Research

Teachers of the Master’s specialisation Global Communication and Diversity are also researchers, with Radboud University’s Centre for Language Studies, mostly in the research group Non-Nativeness in Communication. They investigate the effects of communication strategy and language choice in organizational settings on stakeholders with diverse backgrounds (e.g. in advertising or management-employee communication). They also study linguistic factors that may be of influence in interpersonal settings (e.g. how a particular foreign language accent or communication style is perceived in a business meeting or job interview involving participants with diverse backgrounds). Specifically, our researchers study the role that language and diversity play in organisational and interpersonal communication and how these factors may be taken into account to design effective communication. They use a multi-method approach, featuring cross-linguistic and cross-cultural methodologies, and ranging from surveys to corpus analysis and experiments.

Examples of research themes:

• the impact of using multiple languages (code-switching), or the use of a ‘shared’ language (a lingua franca such as English), on communication processes and outcomes (e.g. in team meetings or problem-solving tasks);
• the influence of a localised communication style (i.e. adapted culturally to a specific target group) versus a standardised (universal) communication style on target group perceptions of inclusiveness and their behaviour;
• the role of intercultural and foreign language competence in employees’ communication success;
• the effects of non-nativeness in oral or written organisational communication (e.g. accentedness, non-native information structure, non-native language errors, non-native pragmatics) on target group perceptions;
• the use of communication strategies by non-natives to facilitate international (e.g. cross-cultural) communication, to solve potential comprehension problems and to promote common understanding and inclusiveness.

What our research means for your Master’s thesis

For your Master’s thesis, you will investigate a research question or hypothesis that is relevant to one of the research themes currently being investigated in our department. Examples of recent Master’s thesis themes, belonging to the three thematic areas, are:

• Intercultural Communication: (non-native) accents in professional communication; multicultural competence, multilingualism, and personality-job fit; accent profiling; cross-cultural politeness strategies
• Diversity and Inclusion in Communication: language choice in bilingual societies; social media and inclusion, digital media and migration; adaptive communication in diverse contexts; lingua franca use in international meetings
• International Marketing: foreign languages in adverts; universality and cultural variation in persuasion; linguistic relativity in advertising