Research Methods in Intercultural Communication

A Practical Guide

Zhu Hua

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781118837436, 9781118837467
• eBook ISBN: 9781118837481
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Research Methods in Intercultural Communication introduces and contextualizes the most important methodological issues in the field for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students. Examples of these issues are which paradigms and how to research multilingually, interculturally and ethnically.

• Provides the first dedicated and most comprehensivevolume on research methods in intercultural communication research in the last 30 years
• Explains new and emerging methods, as well as more established ones. These include: Matched Guise Technique, Discourse Completion Task, Critical Incident Technique, Critical Discourse Analysis, Ethnography, Virtual Ethnography, Corpus Analysis, Multimodality, Conversation Analysis, Narrative Analysis, Questionnaire and Interview.
• Assists readers in determining the most suitable method for various research questions, conceptualizing the research process, interpreting results, and drawing conclusions
• Supports students from start to finish with key terms, suggestions for further reading, research summaries, and sound guidance from experienced scholars and researchers

Part I
Linking Themes, Paradigms, and Methods

1
Identifying Research Paradigms

Zhu Hua

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Summary

This chapter starts with an overview of the multidisciplinary nature of Intercultural Communication as a field of enquiry. It then discusses what a paradigm is and why it is essential to understand paradigms before embarking on research designs. It introduces five key paradigms in Intercultural Communication studies: positivist, interpretative, critical, constructivist, and realist paradigms, in terms of their main assumptions, research themes, and disciplinary connections. Some general questions regarding paradigms are discussed in the last section.

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Introduction

Intercultural Communication as a field of enquiry is concerned with how people from different “cultural” backgrounds interact with each other and negotiate “cultural” or linguistic differences perceived or made relevant through interactions, as well as the impact such interactions have on group relations and on individuals' identities, attitudes and behaviors. Although, historically, terms such as “cross-cultural communication,” “inter-ethnic communication,” “inter-racial communication,” and, more recently, “international communication” have been used, more and more people now use Intercultural Communication as an umbrella term to include studies of interactions between people of different cultures, comparative studies of communication patterns across cultures and studies of discursive construction and negotiation of cultural differences.

The field of Intercultural Communication (abbreviated as IC) has a distinctive, multidisciplinary background. Its main concerns have been researched extensively, and largely separately, across a number of established disciplinary and theoretical perspectives including the following:

• The disciplines that examine linguistic and interactional aspects of communication between different groups, such as interactional sociolinguistics, pragmatics, cross-cultural / intercultural pragmatics, discourse studies, translation studies, ELF (English as Lingua Franca) and bi- / multilingualism studies.
• The disciplines that are concerned with the development and learning of skills to communicate interculturally, such as intercultural education, language learning and teaching.
• The disciplines that study cultural practices or seek to identify cultural variations in communication patterns, such as cultural and linguistic anthropology, ethnicity studies, gender studies.
• The disciplines that regard Intercultural Communication as a special case of communication, such as communication studies and interpersonal communication.
• The disciplines that study human behavior and mental process including both their variability and common trends under diverse cultural conditions, such as cross-cultural psychology.
• The disciplines which critically examine the relationships between culture, communication and power (e.g. global politics of cultural prejudice), such as critical discourse studies and critical cultural studies.
• The (sub)disciplines and models that look at contributions that society makes to individual development through interactions between people and the culture in which they live in, such as sociocultural theory of learning in second language acquisition.

As a consequence of its multidisciplinary nature and the inherent complexity of the phenomenon under study (e.g. debates on what culture is, Holliday, 2011, 2013, Chapter 2, this volume), IC studies encompass many different paradigms. While different paradigms complement each other and potentially bring a rich understanding of the phenomenon under study, they can also be a source of confusion for newcomers to the field. In this chapter, I shall first outline what a paradigm is and then introduce five key paradigms in the field of Intercultural Communication in terms of their main assumptions and research themes and disciplinary connections. Some general questions regarding paradigms are discussed in the last section.

What is a Paradigm?

A paradigm is the overarching constructive framework and meta-thinking behind a piece of research. It is “a way of examining social phenomenon from which particular understandings of these phenomena can be gained and explanations attempted” (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2007, p. 112). It represents “a general philosophical orientation about the world and the nature of research that a researcher brings to a study” (Creswell, 2014, p. 6). Admittedly, the term is difficult to grasp. A paradigm is often presented as a philosophical debate with many big, unfriendly, abstract terms thrown into the mix. People often have their own interpretation of what a paradigm is and what differences there are between research paradigm, approach, design, and method (cf. the figure on the interconnection of worldviews, designs, and research methods in Creswell, 2014, p. 5). In practice, paradigms do not get much attention in research method training: they are often treated as something added on, rather than introduced as an essential consideration. The lack of translation equivalent in many languages also makes it difficult for students to fully embrace the concept.

Putting aside these difficulties, I cannot but stress the essential role of paradigms in research design. Paradigms determine research design and data collection method(s) and analysis and not the other way around. De Vaus (2001) once compared the role and purpose of a research design in a project to knowing what sort of building (such as an office building, a factory for manufacturing machinery, a school, etc.) is being constructed before ordering materials or setting critical dates for completion of the project stages. Following this analogy, paradigms would be equivalent to architectural styles, i.e., whether it is going to be gothic, baroque, modern, postmodern, oriental, etc. In the context of IC studies, the issue of paradigms is even more relevant, given its connections with multiple disciplines, since each discipline has different takes on what culture is, what Intercultural Communication is about, and the role culture plays in everyday life. Awareness of differences or tensions between different paradigms would help researchers find a “path” through the vast amount of literature available in the field and appreciate the different perspectives and insights that are offered by different paradigms.

So, what are the key paradigms out there? You may have come across many terms ending with “-ism,” such as positivism, postpositivism, constructivism, interpretivism, pragmatism, etc. They are, indeed, some examples of paradigms often mentioned in the literature. To tell them apart from each other, scholars (e.g. Guba & Lincoln, 1994) often ask the following questions:

1. What are the form and the nature of reality? Does the “reality” under study exist and operate independently? Or is it subject to perceptions and actions of individuals or social actors who inhabit it? These questions are often described as researchers' “ontological” positions.
2. What is the nature of acceptable knowledge and findings and what is the nature of the relationship between the researchers and their findings? What counts as data and findings? Are they regarded as truth or facts waiting to be discovered or are they subject to the researcher's interpretation or mediation? These questions are sometimes referred to as “epistemological” concerns.

Answers to these two sets of questions differentiate each research paradigm. In the following section, I shall introduce five identifiable research paradigms in the field of Intercultural Communication with illustrative examples. The boundaries of paradigms are not set in stone. Scholars may have different interpretations of what has made a paradigm interpretive, critical or constructivist. There are cross-overs in conceptualizations and agendas between different paradigms, in particular, among the last four paradigms.

Amid the literature aiming to compare and explain various research paradigms generically, I find two publications particularly useful. One is Guba & Lincoln's book chapter (1994) which compares the four paradigms – positivism, postpositivism, critical theory, and constructivism – in terms of their positions with regard to the sets of questions discussed above. The other is John Creswell's book (2014) on research design, in which he highlights differences between positivist, constructivist, transformative, and pragmatism paradigms in a less terminology-laden manner. The discussion on the key generic features of each paradigm in IC studies below is largely based on Guba & Lincoln (1994) and Creswell (2014). The discussion on how these features manifest themselves in IC studies is informed by Martin, Nakayama, & Flores' work (2002) and the overview and the scope represented in various published handbooks and readers available in the field.

What are the Significant Paradigms in Intercultural Communication studies?

First of all, what are the key paradigm questions to be asked in IC studies? Translating the general ontological and epistemological questions discussed above to the context of IC research, these are:

• Reality (ontological) questions:
  • What is culture and what is not culture?
  • Is there such a thing as a cultural norm?
  • How does culture influence individuals' communication behaviors or practice? Is there a cause-and-effect relationship between culture and individuals' communication behaviors or practice?
  • What role do individuals, power or ideology play in constructing culture?
• Knowledge and researcher ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series
• Title page
• Copyright
• Notes on Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Part I Linking Themes, Paradigms, and Methods
• Part II Key Issues and Challenges
• Part III Methods
• Index
• EULA