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VNU JOURNAL OF FOREIGN STUDIES, VOL. 37, NO. 4 (2021)
55
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM STUDENTS’WRITTEN
REFLECTIONS INAN INTERCULTURALCOMMUNICATION
THEORETICALCOURSE?
Vu Thi Hoang Mai*
Faculty of Linguistics & Culture of English Speaking Countries,
VNU University of Languages and International Studies, Pham Van Dong, Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam
Received 23 March 2021
Revised 22 June 2021; Accepted 15 July 2021
Abstract: The implementation of intercultural communication (IC) courses has been excitedly
scrutinized particularly in multicultural education and training environments. However, little has been
talked about such courses as a compulsory theoretical subject at tertiary institutions, especially where
communicating across cultures is not a mandatory daily practice. Inspired by the researched merits of
reflective thinking, this paper investigates what a lecturer of such a course can learn from her students'
assigned written reflections. The analysis, both quantitative and qualitative, of the reflections of eight
classes of third year students at a language education university in Hanoi throughout an IC theoretical
course has revealed informative implications with respect to: (1) the students' interest and critical
thinking in particular issues and/or frameworks in IC; (2) the students' self-regulation in studying such
a theoretical subject; (3) the students' reflection levels and their conceptualization of the knowledge and
their own learning. This analysis also attempts to discover the effectiveness of reflective writing in an
IC theoretical course at the investigated institution, thereby proposing some recommendations to the
reflection pedagogy currently employed at the university.
Keywords: reflective thinking, reflective writing, self-regulated learning, intercultural
communication, theoretical course
1. Introduction*
The advent
international formal education curricula and
in-service training program but also taken
place in both theoretical formats and
practical communicative skill building
programs. The IC theoretical courses, whose
alternative names might be Issues in
international communication, Cultural
interactions in an independent world or the
like, for instance, is present in prestigious
of leading-edge
technology has been promoting and
optimizing communication across cultures
to the point that intercultural communication
(or IC) has become an inevitable and more-
exciting-than-ever human daily activity.
This globalized phenomenon calls for such
significant attention that intercultural
communication competence (or ICC) has
become a must in almost every walk of life.
As a result, the discussions of IC have
become not only a key concern in
universities
worldwide
for
both
undergraduates and postgraduates, such as
University of Washington1 in the US, the
1
* Corresponding author.
VNU JOURNAL OF FOREIGN STUDIES, VOL. 37, NO. 4 (2021)
56
University of Auckland2 in New Zealand,
Nottingham Trent University3 in the UK, the
University of Hong Kong4, and National
University of Singapore5 to name a few. In
terms of theoretical texts on cultural and
intercultural communication concepts,
numerous well-known scholars, for example
Baldwin et al. (2014), Lustig and Koester
(2010), Jackson (2014), Zhu (2014), have
published their works to either “present
simple explanations of things for the student
new to cultural issues” (Baldwin et al., 2014,
p. xii) or elucidate the way intercultural
communication takes place daily, how
appropriateness and effectiveness are
obtained in such interactions, the importance
of as well as research approaches to studying
language and culture altogether (Zhu, 2014,
p. i), and even look at intercultural
communication from an interdisciplinary
approach like Nguyen P. M. (2017). More
practical are such compilations like Apadaile
and Schill’s (2008) “Critical incidents for
intercultural communication: An interactive
Yusoff, 2014; Gray, Connolly, & Brown,
2019; Holmes & O’Neill, 2012; Koester &
Lustig, 2015; Lieberman & Gamst, 2015;
Peng & Wu, 2016, 2019; Valeev &
Kondrat’eva, 2015; Zhang & Zhou, 2019),
and the degree of necessity of ICC (e.g.,
Dănescu, 2015; Ihtiyar & Ahmad, 2014). In
the meantime, very little literature can be
found on the conduct of IC as an official
theoretical subject at tertiary institutions,
especially in such contexts where IC is
virtually not a mandatory daily practice in
every domain as Vietnam.
The IC theoretical course launched at
the surveyed university caters for the third
and fourth year students whose English
language proficiency is at level B2 or C1 in
the CEFR. This course is intended to
promote students’ thinking and reasoning
capacity via introducing basic concepts and
processes of cross-cultural and intercultural
communication.
It
offers
various
opportunities for students to acquire an
informed understanding and hence an
appreciation of the dynamics of culture, the
diversity of values and perceptions of
peoples from different cultures and even
from the same culture that give meaning to
people’s lives and drive their actions and
behaviours. This understanding will help
them to reflect on personal values and
practices, and to draw implications for their
tool
for
developing
awareness,
knowledge, and skills” which serves as “a
ready-to-use curricular and training guide
that will allow” educators and service
provider “to introduce the concepts of
cultural
competence
in
their learning settings” (p. 3), or “52
activities for improving cross-cultural
communication” by Stringer and Cassiday
(2009) for adult learners in “corporate or
educational environments throughout the
world” (p. xii).
intercultural
communication
and
intercultural understanding and appreciation
of the cultural similarities and differences.
Besides, the course is also designed to
The omnipresence of IC discussions
results in a rich research body in terms of the
tools and techniques of communication (e.g.,
Bazgan & Norel, 2013; Dalib, Harun &
introduce
a
critical perspective of
intercultural communication, from which,
students engage as responsible citizens in
critical dialogues that help understand not
4
2 www.auckland.ac.nz/en/study/study-options/find-
3
5
VNU JOURNAL OF FOREIGN STUDIES, VOL. 37, NO. 4 (2021)
57
only themselves better but also the needs of
others, of the community and the world at
large. As individuals, students are hoped to
be empowered with more knowledge of
cultures to make their own personal choice.
The course includes both lectures and in-
class tutorials, employing discussion of
readings, students’ presentations, films and
documentary, and case analysis. In terms of
assessments, this course requires the
students to submit three written reflections
on their favorite or pondering topics or/and
concepts, a group project, and a final essay
assignment which respectively account for
10%, 30% and 60% of their grades. To avoid
the students’ overloaded work towards the
semester end, their reflections were
collected in weeks five, nine and thirteen of
the semester.
2. Study Objectives
The current paper aims to uncover
the pedagogical implications that a lecturer
of an IC theoretical course can derive from
her
students’
written
reflections.
Specifically, it intends to answer the
following questions:
a. What theoretical topics in the IC
course are most interested to the
participants?
b. How do the participants
conceptualize the lectured concepts?
c. Is the current use of the written
reflections as effective as expected?
The results of the study are hoped to
provide me as a researcher with insights into
these students’ learning process during the
course, and at the same time to assist me as
a teacher to better understand my students,
thereby making appropriate adjustments to
my teaching practice. Moreover, the answers
to the research question are also hoped to
generate some useful recommendations as to
the use of reflective writing in such
theoretical courses as well as for further
studies on relevant topics.
As a lecturer of IC courses at my
university and a used-to-be overseas student
with
intercultural
communication
experiences, I believe that IC, by nature, is a
process in which interlocutors unceasingly
learn from self and others’ intercultural
experiences, both success and failure, to
come into terms with ethno-culturally
different people’s ideologies, thereby being
able to empower themselves as global
communicators as well as sustain peace and
harmony. Accordingly, ICC in my opinion
should be considered as dynamic and
iterative rather than accomplished and
closed; therefore, I maintain that it is much
more significant to look at the formative
process of receiving, considering, analyzing
and internalizing ideas, concepts and
practices provided by courses of IC rather
than the results of the learners’ summative
tests. Encouraged by this belief, this paper
chooses to investigate the written reflections
of the attendants of an IC course at the
examined university to uncover these
students’ responses to and during the course.
3. Theoretical Backgrounds: Reflective
Thinking and Writing
Learner reflection has also rendered
a rich body of research as to the tendency of
learner reflective thinking tendency (e.g.,
Şahin & Óvez, 2012) as well as various
effects of using reflections to assess and
enhance learning outcomes (e.g., Burner,
2014; Romova & Andrew, 2011; YuekMing
& Manaf, 2014), learners’ motivation and
autonomy (e.g., Alexiou & Paraskeva, 2010;
Burdina, 2013; Yastibas & Yastibas, 2015),
learners’ critical thinking (e.g., Cargas,
Williams & Rosenberg, 2017; Carter,
Creedy & Sidebotham, 2017; Tuncer &
Ozeren, 2012), and faculty professional
development (e.g., Allan & Driscoll, 2014;
Donohoe, 2015) to name a few.
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According to Dewey (1991), as cited
in Şahin and Óvez (2012, p. 569), reflection
refers to an active and thoughtful process of
analyzing any belief or knowledge that helps
people conclude or make decisions.
Likewise, Boud and Walker (1985) also
emphasize the significance of reflection as
an effective ability that assists people to
“recapture their experience, think about it,
mull it over, and evaluate it” (as cited in
YuekMing & Manaf, 2014, p. 974). So
important and effective is the ability to
reflect that it is deemed to be able to record
learners’ conceptualizations of unseen
understandings and experiences. Moreover,
through the process of reflecting, learners’
assumptions of prior knowledge are
contextualized and critically reasoned in the
light of the new knowledge. YuekMing and
Manaf (2014) therefore believe that those
learners required to reflect on the knowledge
“are more likely to remember it and use that
knowledge later” (p. 974). LaBoskey (1993)
goes on to contend that reflection also leads
to changes in one’s belief, attitude, value and
emotion.
Using reflective writing, learners can
dig deep into their knowledge either
deliberatively or dialectically. Deliberative
reflection refers to how learners’ knowledge
of an issue can guide their practice; whereas,
dialectical reflection is more idiosyncratic as
the student’s experience is transformed and
reconstructed based on their personal
knowledge of the topic (Valli, 1993). In both
forms of reflection lies the theories of the
focused issue as the learner has to read about
or listen to the relevant scholarship, which
makes their reflective writing activity an
integrated one. Knoch and Sitajalabhorn
(2013) define integrated writing tasks as
those that go through six steps, including:
(1) original text analysis, (2) ideas selection,
(3) ideas synthesis, (4) paraphrasing,
(5) ideas organizing, and (6) application of
cohesion,
coherence
and
source
acknowledgement.
Such reflective compositions are
deemed to be able to evaluate learners’
outcomes and critical thinking (Yuekming &
Manaf, 2014) as well as autonomous
learning (Burner, 2014). In order to analyze
these writing pieces, Valli (1003) suggested
two main approaches, namely, the
sociological approach and the psychological
approach (Henderson, Napan & Monteiro,
2004, p. 359). While the former considers
the proof of learners’ internalization of
knowledge the most important evidence of
reflectivity, the latter emphasizes the
learner’s writing style. In another fashion,
LaBoskey (1993) proposes that those written
reflections can be examined as to either the
focus or the level of reflection.
Maclean (1987, as cited in
Andrusyszyn & Davie, 1997) maintains that
reflection can either happen naturally in
daily practice or be built through
discussions, journals, reading and self-
assessment exercises. Among these tools,
journal writing has been extensively
employed thanks to its capacity to “promote
growth, help reconcile the personal with the
professional self, and document the writer’s
growth, development and transformation”
(Henderson, Napan & Monteiro, 2004,
p. 358). It is also believed that reflective
writing helps further improve learning
Researchers such as Van (1977),
Mezirow (1997), Henderson, Napan, and
Monteiro (2004), Jacobs and Murray (2010)
have come up with various models of
outcome
assessment
and
faculty
professional development (Allan & Driscoll,
2014) as well as learners’ thinking,
communication skills while assisting them
to immerse themselves into the discipline’s
community (Yuekming & Manaf, 2014).
reflective
thinking
levels,
ranging
respectively from a three-level model to a
six-level one. Although segmented into
different numbers of levels with diverse
labels, these frameworks all share three basic
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stages of reflective thinking, namely,
unexamined technical reception of
reflected issues. Since there were papers that
were identified to commit plagiarism or be
hastily composed minutes before the
submission deadlines and thus were
discarded, there were 291 papers qualified
for analysis.
knowledge, reflection in practice and critical
reflection on action. However, this current
study specifically employs the five-level
model of reflection by Henderson, Napan,
and Monteiro (2004), which consists of
reporting, responding, relating, reasoning,
and reconstructing. This model, which is
most attached to the practice of reflective
writing, can help explore how deep the
student has worked with an issue.
4.2. Data Analysis
4.2.1. Analysis Frameworks
Inspired by the reviewed literature on
reflective
reflections
writing,
were
these
analyzed
dialectical
both
quantitatively and qualitatively using mainly
a mixed framework of Zimmerman’s self-
regulation in learning (2000, p. 14),
integrated writing strategies (Knoch &
Sitajalabhorn, 2013) and the five-level model
4. Methodology
4.1. Participants and Data Collection
The data used in this study
comprised the written reflections provided
by the third-year students from eight classes
of the examined university. At the beginning
of the course, the students had been provided
with common guiding questions for the three
reflections which were submitted in weeks 5,
9 and 13. The rubrics asked the students to
discuss the issues of their own interest or
concern, as to their evaluation of the novelty
of the theories, their effects on the students’
perspectives, and the potential application of
the theories into their daily as well as
intercultural communication. Since one of
the goals of the course is to arm the learners
with research skills in theoretical disciplines,
scientific fidelity is emphasized in the
requirements of the reflections. As a result,
of reflection (Henderson, Napan
&
Monteiro, 2004).
Self-regulated learning, including
three phases of forethought, performance
and self-reflection, refers to learners’ own
planned and repeatedly adjusted thinking,
motivations and behaviors to achieve their
learning goals (Zimmerman, 2000, p. 14).
The forethought phase is characterized with
motivation, self-efficacy, goal setting and
learning plans. In the performance phase,
learners need to control their attention, keep
records of learning notes, tests and texts, and
closely monitor their tasks. The final phase
of self-reflection is marked with learners’
comparing performance with a goal and
evaluating their results. However, this
current paper only focuses on the
participants’ written reflections per se rather
than the whole process of writing. Therefore,
the participants’ forethought and self-
evaluation phase in their self-regulation was
not included in this study.
the
reflections
require
appropriate
acknowledgement of sources and APA
citations. These writings were then returned
to the students in weeks 6, 10 and 14 with
grading results and the lecturer’s feedback in
terms of the development of reflective
writing and skills, ideas organization, critical
thinking and source acknowledgement.
The researcher had asked the
students for ethical approval of using their
writings for this study. After being collected,
the students’ papers were then classified
based on the sequence of submission and
Knoch and Sitajalabhorn’s (2013)
definition of integrated writing task can help
discover whether the students understand
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60
thoroughly what genre to write, what
materials to read or consult before writing,
what organizational structure to use in their
reflections, how to transform the language
used in the source text, and how to
acknowledge the original ideas inside of text
or afterwards. These indicators might be
used as snippets of evidence of self-
regulation. The analysis of the students’ self-
regulated learning was based on the
following adapted framework of Knoch and
Sitajalabhorn’s (2013).
Table 1
Integrated Writing Strategies for Written Reflection
(Adapted from Knoch & Sitajalabhorn’s definition of integrated writing tasks, 2013)
Integrated Writing Strategies
Evidence
1 Mining the source text for
The student identifies in the requisite readings or extensive
sources the location and origin of the reflected theories/ideas
/concepts. She/he provides a brief review of the relevant
literature.
ideas
2 Selecting ideas
The student cites or gives comments on other people’s ideas,
compares and contrasts between chosen ideas. The selected
ideas indicate a sequence of reasoning and unite in a single
relevant topic.
3 Synthesizing ideas from one
The student makes connections between ideas, critically
analyzes the literature and its relevance to reality. She/he can
identify the significance of the theories/concepts and reach
satisfactory conclusions.
or more source texts
4 Transforming the language
The student provides a sufficient summary of the reading
used in the input
contents and/or appropriately paraphrases others’ ideas.
5 Organizing ideas
The student logically arranges sequences of information and
ideas, showing clear progression throughout the reflection.
She/he presents a clear central topic within a paragraph or
evident cohesion in her/his writing.
6 Using stylistic conventions
Punctuation, cohesive and coherent devices are used properly.
such as connecting ideas and APA style is utilized accurately to acknowledge the sources.
acknowledging sources
Besides, the model of reflection level
by Henderson, Napan, and Monteiro (2004)
can examine how deep a student works with
an issue as well as how his/her “continual
self-awareness of the situation and the
learning” develops throughout three
reflections. The students’ critical thinking
capacity could also be investigated regarding
the ability to report and logically analyze the
relevant experience, make connections with
other situations, evaluate how it fits with the
theories, how practical the theories deem to
be, and then synthesize all ideas to modify or
refine future communication (Henderson,
Napan & Monteiro, 2004). Following this
model, each reflection was given 1 more
point for each level reached.
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61
Table 2
Five Levels of Reflection
(Adapted from Henderson, Napan & Monteiro’s model of reflection level, 2004)
Level of
Reflection
Evidence
Grade
Level 1 –
Reporting
The student describes, reports or retells with minimum transformation 1/5
and no added observations or insights.
Level 2 –
Responding
The student uses source data in some way, but with little
transformation or conceptualization.
2/5
Level 3 –
Relating
The student identifies aspects of the data which have personal
meaning or which connect with their prior or current experience. The
student gives a superficial explanation of the reason why something
has happened or identifies something that they need or plan to do, or
change.
3/5
Level 4 –
Reasoning
The student integrates the data into an appropriate relationship
involving a high level of transformation and conceptualization and
seeks deep understanding of why something has happened, exploring
the relationship of theory and practice in some depth.
4/5
Level 5 -
Reconstructing
The student displays a high level of abstract thinking to generalize and 5/5
/ or apply learning. The student draws original conclusions from their
reflections, generalizes from their experience, extracts general
principles, formulates a personal
theory, or takes a position on an issue. The student extracts and
internalizes the personal significance of their learning and/or plans
their own further learning on the basis of their reflections.
4.2.2. Analysis tools
Regarding the quantitative data, the
5. Findings and Discussion
The analysis of 291 written
analysis followed simple calculation and
ranking procedures of reflections which had
the same topic or discussed similar issues.
All the investigated writings started with the
participants’ statements of their favourite or
concerned issues, which allowed me to
categorize and rank their learning interests.
reflections of the attendants of the
aforementioned IC theoretical course
revealed interesting information regarding
the participants’ learning interests, their self-
regulated learning, as well as their reflection
level and conceptualization of the learned
issues.
As to the qualitative data, the content
and thematic analyses of the students’
reflections were employed in this study to
obtain more understanding with respect to
the students’ responses to the lessons and
any other learning issues during the course.
The surveyed reflections were encoded
following the incorporated frameworks
mentioned above.
5.1. Participants’ Learning Interests
The results showed that six out of ten
main lectures of theories were chosen for
reflection with the ranking of favorite issues
as follow:
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Table 3
Participants’ Interested Issues/Concepts
Ranking
Interested issues/concepts
Actions, ethics and research
Number of reflections
1
2
89
53
Identity (social identity, ideology, politics of identity)
Global media & intercultural communication
(representations, social dramas)
3
45
4
5
6
7
Cultural patterns (cultural values)
Cultural biases (stereotypes, discrimination)
Cultural taxonomies (Hall’s high & low context cultures)
Other issues & group presentations
Total
38
32
21
13
291
The lecture of Action, ethics and
own communicative experiences (e.g.,
students 1, 2, 24, 38, 47, 78, 92) or
relationships with friends and/or families
(e.g., students 4, 9, 66, 97). 43 participants
also shared similar positive responses to the
lecturer’s narratives of her own identity
development, discrimination experiences or
her own analysis of cultural values through
cultural artefacts. According to these
students, although the facts and stories
exemplified in their course books were
interesting and informative, the lecturer’s
narratives accompanied with step-by-step
analysis and association with the theoretical
concepts were “more authentic” (e.g.,
student 15, 29), “insightful” (e.g., students
23, 40) and made the lessons “more fun”
(e.g., students 1, 11, 15, 26, 83, 96) as well
as “approachable” (e.g., students 3, 22, 34,
50).
research with ethics being the central
concept was reflected by the most students,
many of whom shared that it is eye-opening
because before the lesson, they “thought
morality and ethics were the same because
they are similarly translated in English-
Vietnamese dictionaries” (e.g., student 3).
The elaboration on ethics in interpersonal
and intercultural communication was
perceived as useful and influential because it
provided information that went beyond or
even against what the students had learnt
before. These participants acknowledged
that the way they looked at good deeds or
charity had been challenged in the session
and it “will never be the same anymore”
(e.g., student 85). Some admitted that their
own “traditional moral values may be
inappropriate” (e.g., student 17) in various
communication encounters across cultures.
Global media and intercultural
communication was the third most appealing
lesson for providing the students with
information they “had never known or cared
about” (e.g., student 66). Although exposed
to various genres of media, few students
were aware of or had motivation to explore
media-culture related issues, such as the
agenda-setting function of media, the effects
Identity, Cultural patterns, Cultural
biases and Cultural taxonomies came
second, fourth, fifth and sixth respectively in
the list of the most favorite lectures because
most of the writers found themselves “ in
concept-related stories” (e.g., student 59).
In their reflections, many of the students
clarified their understanding of identity,
ideology, cultural values, stereotypes and
discrimination through examples of their
of
global
media
on
intercultural
communication like framing social
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63
acceptability and understanding about
difference, free expression and
mentioned in the reflections instead of being
analyzed or evaluated. Notably, lecture notes
and examples from the course books or the
lecturer were selected for the compositions
of all participants, only one fifth of whom
brought up examples or experiences of their
own. Moreover, there were very few signs of
systematic selection of ideas to show a
sequence of reasoning, comparison or
contrast. Regarding ideas synthesis, only
two students made connection between
ideas, critically analyzing the literature and
its relevance to reality. They could identify
the significance of the theories/concepts and
reach satisfactory and idiosyncratic
conclusions. For example, after reflecting on
the lesson of cultural biases, student 23
concluded that “stereotyping [was] not bad
itself. It [was] the way how people use
stereotypes to judge others that lead to
negative effects. Thus each person should
wisely take advantage of them to be well-
prepared in the dynamic community.” Or
when commenting on the question of “Who
am I?” in the lecture of identity and
analyzing the correlation between identity,
power and fame, student 40 remarked that it
“[was] not just as simple as it used to be. It
[was] beyond the meaning of a name […]
Identity could also be a double edged sword:
it can give one power or take away his life.”
Last but not least, although the reflections
were composed following the basic format
of English essays and ideas are paraphrased,
there was no appropriate acknowledgement
of the source texts. Importantly, despite
receiving the lecturer’s feedback on a
previous reflection, there was hardly any
change to these listed writing issues
throughout the three submissions.
representational absence (e.g., student 74,
83, 89). Armed with the maxims of Grice’s
(1975) cooperative principles in a previous
lesson, the students believed that the theories
provided in the lesson of global media and
intercultural communication could help
them “filter the information transmitted
better” and “join the conversations with
more caution and deliberation” (e.g.,
students 23, 48).
It could be concluded that the
theoretical IC lessons which appealed to the
students most were those that could either
challenge the students’ existing perspectives
and values, vividly reflect their daily
practices, or provide them with insightful
analyses on frequently neglected issues.
Additionally, the students showed more
interest in the lessons in which the theories
are elaborated on by the lecturer’s own
experiences with witticisms. In the face of an
eclectic syllabus of IC which entitles the
responsible lecturers to decide what contents
to lecture like that in my faculty, these
results could very well function as a
reference for a most welcomed agenda by
prospective learners of the subject.
5.2. Participants’ Self-Regulated Learning
Based on the integrated writing
strategies for written reflections adapted
from Knoch and Sitajalabhorn’s definition
of integrated writing tasks (2013), the
analysis of the data revealed that the
participants were not highly self-regulated in
studying this theoretical subject.
A modest number of the papers
(accounting for 34.5%) showed signs of
mining different texts in order to get ideas
for their reflections. The most used included
the course books (provided by the lecturer at
the semester beginning), folklores, blogs
These results indicated that the
participants’ level of self-regulation was
quite low as they either did not have the
skills to well control their attention,
effectively keep learning records, closely
monitor their tasks, or they were not
motivated to do so. This did not go in line
about
cultures,
and
memoirs
or
autobiographies on cultures. These reference
sources, regretfully, were only cursorily
VNU JOURNAL OF FOREIGN STUDIES, VOL. 37, NO. 4 (2021)
64
with previous studies of similar domain
(e.g., Henderson, Napan & Monteiro, 2004;
Alexiou & Paraskeva, 2010) in which the
participants were documented to be more
engaged and enthusiastic about their
learning and the students’ writing were
recognized as “a scaffolding approach of
understanding and engagement” (Alexiou &
Paraskeva, 2010). This discrepancy may lie
in the fact that the participants in the
previous studies had to continuously
compose weekly e-writings throughout
a 12-week course and received immediate
Figure 1
feedback as well as lecturers’ close
monitoring for their subsequent writings
thanks
to
online
asynchronous
communication.
5.3. Participants’ Level of Reflection
The analyzed data depicts
a
complicated picture of the participants’ level
of reflection, their progress in reflective
thinking, their conceptualization and
reconceptualization of the theories as well as
their learning.
Reflection Levels Through Reflective Writings
It is obvious from Figure 1 that
throughout three submissions, almost half of
the participants achieved level 3 of reflection
at which they identified theoretical aspects
that related with their prior or current
experience and gave superficial explanations
why something worked the way it did. At
this level, another pattern was found among
this group of participants that they all agreed
with the lecturer’s explanations of the
theories and took her examples as standard
exemplifications in their reflections, thereby
glorifying the theories without any critical
analysis or challenge. Specifically, many of
these unconditional proponents of the
lectured theories made “promises” to
“change [their] perspectives/approach”
(e.g., students 4, 8, 27, 33, 59, 61, 77, 90) or
acknowledged the effects of the lessons on
their thinking in that they “completely
changed [their] point of view” (e.g., student
14, 18, 21, 56, 79, 85), “made [them] think
about [their] behaviors again” (e.g.,
students 7, 19, 54, 75, 96) or “made [them]
realize [they] were wrong” (e.g., student
91). Student 82 even confirmed that after
learning about ethics in intercultural
communication, she could “have a full
awareness of the situation and the right
behavior” and “be able to deal with
intercultural issues.” Apparently, this group
of participants conceptualized intercultural
competence as approachable only via
learning such a theoretical course and the
lectured theories as the key to correct right
from wrong.
The above chart also presents an
improvement in reflective thinking of 47.8%
of the participants who managed to raise
their reflection levels in subsequent
submissions, mostly from level 1 to 3. This
VNU JOURNAL OF FOREIGN STUDIES, VOL. 37, NO. 4 (2021)
65
result implies a fact that a great number of
participants did not know how to write a
learning reflection until they got feedback
from their instructor. Meanwhile, a modest
number of 8 cases were able to improve their
levels from 3 or 4 to 5 by showing effort in
extensive analyses of multiple materials as
well as in depth exploration of the
relationship between theories and realities.
For example, when reflecting on the concept
of ideology and her family relationship,
student 66 admitted that the theory helped
her understand that her belief and aggressive
although not the focus of this study and
hence not supported by the current data, may
align with previous research of similar
concerns (e.g., Rushton & Duggan, 2013;
Abednia, Hovassapian, Teimournezhad &
Ghanbari, 2013; Vassilaki, 2017). Firstly, it
is the fact that at my university, reflection
writing is not practiced as frequently as “the
still dominant, prestigious genre of the
academic essay” (Vassilaki, 2017) in
students’ official learning products. As a
result, the participants are not familiar with
the narrative nature of reflective writing,
thus reproducing “experts’ views rather than
their own thoughts” or just finishing the
assignment as it is compulsory (Abednia,
Hovassapian, Teimournezhad & Ghanbari,
2013). Moreover, lack of thorough
understanding of the topic can also
demotivate the students because without
analytical reading of the assigned texts and
proactive engagement in class activities, the
students cannot obtain good preparation
communication
“unconsciously”
with
resulted
her
from
mother
her
upbringing witnessing her parents’ frequent
quarrels. This group of students not only
criticized the practicality and applicability of
the theories and presented their own
positions, but also drew original conclusions
from their reflections. For instance, student
40 expressed his interest in the lesson of
cultural
patterns
and
cultural
conceptualisations because it helped him not
only “get to know about the rough
definitions but also about the way to know
and understand a thing.” For the participants
similar to student 40, what mattered is the
development of their metacognition, their
ability to justify how things work culturally
rather than knowing what cultures to study,
thereby “evaluating everything in multiple
aspects, raising related questions to it rather
than trusting the information or not” (e.g.,
student 23).
necessary
for
writing
(Abednia,
Hovassapian, Teimournezhad & Ghanbari,
2013). The data of this paper actually
documents cursory understanding and even
inaccurate explanations of the theories of the
participants whose reflection levels
fluctuated between 2 and 3 or decreased over
time. For example, student 30 chose to
reflect on cultural biases against LGBT
community, yet she herself concluded that
she had to protect her LGBT friends, which
in turn implicitly denoted her subconscious
stereotype of LGBT people as weak and
vulnerable. Many other participants also
wrongly repeated the definitions of the
components of cultural patterns or the
outward expressions of cultural intolerance.
Last but not least, 17 students got
demotivated after getting low scores for their
initial or previous reflections (Rushton &
Duggan, 2013). In fact, the reasons for the
participants’ loss of writing motivation in
this study need more investigation to be
confirmed.
Significantly,
21.7%
of
the
participants maintained their performances
at level 3, another 21.7% fluctuated between
level 3 and 4, and 8.8% gained lower levels
of reflection in the subsequent papers (from
level 3 to 1). The population whose
reflection level did not change might not
have writing motivation in the first place.
The others, however, seemingly indicated a
loss of interest in reflecting their learning
toward the end of the course. This could be
explained by a multitude of reasons which,
VNU JOURNAL OF FOREIGN STUDIES, VOL. 37, NO. 4 (2021)
66
6. Conclusion
This mixed method study reports the
autonomy,
reflective
capacity
and
knowledge conceptualization. It is advisable
that the pedagogy of written reflections in
the current course should be altered in terms
of closer writing mentoring, increasing
frequency of submissions, more various
feedback modes and speeding feedback
immediacy. Moreover, further research is
needed to work out ways of motivating
students to learn theoretical subjects and
enhance their self-regulation in such
courses.
use of 97 junior students’ written reflections
as formative assessment in an intercultural
communication theoretical course at
University of Languages and International
Studies in Hanoi. It is discovered that the
participants are most interested in learning
about ethics, identity, media, cultural
patterns, cultural biases and cultural
taxonomies and their roles in intercultural
communication. However, the research also
reveals a low level of self-regulation in
writing
reflections
as
compulsory
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GIẢNG VIÊN THẤYGÌ
TỪ BÀI VIẾT CHIÊM NGHIỆM CỦASINH VIÊN
TRONG HỌC PHẦN LÍ THUYẾT GIAO TIẾPLIÊN VĂN HÓA?
Vũ Thị Hoàng Mai
Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ, Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội,
Phạm Văn Đồng, Cầu Giấy, Hà Nội, Việt Nam
Tóm tắt: Các khóa học Giao tiếp liên văn hóa đã và đang được nghiên cứu rộng rãi, đặc biệt ở
các môi trường giáo dục và đào tạo đa văn hóa. Tuy nhiên, những khóa học Giao tiếp liên văn hóa như
một môn học lí thuyết bắt buộc ở các trường cao đẳng và đại học vẫn ít được nghiên cứu, đặc biệt ở
những nơi mà giao tiếp liên văn hóa không phải là hoạt động thiết yếu thường nhật. Lấy cảm hứng từ
những tác dụng đã được nghiên cứu của tư duy chiêm nghiệm, bài viết trình bày kết quả phân tích định
tính và định lượng các bài viết chiêm nghiệm của sinh viên năm thứ 3 tại một trường đại học về học
phần lí thuyết Giao tiếp liên văn hóa mà họ tham gia. Kết quả phân tích cho thấy những thông tin hữu
ích về: (1) mối quan tâm và tư duy phê phán của sinh viên đối với một số vấn đề và lí thuyết trong giao
tiếp liên văn hóa; (2) tính tự kỉ luật trong học tập của sinh viên trong một học phần lí thuyết; (3) cấp độ
tư duy chiêm nghiệm và ý niệm của sinh viên về kiến thức được học và về việc học. Nghiên cứu này
cũng nỗ lực tìm hiểu tính hiệu quả của hoạt động viết chiêm nghiệm trong học phần lí thuyết Giao tiếp
liên văn hóa tại trường đại học này, từ đó đưa ra một số đề xuất đối với phương pháp chiêm nghiệm hiện
đang được áp dụng tại cơ sở này.
Từ khóa: tư duy chiêm nghiệm, bài viết chiêm nghiệm, học tập tự điều chỉnh, giao tiếp liên văn
hóa, học phần lí thuyết
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