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Researchers and intercultural educators have put forward various theoretical principles and pedagogical ideas related to the design and implementation of intercultural communication (IC) courses. Recently, researchers have called for curriculum development to include students’ voices about their intercultural communication education (ICE). This paper reports on a study which examined 42 students’ perceptions of an intercultural communication course taught over one semester at a university in Japan, focusing in particular on motivations for students’ intercultural learning and their strategies for maintaining or further developing their IC competence upon completing their studies. Students were also asked to consider the significance of ICE in terms of their life experiences. Survey results revealed that participants enrolled in the IC course to reflect on their study abroad experiences, develop tangible skills for their vocations, and effectively manage IC interactions. They also claimed that learning about perceptions and IC transitions contributed to their understanding of their own experiences and broader intercultural issues. The study contributes to understanding of what students who choose to enrol in an IC course potentially seek from such a course in this context and how they interpret its significance in terms of their own goals and anticipated life trajectories. It also offers some implications for the design of future IC courses.

This paper reexamines theories of linguistic politeness in Japanese, and holds that linguistic politeness is a very complicated issue influenced by multiple factors in different layers including general face wants of participants, the participants' societal positions and social relationships, social norm that the interactants share, the interactants' discernment or interpretation of the social rules, immediate context of the interaction, and possible strategies for the interactants to choose under the constrains of the other simultaneously functioning factors. Based on the data collected from recent Japanese TV dramas, this study maintains that, as a general principle, Brown and Levinson's (1978, 1987) theory of face does apply to Japanese language and culture and forms the base of politeness. Similarly as in any other culture, facework in successful communication in Japanese is a result of choice by an interlocutor in accordance with normative polite practices. What makes linguistic politeness in Japanese unique is not that Japanese speakers need to act appropriately according to their social norm, but that their discernment (wakimae) and recognition of the social position and relationship (tachiba) of the participants, which form the second layer of the determining factors of politeness, make speakers of Japanese always attend to and try to fulfil the other participant's face want including both positive and negative face, and, at the same time, maintain their own positive face but rarely claim their own negative face especially when an interactant has less power and in a lower social position in an interaction. The data also suggest a model of face-redressing strategies co-occurring with face threatening acts (FTA) in Japanese.

Intercultural competence has become a central feature of intercultural communication education as a means of assessing students' development. Like other university courses, teachers and other stakeholders need to find ways to account for students' development and achievement in intercultural learning. Previous research has shown that there is not one single way to account for a student's intercultural competence; instead employing a variety of measures such as quizzes, interaction activities, interviews, and surveys is advocated in determining a student's intercultural development in a classroom setting. As a result, in this study, participants' (n = 48) responses to situational judgement tests are analysed and explored. Specifically, participants responded to three cross-cultural workplace videos that depicted various intercultural incidents such as a misperception of time, unawareness of appropriate language and communicative behaviours in the workplace, and cultural differences in non-verbal communication. Overall, the results showed that participants can articulate an awareness of various intercultural concepts prompted by the videos. Furthermore, participants were able to demonstrate facets of intercultural competence by observing and reflecting on various issues in the workplace. However, the analysis revealed that participants' reports are often inconsistent and varied in terms of complexity. In addition, grading the assessment is time-consuming and additional rubrics and raters may be required to evaluate student reports accurately and consistently. Despite these challenges, the study shows that situational judgement tests are effective in assessing students' intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Using authentic materials can also be a beneficial tool, particularly in culturally homogenous EMI classrooms.

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