Enhancing intercultural communication among business communication students

The issue of international students in the tertiary classroom is of broad significance across disciplines as evidenced, for example, in the work of Ladyshewsky (1996), Pe‐Pua (1995), and Romm, Paterson and Hill (1994). The need for university instructors to employ teaching strategies that are student‐centred and interactive has also been gaining attention in recent literature, for example, in the work of Biggs (1992, 1997), Chalmers and Volet (1997), and McKay and Kember (1997). This article presents some practical teaching strategies employed in an undergraduate Business Communication class that, in our experience, provide a context that encourages student interaction and participation to the mutual benefit of both local and international students. Data collection procedures included an open‐ended questionnaire, observation of students, informal and unstructured discussions and reflective journals of students and tutor. The conclusions drawn here suggest that these strategies not only enhance classroom participation by international students but also allow international and local students to interact more productively with each other