A case study of multicultural workplace impact on language teaching staff at a British university language centre operating in China

This study investigates the interaction pattern of a Language Centre in a British university in a China campus where, the main campus of which is situated in the north of England and has two other overseas campuses (China and Malaysia). In Language Centres in the British universities, languages teaching staff usually interacts with at least two cultures, that is, English culture and their mother language culture. The language teaching staffs at the Language Centre of this university involves at least three cultures, that is, English culture, individual’s mother tongue language culture and Chinese culture. This study used Hofstede’s dimensions of culture as the framework of the study and the main question of the study was how various culture interplay among the staff’s value orientation. As for the methodology, discourse analysis of e-mails which dealt with problems during 14 months was used focusing on two language staff (Japanese and French). The result showed that teaching staff in the multicultural workplace seemed to alter and replace their own value orientations on a mix and match basis, which may give effects to changes of their personalities. It also suggested that cultural acquisition could occur regardless of the maturity of personality.