User:TeresaVarrialeGonzalez/Cross-cultural communication/Bibliography

1) Lee, S. (2017). The Bilingual Researcher’s Dilemmas: Reflective Approaches to Translation Issues. Waikato Journal of Education, 22(2), 53–62.

This article focuses on the dilemma that a researcher who speaks the same language of the interviewees faces when he/she translates the interview for an English-speaking audience.

Lee (2017) introduces the article by arguing that “Research conducted by English-speaking researchers about other language speaking subjects is essentially cross-cultural and often multilingual, particularly with qualitative research that involves participants communicating in languages other than English” (p.53). In addition, the author highlights his personal approach to understanding interview responses in Mandarin, preparing transcriptions of interviews and translating the Mandarin/Chinese data for an English-speaking/reading audience. In this article, Lee (2017) shows how reflexivity is an important means to interrogate how his involvement in the language translation process influenced the research process and outcome. Therefore, I would recommend Lee’s (2017) work because it helps readers to better understand the interview process in a cross-cultural context.

2) Li, Y. (2011). Translating Interviews, Translating Lives: Ethical Considerations in Cross-Language Narrative Inquiry. TESL Canada Journal, 28(5), 16–30.

Through two narrative inquiries, in this article Li (2011) explores the challenges for qualitative researchers in working with multiple languages in capturing, translating, analyzing, and representing narratives. Specifically, in this work the author discusses the effect that choosing one language over another might have on research. Li considers the research process from a holistic perspective, which includes the researcher, the participants, the processes, and the findings. In addition, the author considers the ethical and relational issues regarding language choices that researchers make at every step of the research process. I would recommend this article because the author offers his perspective in exploring the challenges that he experienced working with both the Chinese and English language while undertaking the two narrative inquiries into the experiences of Chinese international students in Canada. Before making these challenges visible, Li describes the methodology of narrative inquiry and discuss ethics in narrative inquiry.

3) Oxley, J., Günhan, E., Kaniamattam, M., & Damico, J. (2017). Multilingual issues in qualitative research. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 31(7–9), 612–630. https://doi-org.umasslowell.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/02699206.2017.1302512

In this article, Oxley, Günhan, Kaniamattam, and Damico (2017) discuss challenges to interpretation that arise when participants and the main researcher speak the same non-English native language and the results of the study are intended for an English-speaking audience.

This study can help understand the process of data collection in a cross-cultural study. In fact, when interviews, observation, and other methods of gathering data are used in cross-cultural environments, the data collection and data analysis processes become more complicated. According to the authors, collecting data in a cross-cultural study is more complicated due to the inseparability of the human experience and the language spoken in a culture. I would recommend this article because it gives an insight into the translation process during the research study. Moreover, this work emphasizes the role of the translator and how his/her linguistic and cultural knowledge can impact the results of the study.

4) Rings, L. (2006). The Oral Interview and Cross-Cultural Understanding in the Foreign Language Classroom. Foreign Language Annals, 39(1), 43–53. https://doi-org.umasslowell.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2006.tb02248.x

This article discusses cross‐cultural oral interviews and how they can be used in the foreign language classroom to help students understand the differing, often culture‐specific perspectives of language use, among people speaking another language. According to Rings (2006), by conducting interviews, or by teaching students the interview process, instructors can provide students with a means for discovering how people from the target culture understand or misunderstand the students' culture. Because of my interest in multilingualism, I found this point interesting since it takes in consideration the students’ perspectives.

Additionally, I like the organization of this work. Rings begins with a discussion of theoretical issues regarding communication to continue with a discussion about oral interview methodology, which includes specific guidelines to conduct interviews and share sample results that elucidate the framework used. Finally, Rings provides specific suggestions to incorporate interviews in the foreign language classroom. The author also includes specific examples of activities to address various aspects of language and meaning. For example, by conducting oral interviews, students can understand how their meanings can differ from those of the people whose language they are studying.

5) Squires, A. (2009). Methodological challenges in cross-language qualitative research: A research review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 46(2), 277–287. https://doi-org.umasslowell.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2008.08.006

The purpose of this critical article on cross-language qualitative research is: 1) to review the methods of  literature addressing cross language research; 2) synthesize the methodological recommendations from the literature into a list of criteria that could evaluate how researchers methodologically managed translators and interpreters in their qualitative studies; and 3) test these criteria on published cross-language qualitative studies. Squires (2009) defines cross-language as the process that occurs when a language barrier is present between researchers and participants. This barrier is frequently mediated using a translator or interpreter. By comparing 40 cross-language studies, the author produced 14 criteria (by conducting a summative content analysis framed by discourse analysis techniques of the 40 cross-language studies) to evaluate how qualitative researchers managed the language barrier between themselves and their study participants. Thus, I would recommend this article because it offers the possibility to expand the reader’s knowledge on cross-cultural communication barriers.

6) Sutrisno, A., Nguyen, N. T., & Tangen, D. (2014). Incorporating Translation in Qualitative Studies: Two Case Studies in Education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE), 27(10), 1337–1353.

In this article, Sustrino, Nguyen, and Tangen (2014) compare two different procedures for incorporating translation in qualitative research in the education context. The authors provide a clear depiction of the complexities involved in translating qualitative data as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each procedure. Considering the increase of cross-language qualitative research in education, I would recommend this article because it can help readers understand some of the challenges concerning the translation process for bilingual researchers. Furthermore, this work provides some strategies for qualitative researchers to maintain the trustworthiness of the research. For example, Sustrino et al. (2014) suggest that in order to maintain trustworthiness of their works, researchers must minimize translation errors, provide detailed accounts of the translation process, involve more than one translator, and remain open to scrutiny from those seeking to access the translation process.