INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN SOCIAL MEDIA DISCOURSE: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF FACEBOOK AND YOUTUBE COMMENTS IN THE VIETNAMESE CONTEXT
Main Article Content
Abstract
This article analyzes how intercultural communication is manifested in Vietnamese users’ social media discourse and examines the role of the Vietnamese sociocultural context in shaping these practices. Adopting a qualitative discourse-analytic approach, the study draws on a corpus of 72 public comments collected from Facebook and YouTube. The findings indicate that intercultural communication in the data is mainly manifested through three dimensions: negotiating cultural differences, constructing and contesting “us–them” boundaries, and critical reflection associated with cultural positioning. The data also suggest the imprint of the Vietnamese context through orientations to face, collectivist values, and the adjustment of public expression in online interaction. The study contributes to current scholarship by showing intercultural communication as a context-embedded discursive practice in digital environments and by adding a perspective from Vietnam to existing research on intercultural communication in social media discourse.
Keywords
intercultural communication, social media discourse, discourse analysis, critical cultural awareness, Vietnamese context
Article Details
References
Androutsopoulos, J. (Ed.). (2014). Mediatization and sociolinguistic change. De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110346831
Boyd, D. (2010). Social network sites as networked publics: Affordances, dynamics, and implications. In Z. Papacharissi (Ed.), A networked self: Identity, community, and culture on social network sites (pp. 39–58). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203876527-8
Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Multilingual Matters. https://books.google.com.jm/books?id=0vfq8JJWhTsC&printsec=copyright&hl=vi#v=onepage&q&f=false
Byram, M. (2021). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence: Revisited. Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781800410251
Chib, A., & Shi, J. (2018). Structured imaginings: Social media as a tool to reduce intergroup prejudice. Intercultural Communication Studies, 27(2), 17–43. https://media.sciltp.com/articles/sciltp/ics/2018/3-CHIB-SHI.pdf
Deardorff, D. K. (2006). Identification and assessment of intercultural competence as a student outcome of internationalization. Journal of Studies in International Education, 10(3), 241–266. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315306287002
Deardorff, D. K. (2020). Manual for developing intercultural competencies: Story circles. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000370336
Hall, J. K., & Doehler, S. P. (2011). L2 interactional competence and development. In J. K. Hall, J. Hellermann, & S. P. Doehler (Eds.), L2 interactional competence and development (pp. 1–15). Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781847694072-003
Hymes, D. H. (1972). On communicative competence. In J. B. Pride & J. Holmes (Eds.), Sociolinguistics: Selected readings (pp. 269–293). Penguin. https://wwwhomes.uni-bielefeld.de/sgramley/Hymes-1.pdf
Kramsch, C. J. (2009). The multilingual subject: What foreign language learners say about their experience and why it matters. Oxford University Press. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-multilingual-subject-%3A-what-foreign-language-it-Kramsch/c4cbb65234636f0e09d53eff9f0ed322533b430f
Li, P. (2024). Exploring intercultural communication through identity construction: A case of YouTube comments. International Journal of English Linguistics, 14(4), 79–89. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v14n4p79
Liddicoat, A. J., & Scarino, A. (2013). Intercultural language teaching and learning (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118482070
Neubaum, G., Rösner, L., Rosenthal-von der Pütten, A. M., & Krämer, N. C. (2020). Digital destigmatization: How exposure to networking profiles can reduce social stereotypes. Computers in Human Behavior, 112, 106461. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106461
Pennycook, A. (2010). Language as a local practice. Routledge. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288289784_Language_as_a_Local_Practice
Saglik, C. (2025). The “other” through the eyes of the host: A discourse analysis of American and German YouTube users’ reactions to migration and immigrant issues. Comparative Migration Studies, 13, Article 89. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-025-00507-2
Shuter, R. (2012). Intercultural new media studies: The next frontier in intercultural communication. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 41(3), 219–237. https://doi.org/10.1080/17475759.2012.728761
Thurlow, C. (2017). Digital discourse: Locating language in new/social media. In J. Burgess, T. Poell, & A. Marwick (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of social media (pp. 135–145). SAGE. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473984066.n8
Le, T. T., Do, P. T. H., & Nguyen, N. T. M. (2024). Online media communication research in Vietnam 2003–2023: A review. Online Media and Global Communication, 3(3), 447–471. https://doi.org/10.1515/omgc-2024-0034
Young, R. F. (2011). Interactional competence in language learning, teaching, and testing. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (Vol. 2, pp. 426–443). Routledge. https://dept.english.wisc.edu/rfyoung/Young2011.pdf