Susan C. Baker’s research while affiliated with The University of Queensland and other places

Mainland Chinese students’ (MCSs’) cross-cultural adaptation experiences in Hong Kong have remained under-researched. Our study investigates this phenomenon with a language and social psychology approach and explores the role of Cantonese ability and communication with locals. We invoked Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) to investigate the intergroup communication between MCSs and locals. Thematic analysis of ten semi-structured interviews revealed that MCSs considered self-perceived Cantonese abilities and communication with locals critical for their adaptation. Invoking CAT to investigate this intercultural context provided valuable insights into the importance MCSs place on locals’ communicative behaviours when deciding whether to communicate in the local language.

Language is often used to demonstrate group membership and to establish cultural identity. When the language is not readily available or is at risk, individuals tend to turn to other markers to develop their cultural identity. Using Leximancer for thematic and conceptual analyses of interviews with ten accomplished musicians in Nova Scotia, Canada, we argue that the commitment to learning music and dance may act as a channel to learning Scottish Gaelic, a threatened local heritage language. Drawing on Norton's construct of investment in language learning, we consider the extent to which participants commit to learning the language and the music/dance for their identification to the Gaelic culture. Given that Gaelic music and dance traditions remain healthy, even as the language is declining, the results of our research have significant implications for language revitalisation efforts.

It is urgent that we learn how to motivate learners of threatened heritage languages. Motivational theories, however, are weakened when they consider heritage languages in isolation from the rest of the culture in which they are enmeshed. By drawing on psycholinguist Zoltán Dörnyei's L2 Motivational Self System to analyze interviews with ten traditional musicians from Nova Scotia with varying degrees of Gaelic fluency, we find that musical knowledge inspires and enriches their language learning and vice versa. It is the interviewees’ holistic understanding of Gaelic culture, as well as the culture's links to community and heritage, that motivates them.

Patient satisfaction is important to patient outcomes. Previous attempts to conceptualize satisfaction have often taken an atheoretical approach and focused on doctors’ communication skills. Patients are becoming more active health consumers involved in their health care and current definitions of patient satisfaction may not accurately reflect patient expectations about their health consultations. Earlier research found that meeting patients’ emotional needs – through empathy and patient-centered communication – is important to patient satisfaction. New research is needed to explore how those needs can be met given the changing trend in patient behaviors and the focus on patient-centredness. This study employed two communication theories – the Willingness to Communicate Model and Communication Accommodation Theory – to consider both patients’ communicative decisions, and the intergroup features of the health context that can influence communicative behaviors. Two hundred and fifty-three patients from health clinics in Canada and Australia described what satisfaction meant to them, and identified what aspects of their health consultation were satisfying (or not), and we investigated their perceptions of doctor’s emotional expression. Results suggest that patient perceptions of their participation in the consultation predicts their perceptions of doctor emotional expression, and their satisfaction with the consultation. Patients want both emotional and medical needs met in an environment that balances interpersonal and intergroup communication. Our findings suggest the need to expand current definitions of patient satisfaction, patient-centredness and emotional expression. We discuss the implications of these findings for health practitioners and consider future research that addresses the need for more individualized health care.

Communication between health professionals and patients is an intergroup phenomenon where the health professional has the most power and status. Over the past few decades, there has been a steady increase in the availability to patients of information about healthcare and specific diseases on the Internet. In this paper, we ask whether the use of Internet health information assists patients to manage their consultations with health professionals better and whether it alters the intergroup dynamic by providing a more equal status for patients. In this study 370 participants from Australia and Canada completed a survey that included a ‘willingness to communicate with health professionals’ scale. They also commented on their use and trust of Internet health information. Thematic analysis suggests that patients’ use of Internet health information serves as a broker between patients and their health provider in health consultations. We discuss the implications of these findings for health practitioners as they address how easier Internet access influences patient interactions with health professionals. We consider future research directions these finding provide in explaining communication behaviour in this context.

The present research examines the role of music and dance in motivating Gaelic language learning on Cape Breton Island (Canada). The Gaelic language, once thriving in this context, has declined in use but flourishes in both music and dance. This article presents the results of in-depth interviews (60–90 minutes) with 10 accomplished adult musicians and dancers who described in rich detail connections between traditional music and the Gaelic language. The interview texts were analyzed using Leximancer 4.0, text-mining software that performs an automatic analysis by deriving, in a grounded fashion, the key concepts in a text. Semantic and relational co-occurrence information was extracted using artificial intelligence, producing a map of interrelations among concepts. Three interrelated concepts are introduced to describe community-level motivational processes evident in the interviews: Rooted second language (L2) self, heritage passions, and heritage convictions. The rooted L2 self is defined by connections to place and speakers of the language; heritage passions reflect the development of emotional bonds, core values, and strengths; and heritage convictions capture deep-seated beliefs, attitudes, and mindsets. Elements of both Gardner's notion of integrative motivation and Dörnyei's L2 self system are evident and are considered within Ushioda's (2009) person-in-context relational model, emphasizing the connections among learners and contexts.

In this chapter, we explore intercultural health communication in doctorpatient and interprofessional interactions. Traditionally, intercultural health communication research has focused on interpersonal issues. We argue here that, although interpersonal aspects are present, intergroup issues are often likely more salient and have a greater impact on communicative behavior. Consequently, we propose that intercultural communication competence (ICC) training programs must consider both interpersonal and intergroup characteristics of intercultural health communication. We invoke Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT), which takes into account how interpersonal and intergroup aspects of the health context influence motivations and subsequent communicative behavior. CAT is ideally suited to inform ICC training programs.

The articles presented in this special issue bring attention to important sociocultural variables and language strategies present in the ever-changing and complex health care system. These articles were selected from the health communication symposium of the 14th International Conference of Language and Social Psychology held in Hawaii in 2014. The articles each concentrate on different aspects of health communication and employ different theoretical and analytical approaches, but they all call for more education and better interventions to improve relations in the health context and patient care.

By emphasizing the value of health professionals’ communication skills in creating positive health care experiences, researchers have tended to study health communication as an interpersonal encounter. Interactions in the health context, though, are inherently intergroup. Using the language and social psychology approach, this study emphasizes those intergroup features of health communication. We used mixed methods and applied communication accommodation theory and the willingness to communicate construct to the health context. Participants in Canada and Australia (N = 371) were asked about their perceptions of their health consultations. Multiple regression analyses revealed that health communication competence was the best predictor of patient willingness to communicate. Differences between patients’ accounts of positive and negative health care experiences were clearly differentiated by their perceptions of the health professionals’ communication strategies. The potential effects of these strategies on patient participation are discussed.