Students’ experiences and practices regarding English as a lingua franca (ELF) have been central to the discussion in research on intercultural communication in academia as it provides the basis for English language policy and practices in the international university. To date, however, few previous studies have explored diverse factors for perceptions of ELF communication with a single framework. To fill this gap, this study provides the integrative research model for perceptions and behaviours regarding ELF communication in the international university context, using Theory of Planned Behaviour. It further explores the effect of those factors on actual intentions to engage in ELF communication. Data were collected from 232 questionnaires and seven interviews on the offshore campus of a Hong Kong university in mainland China. Findings showed that factors such as acceptance, social expectations, the sense of control over linguistic knowledge for intercultural communication, and self-esteem had significant effects on intentions. The study concluded that ELF speakers’ decision-making process to engage in ELF communication is not simply based on individual behaviour, but on social performance in academic communities of practice. This study suggests academic and educational implications for incorporating the ELF perspective into English language policy and practices in the international university. © 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH.

This paper examines international students’ intercultural experiences during an online course on global media education that was co-organised in 2021 and 2022 by universities in Lapland, Finland and Hong Kong, China. The COVID-19 pandemic started an exponential ascent for teaching and learning in online environments. This is likely to continue in the globalising post-pandemic world, in which the participants are becoming increasingly international and from diverse backgrounds. For positive online intercultural encounters, online pedagogies that enhance intercultural understanding and the development of intercultural communication skills are needed. Through a content analysis of the students’ learning diaries, this paper investigates the ways in which cultural diversity was experienced during online teaching and learning and how the students’ perceptions and cultural sensitivity developed during the courses. The findings are reflected in the five pillars of the online pedagogical framework, which is then expanded to encompass the dimension of intercultural communication to support the development of intercultural sensitivity and interrelationships among students. We propose a pedagogical model for online teaching and learning in intercultural contexts that can support equity and quality in e-learning, or so-called e-quality. This paper concludes by recommending international collaborative teaching in authentic situations for the promotion of intercultural understanding and communication. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Against the backdrop of internationalisation and growing attention to intercultural experiences in tertiary education, this mixed-methods study examined, in part I, language learning benefits reaped by active participants in intercultural activities. As English is widely used for communication among multilinguals, part II of the study focused specifically on English. We set out to investigate the relationship between individuals' language background (actual and self-perceived English proficiency) and intercultural participation, as well as their views of the formal English language education they received prior to entering universities. The participants (n = 518) recruited from two universities in Hong Kong responded to a questionnaire and 11 of them also attended individual semi-structured interviews. Overall, five categories of benefits emerged from the interview findings, namely psychological benefits, proficiency enhancement, identification of problems, communicative strategies for accommodation, and communicative strategies for expression. A weak positive correlation was found between self-rated English speaking proficiency and participation. The interviewees also commented on the formal English education they received from curricular and environmental perspectives. Copyright ©2023 Routledge.

Presently, there are a growing number of ethnic minority students in Hong Kong schools. This article examines teachers' views of the cross-cultural experience of ethnic minority students, their influence on the performance of these students, and how the diverse learning needs of these students are being addressed. Qualitative data were collected from semi-structured interviews with 32 teachers from three secondary schools. This study shows that teachers struggle to conceptualize a new rationale for responding to cultural diversity. They develop a sense of intercultural sensitivity, promote cultural responsiveness to diversity, and strengthen the home–school connection. This article argues that, like students, teachers simultaneously engage in a cross-cultural process through which they learn the culture of ethnic minority students, relearn their own culture and reexamine the relevant rationale underlying cultural responsiveness. Finally, a framework for the creation of culturally responsive classrooms, based upon the teachers' new rationale of cultural responsiveness, is proposed.
[Copyright of Intercultural Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2012.686021]

Drawing on the notions of scale and space, this paper investigates identity construction among a group of mainland Chinese cross-boundary students by analysing their language choices and linguistic practices in a multilingual university in Hong Kong. The research illustrates how movement across spaces by these students produces varying index values for languages and influences their language usage, which becomes emblematic of individual and group identities. The research demonstrates that the values developed in their place of origin may have influences on their identity construction and peer communication in the host context. Finally, it shows that these students use their multiple linguistic repertoires to project multilayered identities and gain legitimacy in peer interactions.
[Copyright of Language and Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2012.663553]

Intercultural rhetoric has been studied in the context of second language writing for many decades. This article looks at the topic from a new perspective and offers an experimental study of the effects of intercultural rhetoric on reading comprehension. The experiment was set in Hong Kong, China, and assessed the reading comprehension (using a rational cloze design and quantitative and qualitative recall protocols) of 490 school students who were presented with four rhetorically different texts. Results suggest that the rhetoric of the students' first language (Chinese) had clear effects on reading comprehension.
[Copyright of Reading Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02702710903054949]