Miscommunication between Chinese Teachers and Mexican Students – A Case Study of a Confucius Institute in Mexico

Abstract

The present study examines miscommunication between Chinese teachers and Mexican students, focusing on the sorts and types of misunderstandings in academic settings. Data for this study was collected through academic diaries, questionnaires, interviews and retrospective interviews. According to the nature of the examples provided, misunderstandings are classified into culture-related, non-culture-related, and the mixed-type. Results show that misunderstandings in academic settings between Chinese teachers and Mexican students are not always traceable to cultural differences. Some of the misunderstandings (the non-culture-related types of misunderstandings, for example) are caused by certain errors that the learners make when learning the target language (Chinese in this case), which is regarded as a necessary phase in second language acquisition. Others (like the mixed-type of misunderstandings) are caused by both cultural differences and the dynamics of learning a foreign language. The results seem to verify the author’s hypothesis that culture elements play an essential role in miscommunication, but are not the sole explanation for misunderstandings in intercultural interactions.

Keywords

Cross-cultural / miscommunication / second language learning / cultural differences

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