Intercultural competence is essential in the transcultural world, in which many university students and graduates live. A language course in a multicultural country, to which students bring great diversity, interculturality and hybridity, interacting with each other in a language that is nobody’s native-tongue, is an ideal intercultural learning environment. However, while academic articles promoting intercultural learning abound, few show how to assess intercultural competence, which is a major challenge. This article firstly conceptualises the construct of intercultural competence, using the analogy of food and body, and depicts the critical role that higher-order thinking skills play in the development of intercultural competence. It then reports the methods and results of the assessment of higher-order thinking skills. The learning environment created for the development of higher-order thinking skills was evaluated using a questionnaire, and individual skill levels were assessed by applying criteria in a rubric to students’ reflective writings. The findings suggest that an appropriate learning environment enhances higher-order thinking skills, albeit with some exceptions. This article then discusses in detail successful and unsuccessful cases of higher-order thinking improvement. This study contributes to the knowledge base by presenting methods for assessing a critical aspect of intercultural competence, namely, higher-order thinking skills.

The purpose of education is the transfer of learning from the classroom to real world situations. Transfer concerns prior learning that affects new performances. The present paper explores the efficacy of the transfer of English as a Foreign Language from the classrooms of Macao Polytechnic Institute to graduates’ workplace settings. The present study investigates such transfer by using a mixed methods approach involving firstly an analysis of one item on “foreign language” in an annual institutional survey questionnaire of 122 employers of MPI graduates followed by in-depth interviews of two of those employers regarding the same item. The results of the survey indicate that employers found the performance of the graduates “ordinary” and “were not satisfied” with their performance on “foreign language”. Essentially, the graduates’ performance in the productive language skills of speaking and writing are unsatisfactory, while their receptive language skills of listening and reading fare little better. Meanwhile, the results of the follow-up interviews provide much pause for thought on the historical roots of the extent of present-day foreign language competence. Finally, this research offers a range of suggestions for enhancing foreign language skills with a view to promoting the future employment prospects of graduates.

This study was designed to examine female international students’ experience and correlates of personal-enacted and personal-relational identity gaps in the context of their communication within and surrounding school, work, and friendship. Findings of the study revealed that both types of identity gaps coincide with communication dissatisfaction, but that communication satisfaction is only uniquely, negatively predicted by the personal-relational identity gap. Neither type of identity gap significantly predicted educational satisfaction, yet participants’ descriptions of the gaps and their means of managing the gaps yield insight to these quantitative trends. Four central qualitative themes emerged to describe how participants manage their personal-enacted identity gaps: “censoring,” “pretending,” “succumbing,” and “being confident.” For their personal-relational identity gaps, female international students report management strategies that we have organized around the themes of “direct openness,” “humorous openness,” “ignoring,” and “succumbing.”

Two theoretical perspectives have been adopted by the scholarly exploration of acculturation. The first is the unidirectional perspective, which is represented by cross-cultural adaptation theory. The other is the non-unidirectional perspective which is reflected by cultural fusion theory. Focusing on Chinese students’ acculturation in the United States, this research compared these two theoretical perspectives in general, and cross-cultural adaptation theory and cultural fusion theory in particular. Through conducting in-depth interviews with 25 Chinese students studying in an American public university, this research revealed that these migrating individuals from China were still attached to their Chinese identity and embraced interaction with other Chinese people to varying degrees during their acculturation. Their acculturation experiences supported cultural fusion theory, which argues that acculturation is an additive and integrated process rather than a zero-sum closed system.

This research investigated the current practice of using celebrities in marketing communications in Greater China, as well as the factors affecting the effectiveness of it and its values. Three in-depth, individual interviews were conducted with three renowned PR and marketing specialists in Hong Kong. Results showed that the practice of using celebrities in marketing communications is transforming. The effectiveness of it depends on multiple factors (e.g. image congruence, product category, continuity and consistency, etc.) and requires marketers’ and communication specialists’ careful planning. In this paper, an attempt has been made to know the first-hand perspectives of using celebrities in marketing communications in Greater China.

This study examined the underlying psychological process of participants’ evaluation of source ethnicity and expertise on their acceptance of a public service announcement (PSA). This study proposed the effects of source evaluation were mediated by source identification and attitude toward the ad (A_ad). Five hundred and twenty-two participants responded to a number of questions after they viewed one HIV public service announcement. Results found that A_ad and source identification mediated the effects of source credibility and similarity on message acceptance.