sophisticated) experience. Specifically, the DMIS assumes that we are constructing boundaries of "self" and "other" in ways that guide our experience of intercultural events. The most ethnocentric construction, Denial, is one wherein only vague categories of "other" are available for perceiving people from different cultural contexts. At the other end of the continuum, the most ethnorelative construction of Integration supposes that complex self/other categories are incorporated into one's personal identity and into decision-making regarding ethicality in multicultural relations. This entry describes the theory and application of DMIS to diagnosis and intervention, including some discussion of measuring intercultural sensitivity and the main criticisms of the model and its measurement. Main Text Following a process of grounded theory development, the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (Bennett, M., 1986, 2013) codified observations about people who were becoming more competent intercultural communicators in both academic and corporate settings. These initial observations were made for the purpose of determining "what to do next" in intercultural training programs. The idea was to observe the sequence of competence acquisition, and then to apply a coherent theoretical structure that could explain the development in terms of movement through different stages. (The term "stage" referred to sequential positions along a continuum, not discrete conditions.) With that theory in hand, it would be possible to diagnose where people were along the continuum and to facilitate movement in terms of the theoretical structure. Describing a developmental process required specifying an ultimate goal of intercultural training. Based on the then-prevailing consensus of intercultural practitioners, the goal of training was to enable more competent communication in alternative cultural contexts. Secondary goals included applications of intercultural communication competence to activities such as intercultural mediation and conflict resolution, interethnic (gender, sexual orientation) equity, multicultural team or global organization leadership, multicultural classroom teaching, health care delivery, etc. The original observations that www.idrinstitute.org

Štampa: "Stojkov štamparija d.o.o. ", Laze Nančića 34-36, Novi Sad Copyright: Zavod za kulturu Vojvodine, 2012. Tiraž: 500 ČASOPIS IZLAZI POD POKROVITELJSTVOM POKRAJINSKOG SEKRETARIJATA ZA KULTURU I JAVNO INFORMISANJE VLADE AP VOJVODINE 5 INTERCULTURALITY Magazine for stimulation and affirmation of intercultural communication Publisher: Institute of culture for Vojvodina, Vojvode Putnika 2, Novi Sad, phone no. +381 21 4754148, 4754128, zkvrazvoj@nscable.net President and Chief Executive Officer: Tibor Vajda Editor-in-Chief: Aleksandra Đurić Bosnić, M.Phil.