Editorial

摘要

The practice of communication within and between cultures is fuelled by the great waves of populations who transit across countries and continents - whether to seek political sanctuary and corporeal safety, to pursue improved material conditions for themselves and their family to live or to acquire the knowledge and skills that will enable them to better themselves in the global marketplace. Most of the contributors to this issue engage with just this intercultural dynamic. The issue opens with three papers which consider the educational and communicative practices engaged in by economic migrants: Ortiz on Mexican workers seeking to engage with the aspirational culture of the USA; Sime and Pietka-Nykaza on migrants from Poland settled in Scotland; and Kim and Kim on 'Damunwha' students (students from multicultural backgrounds) from international marriages or immigrant families in South Korea. This journal particularly welcomes these perspectives, as the authors are engaging with the communication practices of three - albeit very different - non-elite social groups, which in our view still go under-represented within empirical investigations in our field. The American context is further elaborated on in the context of US universities by Choi, who describes how Korean students position themselves vis-a-vis the English language and American culture and. In a delicious reversal of continental positioning, Pang, Sterling and Long then offer us qualitative data which explores how members of a multinational student group studying in China - including some from the USA - deal with the vicissitudes of a shopping expedition in the Silk Market in Beijing. Finally, Don Snow offers us some refreshing insights into how to employ a particular type of critical incident exercise (CIE) to enhance intercultural competence in the language classroom.