PRiSM and TaLENT Seminar

Improving intercultural communication in diverse groups and teams

Dr. Sophie Reissner-Roubicek

How can we help our students to get the most out of the opportunities we provide to interact, share knowledge, and develop skills for working collaboratively in diverse teams that are essential for the global workplace?  Students often experience groupwork as frustrating and stressful, and tend to hold others responsible. In this workshop presentation we’ll explore an approach to improving communication that invites students to focus on the process of groupwork from an interactional perspective and helps them reflect on their own communicative norms and practices. It develops understanding about interactional mismatches that result in unequal talk share (and ultimately, unequal participation in team projects), along with different expectations about work patterns and communication styles. Four core components of team communication that have the greatest potential to hinder or promote the effectiveness of student projects are presented as part of Working in Groups, a resource informed by empirical research and theoretical insights from applied linguistics, with activities tried and tested by STEM students. Each component aims to raise awareness of culturally-influenced assumptions that negatively impact on working in diverse groups, and promote student reflection on the personal experience of such issues, modelled through interview clips with student researchers. The resource helps students to experience groupwork as a valuable learning opportunity, enables them to better articulate concerns about working in teams, encourages them to reflect critically on their experiences, and provides an international dimension to their learning.

Biography

Sophie is an Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick, teaching on the MSc in Intercultural Communication for Business and the Professions and the BA in Language, Culture & Communication. She joined the university initially as a teacher educator and her current role includes training others as well as resource design and development.  She has worked closely with STEM colleagues on action research projects and delivers a MSc module Communication and Leadership for the School of Engineering. Her research on engineering graduate job interviews at the University of Auckland focused on the critical nature of teamwork and leadership questions and prompted her ongoing interest in the way teamwork and leadership are interactionally achieved.

Lunch included
Please email Samantha Pugh to register. S.L.Pugh@leeds.ac.uk