Block and Thread Intercultural Narratives and Positioning: Conversations with Newly Arrived Postgraduate Students

Autor/inn/en	Amadasi, Sara; Holliday, Adrian
Titel	Block and Thread Intercultural Narratives and Positioning: Conversations with Newly Arrived Postgraduate Students
Quelle	In: Language and Intercultural Communication, 17 (2017) 3, S.254-269 (16 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1470-8477
DOI	10.1080/14708477.2016.1276583
Schlagwörter	Self Concept; Graduate Students; Interviews; Student Attitudes; Study Abroad; Personal Narratives; Intervention; Intercultural Communication; Discourse Analysis; Language Variation; English (Second Language); Second Language Learning; Language Attitudes; Researchers; Foreign Students; Foreign Countries; Qualitative Research; United Kingdom + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Selbstkonzept; Graduate Study; Student; Students; Aufbaustudium; Graduiertenstudium; Hauptstudium; Studentin; Interviewing; Interviewtechnik; Schülerverhalten; Studies abroad; Auslandsstudium; Erlebniserzählung; Interkulturelle Kommunikation; Diskursanalyse; Sprachenvielfalt; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Zweitsprachenerwerb; Sprachverhalten; Researcher; Forscher; Ausland; Qualitative Forschung; Großbritannien
Abstract	This paper considers how, in the process of positioning that is implicit in every interaction, all of us employ multiple and often competing narratives when we talk about cultural identity and our relationships with new cultural environments. In interviews with newly arrived postgraduate students about their experience of travelling to study abroad, the students employ competing block and thread narratives. Block narratives represent an essentialist discourse of culture. As such, they are easily converted into cultural prejudice by blocking the possibility for understanding and sharing at the point of tolerating an Other who can never be like "us". These are default narratives because of the way in which we are brought up in our societies within a global positioning and politics. Thread narratives instead support a critical cosmopolitan discourse of cultural travel and shared meanings across structural boundaries that act against cultural prejudice. Threads need to be nurtured as alternative forms of engagement. Therefore, there is a place for the researchers to intervene with their own thread narratives. This intervention is both allowed within and supported by an understanding that researchers join with their participants in the creative intercultural events of the interview. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01