Language Across Culture

A simile is a figure of speech comparing two unlike things, which is often introduced by like or as. Numerous studies in the field of translation studies have focused on similes. This study offers a comprehensive overview of simile translation research in the last 25 years (2000-2024) based on bibliometric analysis, both in the global and Indonesian context. This study aims: (1) to find out bibliometric information regarding the simile translation research, (2) to find out the prominent topics in simile translation research, and (3) to find out the prominent approaches in simile translation research. This study applied mixed methods, namely quantitative and qualitative. The dataset in this study was obtained from the Scopus database (96 publications) as a global representation and the GARUDA database (62 publications) as a national representation of Indonesia. This study analyzed keywords using Sketch Engine to find prominent topics and approaches in simile translation research. First, this study presents a bibliometric analysis of simile translation research, which includes the number of publications, publishers, journals, types of publications, languages used, and the most widely used references. Second, the topic widely analyzed is simile as a figurative language closely related to metaphors and idioms. Third, the approaches used in simile translation research in the global context are (1) eco-translation, (2) formal and dynamic equivalence, (3) linguo-cultural, and (4) corpus-based. Meanwhile, in the national context of Indonesia, the approaches used are (1) qualitative, (2) cognitive, and (3) functionalist. These findings provide an overview for future studies on trends and gaps in simile translation research.

1. Aims The aims of the present research project were: a. to observe and record spontaneous conversational interaction in informal settings between self-selected members of culturally heterogeneous small groups, specifically, between mixed-gender American and Italian university students and teachers surreptitiously filmed as they chatted together informally in English after a lecture/debate; b. to take one of the features of the video-recorded interaction—here, gaze and head movement—and, using classical research ...

Volume II. A map would also have been useful. The text is generally accurate and fairly well edited, but c Abd al-Dawla (p. I l l) should be c Adud al-Dawla, and Ja c far al-Sadiq died in 765 not in 702-703 (p. 300). Such technical shortcomings restrict the usefulness of what would otherwise be a handy reference work on the political history of Fatimid Syria.

The driving force of the current research runs as follows: Since metaphor is a carrier of thought, culture will be argued to act as a filter in metaphor translating, precluding unexpected, unfamiliar, and shocking knowledge both linguistically and conceptually from being smuggled into the target language and culture. The study aims to show that metaphor translating can be best dealt with from a cultural perspective, isolating cultural knowledge as a guide for decision-making in translating. The significance of the study lies in the fact that metaphor translating should not be monitored by ready-made procedures but should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, with consequences for ready-made procedures and new paths followed in translating. The study will seek to address the following question: How does cultural filtering take affect metaphor translating? The article adopts a three-step framework: (i) measuring cultural knowledge’s compatibility, or lack of it, carried by Source Lan...

Volume II. A map would also have been useful. The text is generally accurate and fairly well edited, but c Abd al-Dawla (p. I l l) should be c Adud al-Dawla, and Ja c far al-Sadiq died in 765 not in 702-703 (p. 300). Such technical shortcomings restrict the usefulness of what would otherwise be a handy reference work on the political history of Fatimid Syria.

Preprint À l'heure des grandes mutations de la profession, d'une pénétration massive des systèmes de traduction automatique dans de nombreux segments de marché voire de la disparition de certains d'entre eux, s'interroger sur la formation à la traduction passe inévitablement par une interrogation sur les perspectives de la profession. À quel avenir professionnel formons-nous les futurs traducteurs ? Et quelle place accorder à la traduction technique, puisqu'est toujours véhiculée d'elle, à tort, l'image de traductions réalisées principalement par transcodage, à coup de correspondances trouvées toutes faites dans les outils terminologiques et autres dont disposent aujourd'hui les traducteurs ? Former à la traduction technique at -il encore un sens (Froeliger 2009b), la pratique de la traduction technique est-elle vouée à se voir remplacée par celle des pré-et postéditions, ou faut-il au contraire attendre des futurs traducteurs une hyper-spécialisation ? Autant de questions en suspens que chacun aborde en fonction de ce qu'il observe ou côtoie, même si de grandes tendances se dessinent. Pour y apporter quelques éléments de réponse, je commencerai par rappeler certaines caractéristiques générales de la traduction technique et de son enseignement, avant de procéder à l'examen de traductions réalisées par des étudiants dans le cadre de leur mémoire de fin de cursus, en tentant de concilier approche processuelle de la traduction et observation de la traduction-produit.

La notion d'empathie, si souvent utilisée aujourd'hui en psychologie sociale, a suscité un intérêt croissant ces dernières années chez les chercheurs en traductologie. Dans cet article, nous examinerons tout d'abord les principaux antécédents historiques du concept d'empathie et étudierons comment elle se manifeste dans la traduction en général et dans le sous-titrage en particulier. Nous analyserons ensuite la relation entre empathie, intelligence émotionnelle, culture et traduction ainsi que le rôle fondamental du traducteur dans l'opération traduisante. Enfin, nous étudierons de près l'empathie et la traduction des éléments non verbaux dans les films.

L1 speakers often accommodate L2 speakers in a phenomenon known as "foreignerdirected speech" (FDS; Hatch, 1978). FDS is frequently employed as a strategy by L1 speakers to adapt their speech when talking to learners of a specific language; it is generally described as a rapport-building behavior that helps L2 speakers understand the conversation better. In a recent questionnaire study, 85% of L1 speakers reported adjusting their English when speaking to L2 speakers (Margić, 2017). Critically, L2 speakers' reports on its consequences or effectiveness were not included. Through Qualtrics Panels, we surveyed 192 L1 speakers of English (Mage= 53 years old; 97 female/94 male/1 no response) and 201 L2 speakers of English (Mage= 37 years old; 100 female/98 male/3 non-binary) using a newly developed questionnaire to determine how speech accommodation is perceived. Contrary to previous findings, over half of our L1 participants reported that they do not change their speech when talking to L2 speakers (61%). Half reported they do not like doing it (52%), and 30% are frustrated when it is expected of them. Consistent with our L1 findings, only a third of L2 participants reported L1 speakers change their speech when talking to them (36%), 47% do not like it, and 64% are frustrated when L1 speakers do not accommodate them. Additionally, 57% report they avoid talking to L1 speakers out of fear of being judged, and 40% say that they have been talked down to by L1 speakers. Individual differences appear to modulate how L1 and L2 speakers use FDS and perceive it: For both groups, we found a relationship between the FDS questionnaire and measures of anxiety, personality, L2 proficiency, as well as the frequency of interactions between L1 and L2 speakers. Results are interpreted in light of Communication Accommodation Theory (Giles & Ogay, 2007).

The driving force of the current research runs as follows: Since metaphor is a carrier of thought, culture will be argued to act as a filter in metaphor translating, precluding unexpected, unfamiliar, and shocking knowledge both linguistically and conceptually from being smuggled into the target language and culture. The study aims to show that metaphor translating can be best dealt with from a cultural perspective, isolating cultural knowledge as a guide for decision-making in translating. The significance of the study lies in the fact that metaphor translating should not be monitored by ready-made procedures but should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, with consequences for ready-made procedures and new paths followed in translating. The study will seek to address the following question: How does cultural filtering take affect metaphor translating? The article adopts a three-step framework: (i) measuring cultural knowledge's compatibility, or lack of it, carried by Source Language metaphor and its target language translation, (ii) triggering of cultural filtering in case of incompatibility, and (iii) comparing cultures based on Hiraga's four-scenario scheme to assess the position of the two cultures in presence. Cultural filtering will be illustrated through concrete examples in disciplines such as politics, economics, and advertising across English and Arabic and written and pictorial metaphors.

The process of word translation evaluated in this study manipulated the word learning method and concreteness of words. The participants were fluent English (L2) speakers whose native language was Japanese (LI). The participants learned new L2 words by rote rehearsal or imagery method. Then the participants were tested on word translation. The translation asymmetry effect (L2 to L1 translation being faster than L1 to L2 translation) predicted by the model of bilingual memory was not demonstrated. The present findings were not consistent with previous studies. It suggested that a modified version of the asymmetry model should take the word retrieval time into account

Les Presses de l'Université d'Ottawa remercient le Conseil des Arts du Canada, le ministère du Patrimoine canadien et l'Université d'Ottawa de l'aide qu'ils apportent à leur programme de publication. « Tous droits de traduction et d'adaptation, en totalité ou en partie, réservés pour tous les pays. La reproduction d'un extrait quelconque de ce livre, par quelque procédé que ce soit, tant électronique que mécanique, en particulier par photocopie et par microfilm, est interdite sans l'autorisation écrite de l'éditeur. »

A lively and thought-provoking conversation with a seminal figure in the field of intercultural communication, on the notion of cultural identity and on the advisability of acquiring a “new, complementary identity” in view of long-term contacts with culturally-diverse people, for example living abroad. Una conversazione animata e approfondita con un storico “guru” della comunicazione interculturale sulla nozione dell'identità culturale e sull'opportunità o meno di acquisire una "nuova identità complementare" da parte di chi avrà rapporti non-occasionali con persone culturalmente diverse, ad es. soggiornando all'estero. .

1. Aims The aims of the present research project were: a. to observe and record spontaneous conversational interaction in informal settings between self-selected members of culturally heterogeneous small groups, specifically, between mixed-gender American and Italian university students and teachers surreptitiously filmed as they chatted together informally in English after a lecture/debate; b. to take one of the features of the video-recorded interaction—here, gaze and head movement—and, using classical research ...

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Accomodating international students successfully Inès Jourde, Alison Mccheyne, Pascale Schmidt-Dubois

This article aims to provide an experimental reading of the autobiography of the Egyptian writer Taha Hussian using concepts from Narrative Inquiry (NI) Methods. As an anthropological material, autobiography presents important cultural features in the given context. Moreover, autobiography used to be an auto-therapy when the writer tells about her/his pains. This research fall in the borderline between literary criticism and the anthropological studies. Through three commonplaces in (NI) i.e. temporality, place, and sociality, I conclude that Hussian gives a unique picture of his childhood as a blind child. At the same time, he gives veiled references to the Egyptian social context in the 19 th century by telling his story.

Abstract
This article focuses on the language accommodation strategies used during interactions between the Zambian citizens and their Chinese counterparts working and living in Zambia. Available literature shows that very few studies have been undertaken on this subject. In this regard, this study sought to find out how the Chinese immigrants and their Zambian hosts managed to communicate despite language barriers. The study was guided by Giles’ Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT). Respondents included Zambians, between the age of 30 and 50 years, who worked and lived with Chinese migrants of the same age brackets. Conversations between the two groups were recorded, transcribed and then analysed. The most prominent accommodation strategies discovered were: accent mobility, the use of simplified words, change of diction, reduplication, the use of the base form of the verb and foreigner talk (baby talk). The results of the sudy have established that the strategies used are consistent with most studies done on language accommodation strategies elsewhere. However, unlike most host communities that expect the migrants to learn the local language and do not put much effort into accommodating the migrants, Zambian citizens seemed to go out of their way to help migrants achieve communication through downward convergence.

ENGLISH:
How to teach the relativity of the concept of 'English', the relationship between language and 'thought', and strategies for adapting one's 'English' to the mind set of one's interlocutor.   
A shortened version of the full paper with the same title, as yet unpublished, delivered at the Pedagogical Forum of the 4th IALIC Conference, Lancaster University, 15.12.2003, and downloadable here:
https://www.academia.edu/462267/Seeing_and_Saying_Things_In_English

This shortened version was given at the CILT Higher Education Conference, University of London, 30.6.2004, and.appeared on the LLAS (Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies website, www.llas.ac.uk.  The site was discontinued.in 2014 but an archived copy of the paper is still conserved on the WayBack machine (see link below).  It is that copy which is made available here.

ITALIANO:
La relatività del concetto di "inglese", il rapporto tra linguaggio e "pensiero", nonché, in virtù di ciò, le strategie per meglio adattare ai propri interlocutori il proprio modo di parlare in inglese.

Abstract: The narrative social-constructionist approach to learning how to communicate interculturally in a second language ('critical cross-cultural capability in an L2') is based on relocating teller and listener in a new world of existential values. Students create personas coherent with the target culture, ones with whom they can readily identify in brief, self-authored oral or written narratives which they then enact in real-life situations. Through'rewriting themselves' the students extend both their own and their interlocutors' ...

Imagine a conversation between an older male professor of British origin, a male African American undergraduate student, and a female postdoctoral student from Switzerland taking place in an American University. Think of the variety of social dimensions involved in this situation: gender, culture and ethnicity, social and occupational status, age, and so forth. How are the different personal and social identities negotiated during the interaction? Who changes his or her communicative style to accommodate whom? What are the outcomes of such accommodating behaviors on the relationship between the interactants? In what follows, we shall make frequent use of this scenario. Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) provides a wide-ranging framework aimed at predicting and explaining many of the adjustments individuals make to create, maintain, or decrease social distance in interaction. It explores the different ways in which we accommodate our communication, our motivations for doing so, and the consequences. CAT addresses interpersonal communication issues, yet also links it with the larger context of the intergroup stakes of an encounter. In other words, sometimes our communications are driven by our personal identities as Janet or Richard while at others-and sometimes within the very same interaction-our words, nonverbals, and demeanor are fueled, instead and almost entirely, by our social identities as members of groups; that is Janet now speaks not so much as the individual Janet but as someone who represents communication scholars to groups of chemists, biologists, and physicists. Since its inception in the early 1970s, CAT has undergone several conceptual refinements and theoretical elaborations, as exemplified by moves from speech into the nonlinguistic (Giles, Mulac, Bradac, & Johnson, 1987). Originally a sociopsychological model exploring accent and 293

Con lo sviluppo della pedagogia si fa corrispondere anche uno sviluppo spaziale che quindi supera la dicotomia contrapposta tra insegnate e alunno in favore di spazi fludi e riadattabili, che vivono del loro rapporto di interconnessione e della possibilità di giocare oltre i confini dell’aula. Considerando questi spazi come formatori tanto quanto gli insegnati la definizione che questo assume va definendo la grande responsabilità dell’architettura. Disegnare gli spazi scolastici non significa più fornire aule di lezione, ma interagire con i numerosi elementi che le compongono sia fisicamente che nella percezione che ne arriva ad avere l’alunno. Si parlerà degli agglomerati relazionali dell’unione di diverse aule, della loro storia, dell’esposizione e degli arredi, di aspetti cognitivi e funzionali.

This paper is a contribution to the debate on children‚s perspective taking skills, addressing the question which kinds of adaptation are related to different functions of children‚s utterances in their everyday life. A longitudinal home-based study of the contents of a child‚s speech focuses on the child‚s growing ability to present new information to his interaction partner. The functions of the child‚s talk are analysed using Halliday‚s (1975, 1994) framework. The results show that the earliest functions of the child‚s talk are predominantly representational, expressing reflections on (shared) experience that do not necessitate perspective taking. Later on, interpersonal functions emerge, involving emotional sharing with the interlocutor, but not necessarily any understanding of the listener‚s mind. Finally, starting with explanations and elaborations of situations observable by both interlocutors, the child becomes increasingly able to convey information which is new to the list...

Ce travail porte sur l’expérience de création de nouveaux diplômes universitaires de Traduction assermentée et les défis qu’implique le fait de privilégier une approche non-canonique qui puisse assurer l’adoption d’une compétence médiatrice comme moyen de développement de la compréhension interculturelle chez les Traducteurs. Une telle gageure, dont l’enjeu est double (épistémologique et politique), nous a emmenées à aborder de vieilles controverses dans le domaine de la traduction. Loin de considérer ces discussions achevées, nous avons choisi la figure du traducteur comme médiateur culturel. Cette décision engendre le besoin d’une prise de conscience interculturelle, qui considère le traducteur comme un acteur social agissant par la parole sur le plan oral ou écrit

The tenor and effort-efficient acquisition of a foreign language sound system remain firmly rooted outside the realms of seamless decryption and readily accessible discenment. The English phonemic repository appears consigned to the preserve of the elect loath to give up the prerogative thus forcing the proverbial hand and pace of the non-native many set off againt the relative native few. The notion of a 'good' accent is often disingenuously relegated to a less pertinent rung of L2 learning, but the contention does remain incintroverible, as evidenced by the routinely unspoken hauteur of those 'in the know', that if one does not move in the same articulatory circles, when the music stops, and stop it shall, if no chair is hastily procured, the one left standing is simply discarded and labelled as not part of the old boy network or the inner circle of appropriacy wihout the perquisite to sit in linguistic judgement. Hope, however, is far from lost. As Percy Bysshe Shelley's The Masque of Anarchy adapted line reads 'We are many, they are few'. Solace should be found in this assertion, but equlity and prestige as well, and in no small measure at that. The paper will delve into the liminal recesses of English pronunciation as generated by L2 English spakers. A germane transcription corpus shall serve as the lynchpin of exemplification for the purpose of an apposite analysis and theoretical discussion.

Sintesi in italiano. Latino sine Flexione, Lingua Ignota, Lingua Romana, Ido, Occidental, Interlingua: il lessico, la sintassi e la morfologia di queste "lingue pianificate" indicano che è arduo intavolare l'invenzione di una lingua a vocazione universale ab ovo: i "logoteti", consciamente o meno, sistematicamente o meno, sono portati a fondare la loro "ideazione" linguistica sugli idiomi che essi già conoscono. Ciò avviene non soltanto attraverso imitazione, ma anche per opposizione: la fonetica del Klingon (una delle lingue di Star Trek), per esempio, è stata progettata per sovvertire le regolarità principali della fonetica inglese, al fine di suonare all'orecchio come particolarmente "aliena". L'articolo evidenzia gli stilemi ricorrenti e le "mosse" combinatorie tipiche attraverso cui si "inventano" la maggior parte delle lingue pianificate; cerca, inoltre, di svelare "l'ideologia semiotica" di molte di queste "invenzioni", un'ideologia secondo cui l'entropia linguistica è una tendenza socioculturale negativa, ma Babele può essere comunque rovesciata, precisamente per mezzo della pianificazione di una lingua la cui struttura principale poggi sulle caratteristiche comuni a un'intera famiglia linguistica. L'articolo enfatizza, in particolar modo, la dialettica fra tale ideologia del linguaggio e quella che, al contrario, vede Babele come una condizione naturale dell'umanità.

English abstract. Latino sine Flexione, Lingua Ignota, Lingua Romana, Ido, Occidental, Interlingua: the lexicon, syntax, and morphology of these 'planned languages' show that it is impossible to plan the invention of a language from scratch: 'planners' are doomed to consciously or unconsciously, systematically or unsystematically, base their linguistic 'invention' on the language(s) they already know. That occurs not only through imitation, but also through opposition: the phonetics of Klingon (one of the languages of Star Trek), for instance, was planned so as to contrast the main rules of English phonetics, in order to sound particularly "alien". The paper points out the main combinatorial 'moves' through which most planned languages are 'invented'; furthermore, it seeks to uncover the 'semiotic ideology' of most of these 'inventions': linguistic entropy is a negative socio-cultural trend, but Babel can be reversed, precisely through the planning of a language whose main structure relies on the common features of a whole family of languages. The dialectics between this semiotic ideology and the one which, on the opposite, sees Babel as a natural condition of humanity, are particularly emphasized. 1 Una versione in inglese del presente articolo è stata accettata per la pubblicazione nella rivista Semiotica, essendo stata presentata presso l'Università di Suzhou, Cina, il 16 gennaio 2019; ringrazio il collega Wang Jun per aver organizzato la conferenza. Ringrazio inoltre il Prof. Fabrizio Pennacchietti per aver letto e commentato una versione iniziale del testo italiano dell'articolo.

Face-to-face interaction has been studied both within sociology and linguistics, as well as within other disciplines. Often has the perspective been too narrow, something which is not compatible with the diverse and dynamic nature of this type of interaction. This narrow view prevents full understanding of interaction. Within this theoretical paper it is suggested that face-to-face interaction has to be studied with a broad perspective; when studying face-to-face interaction it is necessary to acknowledge its dynamic nature and therefore it is necessary to combine knowledge from different disciplines. Within this paper, I combine theories from linguistics and sociology in order to gain a broader perspective upon interaction. What has been missing from earlier research upon face-to-face interaction and upon the competence needed to participate in such interaction is not the knowledge of the different features of interaction but a will to connect them all. Existing concepts for describing the competence needed in order to be able to interact have often failed to describe the dynamic, multi-faceted nature of interaction; there has been a tendency to try to explain everything with just one factor. Within this paper, a more covering concept of the competence needed of an interactant within face-to-face interaction is proposed and sketched; a concept which I name Interaction Competence. This competence is the knowledge and abilities needed of an interactant in order to be able to interact with others. This concept, which can be a valuable analytical tool for analyzing faceto-face interaction, has Dell Hymes' concept of Communicative Competence and Erving Goffman's and Ann Warfield Rawls' concept of Interaction Order as building-blocks and consists of four main areas of competence: Control Body, Command Language, Handle Socio-cultural Knowledge and Understand Interaction Order. Within this paper also the affect of two interactant-external factors: the context and acceptability. Both are found to be highly relevant for the Interaction Competence of an interactant, thus the need for acknowledging the role of sufficient and acceptable Interaction Competence is seen.

ITALIANO (English below):
L'imperialismo linguistico-culturale dell'inglese, nella nostra era globale, va contrastato: (1.) insegnando di più le altre lingue come cultura; (2.) insegnando l'inglese nelle sue diverse varietà, imparate come espressioni di formae mentis anche non anglosassoni, eventualmente inseme a qualche varietà di ELF; (3.) insegnando la competenza multilinguale.   
_________________________________________ .
ENGLISH:
The linguistic-cultural imperialism of English, in our global era, can be contrasted by: (1.) increased teaching of other languages as culture, (2.) teaching the various varieties of English as expressions of (not necessarily Anglo-Saxon) mindsets, together with ELF varieties, as needed; (3.) teaching multilingual competence.

L'editoriale, uscito su "Nuova Secondaria" nel novembre 2017, affronta il tema dell'insegnamento in inglese nelle Università, in base alla recente sentenza della Corte Costituzionale e al rapporto che intercorre tra lingua e pensiero. Considerazioni sempre di attualità, tanto più ora che il Ministero dell'Istruzione, Università e Ricerca chiede che le domande per i Progetti di Ricerca di Interesse Nazionale (PRIN) vengano redatte in lingua inglese e - se lo si ritiene - anche in italiano. In Italia!

This study investigates possible second language (L2) self-identities of 20 Chinese PhD students learning English in China (i.e., English as a Foreign Language—EFL) and in overseas (i.e., English as a Second Language—ESL) contexts. A retrospective case study approach is used to examine self-identity histories. The study reveals that both the ‘ideal L2 self’ and the ‘dreaded L2 self’ were important sources of motivation in learning English in Chinese schooling and overseas education as well as in the lives of these students. Moreover, this study shows both continuity and change in students’ possible self-identities. Specifically, continuity of the ideal L2 self was present over time and across the two contexts for the majority of the students, whereas change from ideal L2 self to dreaded L2 self (or vice versa) was seen in all stages of English learning for a notable minority. These results indicate that successful language learners’ self-identities are multifaceted and that the formation of self-identities is a dynamic process and contingent upon levels of schooling or learning contexts.

Grounded in Norton’s (2013) theory of language learner identity, this study sought to describe the investment in English of female Emirati students enrolled in a pre-sessional English language program at a college in the United Arab Emirates. Participants wrote about and discussed the perceived importance of English in their present and future lives, focusing in particular on the relevance of English for study, work, and everyday communication. Findings suggest that the participants saw English as an important force and tool, with the power to improve their lives. The participants expressed strong investment in English due to its significant role in day-to-day life in the UAE and beyond its borders, the use of English as a medium of instruction at college, and the perceived importance of English for paid employment and caregiving. The findings have implications for research and teaching practice in the UAE context pertaining to the need for, 1) continued critical examination of the use of English as a medium of instruction and ownership of English, 2) greater attention to the multilingual practices, or translanguaging, of Emirati students, and, 3) the intersection of gender with language learning and use.

Grounded in Norton's (2013) theory of language learner identity, this study sought to describe the investment in English of female Emirati students enrolled in a pre-sessional English language program at a college in the United Arab Emirates...

Cours à la Association Nationale des Méditeurs
9/10 Mars 2017 - Paris (France)

L'arrivée d´un très important nombre de migrants dans cette période de l'histoire de l'Europe est
devenue l'un des plus importants défis sociétaux.
La demande pour les agents sociaux et les institutions publiques et privées dans la gestion de la
diversité est en croissance. Dans l'environnement social actuel, les professionnels qualifiés sont
recherchés pour leur compétence à gérer positivement les conflits.
La formation en médiation interculturelle apparaît maintenant comme un instrument essentiel dans la
gestion de cette nouvelle réalité européenne.

La pensée de Charles Taylor s'est élaborée dans la confrontation au phénomène du multiculturalisme propre aux sociétés qui ont connu de fortes immigrations ; l'expérience quotidienne du multiculturalisme de certaines mégalopoles et plus largement, par exemple, du Canada, est loin d'être celle de toutes les sociétés actuelles. Mais même dans les sociétés dans lesquelles cette expérience n'est pas immédiate, on considère que la globalisation appelle néanmoins une compréhension réciproque entre les cultures. Dans les deux cas, cette compréhension est en général simplement destinée à permettre une meilleure communication destinée à faciliter le commerce, et non à comprendre l'autre en tant que tel. C'est pourquoi, comme y invite Fred Dallmayr, il convient de distinguer deux niveaux, respectivement faible et fort, de compréhension. Le premier vise à assurer une « stratégie pragmatique de communication » et les conditions d'un « discours moral universel » afin de penser les conditions formelles capables d'assurer une communication correcte. Une véritable compréhension, un véritable « dialogue herméneutique éthique », vise en revanche à comprendre des modes de pensée et d'être, des styles de vie, étrangers 1 . Quelle en serait la nécessité ? Il est assurément possible de s'intéresser à des modes étrangers et singuliers de vie et de pensée à titre ethnologique. Mais une telle entente n'a en elle-même rien de nécessaire. Elle peut également répondre à une demande de reconnaissance, mais cette entente n'est pas non plus absolument nécessaire, puisque certaines cultures bénéficient déjà de cette reconnaissance. En revanche, aussi trivial que soit le constat, il me semble qu'une entente est aujourd'hui nécessaire à toutes les cultures à propos d'une question précise : la question écologique. La nécessité d'une telle entente tient au fait que les questions de cet ordre ne 1 F. Dallmayr, « Modalities of Intercultural Dialogue », in Cultural Diversity and Transversal Values : East-West Dialogue on Spiritual and Secular Dynamics, Paris, Unesco, 2006, p. 79, et voir p. 80 : « In ethicalhermeneutical dialogue, partners seek to understand and appreciate each other's life stories and cultural backgrounds, including cultural and religious (or spiritual) traditions, storehouses of literary and artistic expressions, and existential agonies and aspirations. It is in this mode that cross-cultural learning most importantly takes place ».

With globalisation has come mass mobility of people leading to an increase in individuals living outside their home communities and a corresponding increase in bilingual marriages. This situation has launched many individuals into the employment market outside their home communities, necessitating them to reconsider how they construct their professional identities aligned to local needs. While much research has been conducted into migrant families attempting to assimilate linguistically and professionally into a host community abroad, minimal research has been conducted into bilingual marriages focused on the situation where one spouse is living in their spouse’s home country and the other spouse is communicating in their partner’s language and how this situation affects the construction of their respective professional identities. Through qualitative interviews undertaken with British-Turkish couples living in Istanbul, this study investigates which factors may lead to the construction of each partner’s professional identity. An analysis of these interviews yields the participants’ explanations of the ways in which their relationships and patterns of language use affect the construction of professional identity. It emerges that it is to the advantage of both partners, British and Turkish, to include ‘Britishness’ and ‘Native English’ or ‘Accepted-by-Native-Speakers English’ as part of their professional identity constructions, indicating that the current global positioning of English as a world language has played a major role in the professional identity construction of all the participants. The participants’ narrative constructions, therefore, extend the understanding of how language and connection to a target-language community affect the construction and performance of professional identities in native and non-native speakers of English in relation to employment markets.

Constructivism is an epistemological position commonly found in communication theory, cultural anthropology, developmental psychology, and learning theory. It holds that knowledge and experience of the world is constructed, not discovered. Constructivism is the primary perspective of intercultural communication, which seeks to coordinate meaning and action across cultures. The idea of constructivism is important to multicultural and intercultural contexts because it supports cultural adaptation, the practical alternative to assimilation. Without constructivist theory, it is difficult to imagine how cultural groups can co-exist other than segregating from each other or one assimilating to the other. Constructivism allows a third alternative, which is bi-cultural adaptation. The following paragraphs trace the paradigmatic roots of constructivism and show how it informs the intercultural adaptation strategy. Paradigms Paradigms are comprehensive sets of assumptions that guide scientific theory. While the concept of paradigms originated in the physical sciences, the idea is also useful in understanding changes in social science, including intercultural communication theory. The three major paradigms in physics are Newtonian, Einsteinian, and quantum. Their translations into social science (usually with a significant time lag) are termed positivist, relativist, and constructivist. Like Newtonian physics, positivism assumes that there is a single absolute reality that can be described, predicted, and controlled by an objective observer. The idea of " culture " in a positivist paradigm is something like " civilization, " a position that lies at the top of a pyramid of human beings. Below civilized people are barbarians – people who have the potential to be civilized, but who need the help of colonization or nation building to join the upper ranks. Below barbarians are subhuman an savages who can be exploited for their labor without concern for elevating them to higher levels. This idea drives a kind of " social Darwinism " that thrived in the 18 th and 19 th centuries has found new favor in some forms of libertarian capitalism. In this view, a few talented people who are more " fit " than others will appropriately rise to the top and enjoy the richest fruits of civilization, while less fit people populate the lower ranks and make do with more modest tastes of culture. At around the turn of 19 th to the 20 th century, Albert Einstein introduced the idea of relativism into physics in a move that is now considered a paradigm shift. The absolute reality of Newton gave way to a relativistic universe where the position and perspective of the observer was intrinsic to how reality was apprehended. In social science, this view became the basis of systems theory, where events always needed to be understood in context. An important context for events was culture, and the notion of cultural relativity successfully challenged the pyramidal model of civilization. In the new paradigm's view, cultures represented more or less autonomous worldviews that could not be evaluated according to a single absolute standard of civilization. Instead, each culture needed to be understood in its own context; Hopi Indian culture – its worldview and its products – represented just as much a sophisticated civilization as French culture or Chinese culture. While (ideally) cultural relativism freed the myriad ways of being in the world from the hierarchical judgments of social Darwinism, colonialism, and imperialism, it also separated cultures from any single, objective base of meaning that could be used for communication. Cultural relativism does not suggest how people of different cultural contexts might understand one another, short of becoming re-socialized in the different cultural context. But global business, international education, and a host of other activities in multicultural societies and the global village depend on successful short-term communication among different cultural groups. This need for intercultural communication could only be addressed from a different paradigm.

Quale ruolo svolge l’interpretazione nell’attività conoscitiva e nelle relazioni pratiche con il mondo? Quali relazioni esistono tra interpretare e conoscere, tra interpretazione e interazioni pratiche e tra le diverse interpretazioni del mondo? Per rispondere a questo genere di domande Vereno Brugiatelli esamina alcune teorie filosofiche riguardanti il linguaggio per fare emergere i processi interpretativi delle interazioni teoriche e pratiche che l’uomo stabilisce con il mondo, con i propri simili e con se stesso. Con questo libro l’Autore mostra che tali interpretazioni si costruiscono attraverso processi ermeneutici ricorsivi generatori di mondi culturali che a loro volta, mediante retroazioni, contribuiscono alla elaborazione di nuove interpretazioni. Le diverse concezioni che l’uomo matura di se stesso, della società, delle istituzioni, dello Stato, della natura, della verità, del senso, ecc. generano forme di interazioni pratiche e sono il risultato di interpretazioni di interpretazioni, ovvero di continue ricorsioni ermeneutiche circolari generatrici di mondi culturali.

Since foreign language skills are assuming a pivotal role in the job market, many higher education institutions in Europe are offering compulsory language courses to enhance these skills among undergraduate and postgraduate students. However, Italian universities do not seem to invest sufficiently in foreign language learning. The paper discusses the results of a survey among 3.000 students at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice which aimed at investigating the students’ point of view on this topic by collecting data on three areas: earlier foreign-language educational path, perceived need of foreign language learning, students’ beliefs about language learning.

Stereotypical representations of Italy have been widely explored from European and North American perspectives. However, few studies have been done in an Asian context. This study addresses this gap and investigates stereotypical images about Italy held by students learning Italian in a renowned public university in Malaysia. The findings revealed that the language learners held overwhelmingly positive images about Italy and the Italian people. However, these images were restricted in scope and limited to simplistic notions about the country, its culture and inhabitants. One-third of the stereotypical representations of Italy provided by the students were culinary-oriented and referred to various foods associated with the country. On the other hand, the images about Italian art and culture were less specific (only one of Italy’s cultural giants–Leonardo da Vinci–was mentioned by name). The article concludes with a discussion on the pedagogical implications of the findings. 
Keywords: stereotypes; stereotype favourability; Italy; Italian language learners; foreign language teaching

In a global world, it is a recognised fact that exchanges are needed. We exchange products, services, people, expertise, knowledge… The EU was created to ease communication and exchanges, and mobility has proven to be a guarantee for the future of the Union, now the key element behind the reform of the European Higher Education system. Within the training of Communication and Translation experts, mobility has been considered a core element, not only due to the need for language exchange, but also a compulsory element in the training of those professionals wishing to operate in transcultural and interlingual communication events (Mayoral and Kelly, 1997, among others). However, as Noreiko wondered in 1990, we might have assumed too much when throwing students into the mobility waters... Given the framework of new degree structures, the phenomenom of renaming and redesigning of national higher education degrees within the convergence process, the complete integration of Erasmus in university students’ life, flexibility in the labour market, transcultural societies and a constantly moving world, this paper will try to address how translation and language trainees look at their transnational exchange of experiences to reflect on their future integration into the open society and the labour market as experts in intercultural communication. The value of transcultural training and long-term effects of mobility will be analysed, while also considering their impact in the mobile subjects’ development (personal, academic and professional) as perceived by the participants in the study carried out by the author since 2006. Using a mixed-method approach and online research instruments, the author will summarize key findings of her study and will challenge traditional research methods in Translation Studies.

Il ruolo dell'osservatore d'aula può essere una chiave del successo di un corso di formazione professionale.
in questa breve analisi è possibile osservare le diverse variabili osservate e come queste possano essere usate dai docenti e dall'organizzazione per migliorare i successivi corsi.
Nell'articolo sono state omesse alcune parti per tutelare la privaci dell'Ente ospitante e dei partecipanti.