“Symbolic power and conversational inequality in intercultural communication”

Professor ZHU Hua 

Date:    6^th April 2016 (Wednesday)

Time:    6:00 pm to 7:30 pm

Venue:  Lecture Theatre 2 (KT182), THEi Building (Kowloon Tong Campus)

Address: 30 Renfrew Road, KowloonTong, Hong Kong

Abstract

Globalisation has heightened the significance of intercultural communication in everyday life as well as in higher education.  There is a growing awareness of intercultural differences in the public discourse and research literature about ‘ways of doing things’  (e.g. learning and teaching styles)  and an increasing emphasis on intercultural communication skills and associated issues (e.g. global citizenship, diversity) in the higher education curriculum in many parts of the world. In this seminar, Prof ZHU Hua from Birkbeck College, University of London will offer insights on the importance of intercultural communication and examine how symbolic competence and power are claimed, assigned and resisted through nationality and ethnicity talk (NET). 

Biography

Professor ZHU Hua is Professor in Applied Linguistics and Communication and Head of Department in Department of Applied Linguistics and Communication at Birkbeck College, University of London.  Her research interests are intercultural communication, pragmatics, multilingualism and child development.  She has published extensively in journals such as Journal of Pragmatics, The Modern Language Journal, Applied Linguistics, Multilingua, Language and Intercultural Communication, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, AILA Review, Journal of Asia-Pacific Communication, Journal of Child Language, Internal Journal of Bilingualism, and Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics. 

All are welcome

For enquiries, please contact Ms Janice LEUNG at janicel@vtc.edu.hk.

We are grateful to the Sino-British Fellowship Trust for funding the seminars.