{"id":2442,"date":"2025-06-03T14:36:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T06:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gs.eduhk.hk\/?post_type=event-highlight&p=2442"},"modified":"2025-08-21T11:14:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T03:14:13","slug":"deconstructing-intercultural-communicative-competence-through-interactional-practices","status":"publish","type":"event-highlight","link":"https:\/\/gs.eduhk.hk\/zh-hant\/event-highlight\/deconstructing-intercultural-communicative-competence-through-interactional-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"Deconstructing Intercultural Communicative Competence through Interactional Practices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


Professor Agnes Weiyun He presented a transformative framework for understanding intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in her June 3 seminar at The Education University of Hong Kong. Grounded in conversation analysis, she reconceptualised ICC not as an individual trait but as a co-constructed phenomenon<\/em> emerging through real-time dialogue, where interactional competence (IC1) and intercultural competence (IC2) dynamically index each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The seminar illuminated how observable IC1 practices\u2014such as turn-taking patterns in Chinese second language (CSL) role-play\u2014reveal deeper IC2 sensibilities. Some CSL learners were high-scoring as they demonstrated proactive cultural attunement by expanding interactions beyond required responses\u2014initiating follow-up questions and collaboratively constructing dialogue (e.g., “Oh really? Who do you know here?” after a peer\u2019s statement), while low-scoring peers offered minimal responses (“Ah hard<\/em>“), exposing limited perspective-taking. Similarly, Chinese heritage language (CHL) interactions showcased identity negotiations: teenagers deflected Mandarin exchanges with grandparents (“I\u2019m not hungry<\/em>“) yet engaged in Mandarin when asserting academic autonomy (“I\u2019m taking Chinese history cus I want to<\/em>“), illustrating how language choices embody cultural positioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor He introduced five interconnected ICC dimensions observable through conversation: sequential management of conversational flow, categorial navigation of identities, emotional rapport-building, logical reasoning display, and moral positioning. She emphasized emic validation<\/em>\u2014assessing competence through participants\u2019 own interactional meaning-making rather than external rubrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pedagogically, Professor He argued for moving beyond teaching cultural facts toward designing activities where linguistic and intercultural skills co-evolve. She advocated role-plays requiring learners to negotiate cultural boundaries through stance-taking and repair practices. The seminar concluded by positioning digital ethnography as a vital tool for scaling ICC research, echoing Nobel laureate in Literature\u2014Toni Morrison\u2019s enduring axiom that language constitutes the measure of human experience, Nobel laureate in Literature. Attendees engaged in a robust discussion on assessing ICC\u2019s emotional dimension in digital spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Professor Agnes Weiyun He presented a transformative fr … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3082,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"class_list":["post-2442","event-highlight","type-event-highlight","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gs.eduhk.hk\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event-highlight\/2442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gs.eduhk.hk\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event-highlight"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gs.eduhk.hk\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/event-highlight"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gs.eduhk.hk\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gs.eduhk.hk\/zh-hant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}