How do students use smartphone in intercultural communication for group work

GROUP ASSIGNMENT REPORT, QUALITATIVE METHODS
DECEMBER 2017
___________________________________________________________________________
Title of the report:
How Do University Students Use Smartphone for Intercultural
Communication in Group Work?
This report contains:
53560 characters (excl. blanks) in group report
+ ____ characters (excl. blanks) in individual log
= ____ characters in all
GROUP NAME:
Group C-30
Names of group members:
Jiahui Tan 201606401
Jiayue Cheng 201605141
Jing Liu 201609959
Yuanyuan Qin 201605610

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................3
Chapter 2: Literature Review.......................................................................................................5
2.1 Role of Smartphone .........................................................................................................5
2.2 Smartphone in Study Contexts.......................................................................................6
2.3 Culture Diversity and Intercultural Communication in University ...........................7
2.4 Smartphones in Intercultural Communication.............................................................8
Chapter 3: Methodology................................................................................................................9
3.1 Research Design...............................................................................................................9
3.2 Data Generation.............................................................................................................11
3.3 Data Analysis – Thematic Analysis..............................................................................12
Chapter 4: Results........................................................................................................................15
4.1 Perception.......................................................................................................................15
4.1.1 Perception of Smartphone ........................................................................................16
4.1.2 Smartphone Use Patterns .........................................................................................17
4.2 Motivation ......................................................................................................................18
4.2.1 Academic Benefits ...................................................................................................18
4.2.2 Stronger Relationships .............................................................................................19
4.3 Challenges.......................................................................................................................20
4.3.1 Personality Drivers...................................................................................................20
4.3.2 Culture Drivers.........................................................................................................21
Chapter 5: Conclusion.................................................................................................................23
Chapter 6: Discussion..................................................................................................................24
6.1 Limitations......................................................................................................................24
6.2 Related to Literature Review........................................................................................25
6.3 Potential Extension........................................................................................................25
Chapter 7: Bibliography..............................................................................................................26
Chapter 8: Appendices ................................................................................................................29
8.1 Interview Guide .............................................................................................................29
8.2 Transcriptions of The Interviews .................................................................................31
8.2.1 Interview 1................................................................................................................31

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8.2.2 Interview 2................................................................................................................37
8.2.3 Interview 3................................................................................................................40
8.3 Codes...............................................................................................................................48
Chapter 9: Reflection Logs .........................................................................................................57

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Chapter 1: Introduction
(Student number: 201605610; 201605141)
Nowadays university students are growing up in the Internet age and are characterized as integral
part of a society of networked individuals, accessible to each other and the nets at all times. As the
world becomes increasingly interconnected, technique adoption has played a profound role as one
of defining factors in everyday life and human progress. Noticeably, there is a dramatically
skyrocketing rise in many countries in terms of the relative number of smartphone users. According
to a Pew Research Centre survey of 45,435 respondents from March 25 to May 27, 2017, which
was conducted among 40 nations and listed countries by smartphone penetration, the South Korea
ranks the first, with roughly 88 percentage of population owning a smartphone (Poushter, 2016).
Additionally, the significant age gap appears in the survey, viz., that younger generation is more
likely to use smartphones and participate in social networking at higher rates compared with their
older counterparts. In China, smartphone users aged from 18 to 34 are roughly twice as many as
those aged 35 and older, with the penetration rate of 85 and 43 per cent respectively (Poushter,
2016). That is, smartphone technology is penetrating the world and becoming ubiquitous in
university settings. The dominance of smartphone as an interactive tool, especially used by young
population, is commonly accepted as a fact.
On the one hand, the internationalism of higher education brings new opportunities for students
engaging in intercultural communication and cultivates their abilities of handling global problems
when facing the modern world. According to statistics in ICEF, the astounding growth in number of
international students studying abroad has occurred, with the figure from 1.3 million in 1990 to 5.0
million in 2014, in the context of an increasingly globalised world, both economically and socially
(ICEF Monitor, 2015).
On the other hand, the paramount force of smartphone adoption fuels the geographical and
cultural boundaries, making ubiquitous social interaction both potentially feasible and international.
Especially for youthful populations, they make up the majority of smartphone users who take
advantage of this technology as one of their key components of communication, improving their
sense of connectedness with real or virtual communities. Besides, students are experiencing a
dramatic increase in intensity of smartphone use in learning. This is due to the ability of extending
the classroom beyond the brick-and-mortar campus. The new concepts, such as Massive Online
Open Courses (MOOCs) and mobile learning (m-learning), have proved convincing for the ability
that smartphone assists in the process of learning and even transforming traditional learning modes

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(Tossell, et al., 2015). Nevertheless, every day brings a new alarm warning about how the
communication and learning technique changes our life for the worse. People involuntarily waste
much more time on smartphones. Furthermore, concern for safety, health and other social problems
due to heavy smartphone use has been raised. It is widely common to see that more smartphone
zombies walk slowly and focus on their smartphones, without any attention to their surroundings,
and drivers talk on the phone, text or use other apps while driving. It is unsurprisingly controversial
since it is widely considered dangerous to increase the risk of accidents. Similarly, students are
more distracted from their study because of smartphones than they expect (Tossell, et al., 2015).
Meanwhile, a 2012 research at the University of Southern California reveals that smartphone makes
teens have sex with strangers they meet on the Internet, an increasing social phenomenon. It seems
that teens are less likely to have safe sex on Internet hook-ups, possibly risking a health and safety
problems (Leach, 2012).
In the context of group work, students are provided with new opportunities of engaging in cross-
cultural communication due to globalized education and they have more frequent contacts with
international students via smartphone. Not surprisingly, there have been an increasingly burning
desire to conduct more researches on how smartphone is used to effect intercultural communication
among international group members, in order to better manage smartphone use to support student
learning in multicultural settings. The rationale behind the study is that very little research exist on
the use of this type of mobile communication in the context of internationalized higher education.
In this paper, we discuss the phenomenon of using smartphone by university students in the
context of group work and problematize how they think of the role of smartphone for intercultural
communication in academic contexts from students’ perspective. The experiences of using
smartphone for communication in group work, might be different depending on how students think
of smartphone and what kind of skills of intercultural communication they have in group work. We
argue that, in order to better understand and use smartphone in such a globalised world, it is
important to first focus on how people use it across culture currently. We aim to answer the
following researching questions: How do students perceive the role of smartphone? What motivate
them to use this device to support group work in multicultural settings? What are the challenges
they face in practical usage?

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Chapter 2: Literature Review
(Student number: 201609959; 201606401)
Themes regarding university students’ usage of smartphone are currently concentrated on its
positive and negative effects both on their study life and social life, to name a few, how to improve
or hinder academic performance, social interaction and psychological performance.
There are a fair number of literatures studied on how this information and communication
technology has effect on intercultural communication and learning, respectively; however, when
limiting this kind of communication within academic contexts, information is scarce.
The reason for use of the term smartphone in the research instead of mobile phone, is because of
the consideration of prevalence of smartphone among university students nowadays, but also the
fact that smartphone have more functions than mobile phones. Smartphone performs many
functions of a computer, with integration of mobile broadband cellular network connection for
voice, SMS, and Internet data communication.
Based upon the literature review, the usage of smartphone by university students can have impact
on their learning and communicating performance with students from other cultures. Our study is
based upon the fact that there exist communication problems in intercultural academic contexts and
claims that smartphone plays a role in intercultural communication. It will focus on how
smartphones play a part in university students communicating with students from different cultural
background within a study group. The literature review will start from a general level on
smartphones and intercultural communication before narrowing down to their interaction.
2.1 Role of Smartphone
Before delving into the specific consideration of smartphone and intercultural communication in
group work, it is important to comment on an important role in linking relationships among
individuals that smartphone has as a communication technology in social life. According to
Arminen, mobile devices allow new emerging types of communication that enable or contribute to
the development of new forms of social action, having an impact on the patterns of establishment
and maintenance of social networks (Arminen, 2007). Turkle writes that social impacts on both
individuals and society of adopting mobile phone technology remain in touch almost everywhere
(Turkle, 2011). Smartphone has many functions that users is heavily depending upon on the mobile
device in their daily life. That is, smartphone becomes a teacher or companion that helps increase

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work productivity. With a smartphone, the users are likely to have control of life in their hands.
(Kalkbrenner, 2011).
2.2 Smartphone in Study Contexts
Smartphone is a way of learning for university students. A term called mobile learning (M-learning)
need to be introduced. Traxler defines mobile learning as combination of wireless and digital
devices and technologies, generally produced for the public and used by a learner as he or she
participates in higher education (Traxler, 2007). It is also defined in another way that Crompton
describes it as “learning across multiple contexts, through social and content interactions, using
personal electronic devices” (Crompton, 2013). However, in the research conducted by Tossell,
they find that students use their mobile devices for informal learning and access to school resources
according to the logged data; on the other hand, they perceive their iPhones as a distraction and a
competitor to requisite learning for classroom performance (Tossell, et al., 2015). That is,
smartphone can act as an assistant in learning but also influence negatively on students.
Park and Lee in their study which explores the relationship between smartphone use and
psychological well-being, find that college students have diverse needs for using smartphones (Park
& Lee, 2011). Generally, there are six factors, composed of caring for others, following popular
trends, communication, information, accessibility and passing time. These factors can also be found
in our interview. Their correlation analysis shows that these factors are significantly related to
social relations and perceived social support, and the following findings suggest that smartphones
are similar to traditional mobile phones in preserving close social ties. College students enhance
bonding relations via smartphone communication rather than forge bridging relations with distant
others and strangers. In conclusion, smartphone is important for college students to strengthen
social relationship in study life.
Because of the academic help supported by smartphone and students’ need for maintaining social
relationship, the prevalence of smartphone among students arise the problem of addiction.
Numerous studies examine that smartphone addiction has several negative effects on students.
(Kadi̇r D., 2015) in their research find that overuse of smartphone is related to poor sleep quality
and high depression and high anxiety. Samaha and Hawi in their study claim that the risk of
smartphone addiction is related positively to perceived stress and negatively to academic
performance (Samaha & Hawi, 2015).

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2.3 Culture Diversity and Intercultural Communication in University
Jakob Lauring defines intercultural communication that it is used to describe a wide range of
communication processes and problems that naturally appear within an organization or social
context made up of individuals from different religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds
(Lauring, 2011). The research seeks to understand how people from different countries and cultures
act, communicate and perceive in the world around them. Besides, many people in intercultural
business communication argue that culture determines how individuals encode messages, what
medium they choose for transmitting them, and the way messages are interpreted. The influence
coming from different culture background also exists for students in university where there are
increasingly more international students. Zimmermann writes that intercultural communication is
not simply a “problem” to be solved, but something to be explored and encouraged (Zimmermann,
1995). Higher education is concerned with cultural diversity issues, both to enhance students’
experiences on campus and to prepare them to function in their careers and in the larger society, as
it says, “there is a strong belief among college and university officials in the importance of diversity
in the student population” (Barnes, 1991). Zimmermann also claims that international students’
academic success depends to a great extent on their ability to interact with native instructors and
students. On the contrast, Dunne conducts researches on intercultural communication between host
students and international students, and finds that in the current study the host students almost
unanimously tend to perceive international students to be academically superior to them (Dunne,
2013). This is exemplified by host students preferring to study with international students when
doing group work in order to get a better grade, or referring them to “clarify complicated course
content at various times”. Another finding in the research “(t)he ‘perceived utility’ of interacting
with students perceived as culturally different emerged as the most prevalent motivation among
host students…what was particularly noticeable form the data analysis was that although the idea of
utility was clearly evident, it was restricted to the academic context. That is, host students made no
reference to international students offering any possible utility in non-academic contexts, such as
socializing”. This indicates that in a university, intercultural communication happens most in the
academic context.
Ikuko Nakane finds that silence of students from Asia, attending universities in countries such as
the US, UK and Australia, has been discussed extensively in the literature (Nakane, 2006), which
indicates that silence is a part of communication problems in intercultural academic context.
Sifianou claims that communication problems are more likely to occur among participants from
different socio-cultural backgrounds, due to gaps in “the tacit agreement among native speakers as

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to which forms are conventionalized, which forms carry what degree and what kind of politeness”
(Sifianou, 1992). Spencer-Oatey also suggests that “rapport management strategies” may vary
across cultures and lead to problems in intercultural communication (Spencer-Oatey, 2000). Thus,
skills and competence of intercultural communication in an environment with culture diversity is
essential for both host country students and international students, to adapt to new school life.
2.4 Smartphones in Intercultural Communication
Smartphone is an essential part of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and makes
contribution to communication among people from different cultures. Shuter writes that new media
is transforming communication across cultures (Shuter, 2012). The internet computer-mediated
communication (CMC), social network sites (SNSs), mobile phones, Skype, text messaging, on-line
games (MMOGs), virtual worlds, and blogs, have dramatically increased contact between
individuals and groups from different cultures. No longer restricted primarily to face-to-face
encounters, people worldwide utilize ICTs to communicate instantaneously with others regardless
of geo-political boundaries, time, or space.
Different cultures also have impact on using smartphones. Yaning Cui and other scholars
investigate the effects of cultural differences on smartphone adoption by organizations, through
comparing the organizations in Canada and Turkey (Cui, et al., 2007). The result is that cultural
differences have a significant impact on the adoption of smartphones by organizations, as Turkey is
characterized as a collectivistic culture and Canada as an individualistic culture. Although this study
examines that adoption at the organizational level and the impact of variable of individuals is not
considered, the conclusion that different cultures have impact on smartphones usage is supported.
Most of existing literature focuses on separate fields regarding smartphone use in learning and
communication. It lacks the context of how university students use smartphone to do with
intercultural communication specifically when they are in group work. The existing literature
cannot describe or explain how smartphone functions under such a common but particular situation.
A deeper research for this could support both educators and university staff to manage student
diversity, but also help students to use this advanced technology to gain better academic
performance and deal with possible intercultural communication problems. Thus, there is a clear
need for more researches on how university students use smartphone for intercultural
communication in group work, closing the gap in the pre-existing literature.

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Chapter 3: Methodology
(Student number: 201609959; 201606401)
In the literature review, we referred to researchers studying the phenomenon of usage of
smartphone, the contribution of smartphone in intercultural communication and the application of
smartphone in study context. The study was designed to explore the role of smartphone played in
the context of international university students study in groups. The objective of this study was to
find out how students perceived smartphone as a communication tool in study context and the
students’ own experiences of using smartphone in intercultural study group.
The experience of studying among several students who came from different countries and
culture backgrounds was defined as a process of intercultural communication. This study was built
upon previous qualitative research findings on intercultural communication, which had found that
there may be some correlations between the modern development of technology for communication
and intercultural communication. In our research, we specified the context of intercultural
communication as studying with international students in university. Also, the context of modern
technology for communication was specified as smartphones based on the fact that this device is
prevailing among university students.
The research group consisted of four people. In order to conduct this study, we interviewed three
persons with the semi-structured research guideline. Before analysing the data collected, we have
designed the strategy of research and the techniques as well as procedures to analyse the interview
data. We elaborated these further in following paragraphs
3.1 ResearchDesign
As mentioned above, this study was designed to primarily seek in-depth understanding of the
experience of university students using smartphones to communicate with foreign students in their
study group.
Basically, the study employed a qualitative approach, because the quantitative data is limited to
depicting the rates and distribution of smartphone use in intercultural communication. It cannot
provide in-depth understandings into experience of individual in use smartphones to communicate
with people from another culture either, where we are supposed to find their thoughts, emotions and
personalities. Thus, qualitative method was the most appropriate way for our research objective.

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With findings in individual’s experience, the research studying in smartphones and intercultural
communication can explore something potential regarding to characteristics and culture background
of individuals and their usage of smartphone in group study. The research aimed to answer the
following questions: how do students perceive smartphone as communication tool? What factors
drive them to use this device in study group? And what are their experiences of using smartphone to
support group work in intercultural setting. In other words, we would like to explore students’
smartphone usage phenomenon which led us to using an exploratory study. Later on, we discovered
effects of smartphone and intercultural communication in a study context that may help us to
explain the students’ behaviours. At this stage, we followed an explanatory study.
The study was mainly conducted in an inductive approach. As mentioned previously, the purpose
of this research is to discover a general phenomenon by studying some specific cases. Induction
approach gives the opportunity to develop new “theory” based on the analysis collected data, and
the researcher does not enter the research environment with predetermined hypothesis or a specific
theoretical framework. As a result, the analysis would be more profound without the limitation of
existing knowledge and theoretical framework. However, after collecting the data, we used our data
to test existing theory to see whether or not the results of the analysis are consistent with the
premises. Here, we followed by a deduction approach.
This study employed a case study strategy as a framework and methodology, to explore the
complex phenomenon of usage of smartphones specifically from the perspective of students. In
general, a case study consists of eight steps including problem formulation, literature review,
question definition, research design, sampling, data collection, data analysis and conclusions. The
methodology enables the researchers to deeply understand the complexity of the phenomenon in its
context, based on collecting data first. Data sources for the research is made of literature and
individual interviews. All qualitative interviews of students were the primary sources of data for the
case study. All interviews were recorded via text- or audio-records with permission and conducted
in English with regard to language bias. Questions were flexible and varied in all interviews. The
secondary data were collected by reading literature and conducting literature review.
As our primary data sources came from interviews, the ethical consideration was also a critical
part of formulating the research design. “Some important ethical concerns that should be taken into
account while carrying out qualitative research are: anonymity, confidentiality and informed
consent” (Sanjari, et al., 2014).

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We made sure data from interview were anonymized to preserve anonymity in the way of
insuring interview themselves and people they have referred to in interviews, also locations and
institutions, cannot be identified. Furthermore, information regarding characteristics of interviewees
was only mentioned in part data generation with no details that allow personal information
disclosed.
To maintain confidentiality, only the research group and the lecturers from the university have
full access to the results of the interview.
In our research, we were not given informed consent for disclosing personal information. That’s
could be an ethic problem in the research.
As one of the central ethical issues was anonymity, and in our research, we promised the
interviewees to keep their personal information. However, in practice, our interviews were
conducted in an open space in university, in this case, the participants may provide falsely answers
because they feared of being overheard. This participant bias may also be an issue that would affect
the quality of our research design.
3.2 Data Generation
The interviews were conducted through face-to-face interviews. Face-to-face interviews were held
at various places around the university campus. To get different perspectives for the research, the
interviewees were chosen from different cultures and different educational backgrounds. By using
face-face interviews, it enables the researchers to capture the interviewees’ verbal and non-verbal
ques including body languages. In this way, it provides a deeper understanding on emotions,
behaviours and interviewees’ own experiences for using smartphones when they study with foreign
students. The type of interview that was being used is semi-structured interview. Semi-structure
interview contains some key questions that needs to be covered, so it provides the researcher a
guideline for how the interviews should be conducted, and make sure to stay in focus on answering
the research question, but it still gives the interviewees opportunity to talk freely and to elaborate
what was important to them when using smartphones to communicate with their foreign students.
Also, as this study was essentially exploratory research on this particular topic, where we tried to
understand the reasons behind the decisions that students have taken when they choose to use
smartphone, so that we are able to understand their attitudes and opinions in using smartphone.
Thus, semi-structured might be the most preferred type of interview.

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The interviewers included 4 topics. The first topic was about the interviewees’ intercultural
background including the study groups in the lectures and the tutorials, the second topic was about
their daily smartphone habits, the third topic was about the primary communication way they use to
contact with their foreign students, here the interviewees were also asked to give an example of
their own experience in intercultural study when they communicate with their group members. The
final topic was about the interviewees’ views about using smartphone to communicate with foreign
students. Here the interviewees were also asked to give some tips of using smartphone in
intercultural communication. In order to achieve a deep analysis, each interview varied about
minimum 30 minutes. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim. Furthermore,
since interviewees were chosen from different educations with different cultural backgrounds, the
language used to the interviews were English. However, one cannot be ignored is that different
cultures have various understanding about the same word, thus, sometimes, misunderstanding
cannot be ignored. So, to ensure validity and reliability of data, multi investigators reviewed the
data independently, and came to agreement upon both the coding categories.
For analysing data collected, we summarized all phenomenon and behaviours we have observed.
And then, similar phenomenon and behaviours were coded and divided into different categories,
which were related to the specific research questions. By doing this way, we were able to transfer
these invisible data to visible ones as well as discovering implicit logic relationships under specific
situations. That is to say, we can obtain common conclusions by studying these specific cases. The
data analysis method we have chosen was thematic analysis, which will be elaborated further in
data analysis section.
3.3 Data Analysis – Thematic Analysis
Regarding the analysis of data in the search, thematic analysis was adopted, which is one of the
most common ways of analysing data of qualitative research. Thematic analysis underlines the
process of checking and recording patterns from data. Themes are patterns of cross-data sets and are
important to describe phenomenon, connecting data to a specific research question. In the research
question, we tried to find out the students’ experience, view and perception when using smartphone
in intercultural group work, thus, thematic analysis might be the most appropriate way for the
research purpose.
Thematic analysis involved a four-phase process:

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The first step was to become familiar with data collected. Since we didn’t interview many
interviewees, it was easy to go through all of interview records and be familiar with them. The next
step was coding data. We started from coding all answers in one interview with each respondent.
During coding, we found an answer after one question might include several points because of the
disorder of organizing text. Also, interviewees didn’t know how to answer the question or didn’t
understand the whole question, but they still tried to answer question, resulting in a wrong reply for
the question or having no relationship with our interview questions. We tried to divide the
paragraph that not so integrated and systematic into several pieces and code each of them. After all
coding work finished, we merged some of codes from individual and eliminated some codes which
was not valuable. The third step was searching for themes and recognizing relationships. We tried
to find themes through codes from the same interview questions. For example, ‘what roles you
think smartphones playing in intercultural communication with fellow student?’ We believed that it
was an efficient way to base on the same interview question. We can find answers with similar
points or different points where we can compare them, and recognize relationships between points,
and this similar pattern will be the theme that we are going to investigate further. The backgrounds
of interviewees were also what we account for, since we might find some relationships after
combining their answers and backgrounds. The last step is refining themes and testing propositions.
From the themes we have found before, we combined or separated some of them to make new
themes and also discarded themes that we don’t want to explore.
The findings were based on the themes found from codes. To answer the research question, we
need to know the interviewees background in the study environment and their attitudes and
emotions towards smartphone in intercultural communication, and their habits and opinions of
using smartphone to study with foreign students. The similarities and differences between
interviewees were also helpful to answer the research question.
Based on all codes we have done, group members reviewed study purposes and classified codes
that might be useful. After coding we categorized these codes into different categories:
1) Perception of smartphone
More opinions and comments regarding smartphones in intercultural study group described by
interviewees.
2) Smartphone use patterns
Interviewees’ choices of how to use smartphones to communicate with group members and their
reasons and opinions.

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3) Academic benefits
Smartphone provides academic help for their group work with foreign students.
4) Stronger relationships
Smartphone making relationships between group members tighter and closer.
5) Communication barrier
Barriers interviewees counted when they use smartphones communicating to group members.
These barriers may arise from difference in personalities and difference in cultural backgrounds. So,
communication barrier can be further divided into two sub-categories:
 Personality drivers
 Culture drivers
Furthermore, three themes are found to explain the phenomenon:
1) Perception:
Interviewees’ attitudes towards smartphone
2) Motivation:
Here, we investigated the behaviour of students and tried to answer the research question: what
motivated students to use smartphone in an international study group. This may link to the students'
perception of smartphone.
3) Challenges:
Any biases and challenges the interviewees experienced when using smartphone to communicate
with their foreign students.

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Chapter 4: Results
(Student number: 201605610)
As stated above, gaining an insight into how university students use smartphone for intercultural
communication in group work is important. We came across the issue as we were analysing the data
of the interview transcripts. Three university students in Aarhus were sampled regarding their
smartphone use limited in group work and their perceptions of this technology. There were three
overriding themes emerged from the analysis of interviewees’ discourses of various aspects of their
smartphone use. These three themes could be conceptualized as referring to: 1) perception, 2)
motivation, and 3) challenges.
In line with pre-existing research as mentioned before, this study shows that university students
use their smartphone to connect with other students for finishing teamwork and building a stronger
relationship with each other, however they have diverse perceptions of the technology and
challenges on communication. This study also finds that smartphone is also used to enhance
intercultural communication and to cultivate intercultural competencies in the face of such an
internationalised world. There were distinguishing motivations as underpinning reasons of
interviewees with varying strength and frequency of mention presented in the interview data, for
using smartphone to connect with foreign team members. There were obvious differences in how
the interviewees, who adopted smartphone as a communication and learning tool, perceived this
technology. The data evidence also suggested that smartphone, acting as a method of gaining social
interaction, both helped and hindered the intercultural communication limited in academic contexts.
Clearly, each of these three themes will be presented and discussed.
4.1 Perception
The “perception” of smartphone use emerged as the most prevalent theme mentioned in the data.
The data analysis provided an additional detail, regarding the different ways students perceive
smartphone for communication in group work settings as well as behaviour diversity in choosing
smartphone use patterns.

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4.1.1 Perception of Smartphone
Codes created during data analysis relating to this included the following: “easier and more
convenient for cross-culture communication but not the only way”, “for killing time”, “very
important in intercultural communication”, “important to be connected in international
background”, “much easier to make new friends around the world”, “like a bridge for me to
exchange my thoughts with my group members”, “helpful to tell others what and how we are
thinking”, “a tool to search information and to kill time”, and “cannot neglect face-to-face
communication”. This is based on a perceptual outlook, whereby students have in common a
discrepancy among how they receive, organize and interpret the world of smartphone. Logically,
the specific nature of this motivation varied based upon the individual’s perspective. For example,
some students highly valued the role of smartphone and identified this technology as a crucial
resource which could be utilized to assist in the process of group work. As one interviewee
explained:
In intercultural communication, the smartphone is very important. Let’s say, we are in a group
and you two have smartphones and I don’t have. You are connected through something, like
Messenger, Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp and whatsoever. How I might be connected? I
cannot connect. So it’s very important. It has been become important as expect to have a
smartphone with you that you can connect specially in the international background, university
like this.
Some students described that smartphone was favoured for informal group discussion and access
to group members after class. Nonetheless, data analysis indicated that smartphone use was not
always perceived as important underpinning their contact with foreign group members. This idea is
evident in another interviewee’s discourse:
Because I value face-to-face communication. Smartphone is a tool to search information and to
kill time. Although it connects use to other people, I still think we cannot neglect face-to-face
communication that enables us for deep and sensible interaction.
These two examples show the differences in student perceptions of the role of smartphone.
Indeed, in the light of the above, it is rational because of the specific nature of perception. Bratton
claims that perception is a selective, subjective and largely automatic process of cognition, whereat
people filter sensory stimuli from external environment in different ways. (Bratton, 2015). Different
cultural backgrounds, existing knowledge, experience, and other factors function as a filter,
determining selected inputs and influencing how we interpret the world. Some students generally

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believed based on their own past experiences and surroundings, that their smartphones would help
them to improve their communication in the group and obtain better grades, while others with
completely different backgrounds considered smartphones as a distraction from their studies and
valued face-to-face communication. Therefore, students hold various views on how smartphone
plays a role in group work with international students.
4.1.2 Smartphone Use Patterns
As a result of different perceptions, the way people make sense of the world influences their
reaction (Bratton, 2015). Sample students chose different communication patterns on smartphone to
communicate with international group members, mainly dependent upon how themselves and their
team members perceived smartphone use. Two students spoke at length about this:
I would recommend that to make a phone call instead of taking messages because any
misunderstandings or things that unclear can be resolved immediately.
I believe if we have contact number, we can connect him directly and ask him to call. It also
depends on the personality with the person and the culture that he has been brought up or
grown. Sometimes he might just ignore calls because I do have friends like that. Ignoring calls,
does not take calls and any… difficult to contact. Each way is dependent. Maybe like we are
not using or maybe it’s old fashion to contact through the normal calling system. Maybe also
there can be cost problem. That’s why we choose media, social media.
Even though phone calls were heard as preference of communication, the reaction also illustrated
that some students rejected this pattern and did not get connected. Similar to phone calls, social
media on smartphone was mentioned frequently as well. The main reason underlying the different
choices can be the varying perception possibly arising from culture divergence and other factors.
Edward T. Hall has proposed three cultural dimensions in his model: context, space, and time
(Nardon & Steers, 2009) at which different cultures are characterised and distinguished. Taking
departure in the theoretical contribution from the model, students from low-context culture tend to
prefer direct communication, such as phone calls, to convey their meaning immediately and without
relying on external environment, whereas students from monochromic culture value separation of
work and personal life and might not be connected via calls after class. This could lead to
perceptual conflict and inefficient communication in group work.

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Overall, the interviewees in the study varied with age, gender, culture and other backgrounds.
They presented different perceptions of smartphone and last choices of communication patterns,
which seemed logical and could be understood.
4.2 Motivation
Although we heard from the data analysis that some students were happy to use smartphone to
support their communication in group work, however the reactions also illustrated that a number of
students placed less attention on the technology. This is possibly because the smartphone use seems
to crowd out personal and intrinsic motivations, for instance “deep and sensible interaction” from
face-to-face communication that smartphone communication could not provide with. Motivation is
defined as “a cognitive decision-making process that influences the effort, persistence and direction
of voluntary goal-directed behaviour” (Bratton, 2015). The motivations for students using
smartphone to connect other foreign members were identified as referring to: 1) academic benefits,
and 2) stronger relationships. The first emerged with more strength and frequency of mention by
students in the interviews. It could be seen as the main reason that students were motivated to use
smartphone for group communication in multicultural settings. The second was identified as a
separate motivational factor on the basis that time and space appeared to be key. That is, stronger
relationships may arise in the medium or long term, expanding the contexts from group work to
everyday life.
4.2.1 Academic Benefits
The function of smartphone to help with educational work is perceived as favourable prior to use.
This is based on a pragmatic outlook, whereby students were motivated to engage in intercultural
communication for group work dependent on some perceived academic benefits. As one
interviewee explained in detail:
The benefit is whenever and whatever you get the problem regarding the project, let’s say if
it’s been divided into four people, say one get stuck in somewhere like I don’t know how to
explain the research method logic and if he/she texts to group chat. Let’s say I have some
knowledge about research design and I can share my knowledge instantly. He or she is not laid
back, the information can flow or be communicated in an instant way. I call it on going
process. When work in a group project, Messenger helps take it any time nor whatsoever
locations or distance barriers, it keeps the project on going.

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Another interviewee also indicated that she used smartphone to accomplish school-related tasks,
such as setting time schedule and arranging group meetings. These students associated smartphone
use with accomplishing academic utilities. Students highly expected the value of smartphone to
achieve their educational goals. Equity theory may provide an extremely useful lens to analyse how
students are motivated by academic benefits to engage in intercultural contact via smartphone,
based on comparison of ratio between input and output (Bratton, 2015). Individuals generally seek
fairness and compare themselves with similar individuals in similar situations; therefore, inequity
may motivate changes in behaviour. Students might be motivated to use smartphone in group work
as they perceive that the outputs from smartphone use outweigh the inputs, while they become
demotivated whenever they feel their inputs are not being fairly rewarded. This could be
exemplified by students referring to linking smartphone use with instant problem solution, since
they placed the main urgency on assignment achieving over the time spent on smartphone and
troubles that could result from being exposed to ubiquitous messages and calls. In contrast, students
who thought smartphone was more of a distraction than a help, may be encouraged to seek
alternative ways to communicate within the group.
4.2.2 Stronger Relationships
What was particularly noticeable from the data analysis was that students made mention of
smartphone offering possible beneficial outcomes in non-academic contexts. That is, these
perceived benefits were not only limited in academic contexts. The second motivational factor was
identified as stronger relationships. It relates to students enhancing their relationships with group
members in the medium or long run as follows.
It makes stronger. Foreign students are new friends for me. To have a new friend in F B… an
application in smartphone, also WhatsApp, Snapchat and Messenger, you have international
friends there. They make you have a strong relationship with them because you share your
views. I share my personalized life story, like if I go to Germany, I put photograph and say
‘I’m in Germany’. When I go to Norway or Sweden, I put a photo of beach ‘I’m enjoying’. it’s
being more open. It helps you being more open with your foreign students and limit the …in
the relationship. For me, having a smartphone, have… relationship with international students
especially in the group work and the group students, so much stronger. I can contact them
whenever. Whatever time I am there, I’m available or when I get stuck, maybe on the bus or
on the train.

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Alderfer’s ERG theory (Bratton, 2015) is developed to categorize individuals’ motivation into
Existence, Relatedness, and Growth, on the basis of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Based on this
theory as a theoretical framework, students can be driven to a certain extent in need of relatedness.
The decision to use smartphone to communicate with foreign group members was made since
students perceived stronger relatedness more valued than the cost using smartphone possibly had.
In the light of the above, the decision for students using smartphone to do group communication
in the context of multi-culture, was motivated by the fact that smartphone actually helps learning
and communication as well as establish contacts out of group.
4.3 Challenges
(Student number: 201605141)
The ultimate part is concerned with challenges of using smartphones among university students in
group study. According to our interviewees, the majority of these challenges, which we could call
“barriers” instead, arose mainly from differences in personalities as well as diversities in culture
backgrounds.
4.3.1 Personality Drivers
Due to various biographical characteristics, and diverse backgrounds and experiences, individuals
have different personalities. This is why people will have different behaviours in the same situation.
Here, we could assume “the same situation” as “using smartphones in a cross-cultural study group”.
Interviewer 2:
“we are forced to give him some responsibilities because we need him to be involved, because he
is not given seriousness in this group project”
“someone choose Facebook for more entertainment”
“ignoring Messengers and switch off notification”
“cannot connect with some group members although he is online”
These comments in turn seemed to suggest that for these students from the same study group
showing up different attitudes as well as different behaviours while they were using smartphones.
Based on the Five-factor model of personality (Bratton, 2015), it is defined that the most
fundamental dimensions of personality include extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness,
emotional stability and openness. Bratton also states that these big five personalities have impacts

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on job performances. Also, we could assume that these five personalities also have effects on
communications and interactions with others using smartphones. Such behaviours, like “choose
Facebook for entertainment” or “ignore others and switch off notification”, are just the right
indication of different degrees of “extraversion” dimension.
Interviewer 2:
“I believe, it is a problem with his cultural aspect or his interconnecting aspect because he has a
problem of being comfortable with the other three students”
Here, what revealed by the interviewee is that one of her group members was not able to be
contacted or stay with group members due to some uncomfortableness. One major underlying factor
is supposed to be an individual feeling crowded when they perceive their personal space have been
invaded. Sears et al. define crowding as the feelings of discomfort and stress related to spatial
aspects of the environment an individual is currently in (Love & Kewley, 2005). We could also
conceive that this group member, when being with others, felt nervous or anxiety, which belongs to
“emotional stability” in Five-factor model of personality (Bratton, 2015).
4.3.2 Culture Drivers
In the context of the present study, as a result, different assumptions and beliefs about cultures, and
different personalities concerning appropriate behaviours in using smartphones, may result in cross-
cultural clashes. As we have discussed before, different personalities drive different attitudes
towards using smartphones. However, we should also attach importance to exploring deeper under
“personality”, because the form of individual personality is anchored by different experiences,
different social and cultural backgrounds.
According to the following codes, “different images or ideas may hurt others”; “different images
or ideas may give a wrong attitude”; “In different cultural contexts, maybe the same word has
different meanings.”, other codes like these also reflected the same fact that diverse cultural
backgrounds cause various understandings, including negative ones like stereotypes. Again, in
terms of using smartphones in diverse cultures, this interview said that:
The main problem is raised by different cultures I think. We don’t know each other’s culture
so much and we have barriers in language. Also, we can’t see others’ facial expressions and
behaviours during our chatting.

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Especially in the context of using smartphones in group work, it seems to create some more
obstacles in the circumstance of cross-cultural communications. Besides language barriers, various
misunderstandings, culture shock as well as other communication disorders may be caused by
different cultural settings and understandings (Culture shock is a sense of dislocation and problems,
psychological and physical, that result from the stress of trying to make adjustment for living in a
foreign culture). For instance, when using smartphones to discuss some topics in group, each
member was likely to have different understandings even on the same image or the same sentence,
because there were no expressions, no tones or no other verbal and non-verbal communication
gestures that could help to make sense. One of common problems is that no response during a long
period leads to a kind of unmannered attitude to others. This gap may be account of differences in
the schema. Originally, “schema” is a notion discussed by Bartlett which has extensively been used
in discourse analysis (Nakane, 2006). According to the definition of “schema”, we know that it is “a
set of knowledge and belief structures” that have been accumulated through past experience and
various social interactions (Nakane, 2006). If we put this “schema” notion in our context, that using
smartphones in group work study, we could debate that different understandings can be seen as a
mismatch of schema, resulting in “cross-culture pragmatic failure”, where different
misunderstandings or miscommunicate intended meanings occur. Furthermore, we could also
embed such phenomenon in Hofstede “Onion model”. When it comes to describing culture diversity,
Geert Hofstede has made a distinction into four layers, where the deepest value represents “national
culture”, determining individual’s behaviours (Nardon & Steers, 2009). What is more, different
culture can be identified through the most basic five dimensions, including power distance,
uncertainty avoidance, individual/collectivism, masculinity/femininity and long-term/short-term.
Thus, for some people, who did not reply messages immediately, they had large possibilities to do
some more important things, at least in his/her perspectives. However, for others, they hold the
belief that replying messages at once is the most fundamental respect. These opposite behaviours
could indicate masculinity and femininity dimensions respectively, where in masculinity society,
people value more on money or personal goals, rather than on quality on life or relationships with
others, and vice versa.
Overall, we cannot deny smartphones plays a significant role in group study. However, due to a
cross-culture environment, those emerging challenges, resulting from different personalities and
cultures allow us to behave appropriately and utilize smartphones correctly in cross-culture settings.

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Chapter 5: Conclusion
(Student number: 201605610; 201605141)
In this article, we have explored a deep insight into students’ usage of smartphones involving in
intercultural contact in a higher education context. Regarding our thirty-three codes, we have
divided them into six categories, that consist of “perception of smartphone”, “smartphone use
patterns”, “academic benefits”, “stronger relationships”, “personality driver”, and “culture driver”,
in order to summarize three themes for using smartphones, which are conceptualized as referring to
perception, motivation and challenges, respectively.
Among the three principal themes which were identified, that of “perception” of smartphone use
emerged as the fundamental theme mentioned in the data. In our analysis of “perception”, we
divided it into “perception of smartphone”, to indicate how students perceive smartphones, and
“smartphone use patterns”, to show different communication patterns used on smartphones. Edward
T. Hall’s model was used for elaboration.
In terms of the second theme, “motivation”, we further believed that “academic benefits” and
“stronger relationships” are the majority of motivators for students to link to other foreign group
members. With the help of Equity theory, we could have an argument that students engaging in
international communication hoped to receive expected both academic and non-academic outputs,
which were worthy of inputs. In addition, Alderfer’s ERG theory was useful to make sense of
students’ needs for seeking sense of belongings and relatedness.
In our final part of the three themes, we also found some challenges or barriers when students
communicated in cross-culture settings, in particular using smartphones. Thus, we perceived that

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these challenges, such as language barriers or other misunderstanding sources, arose from verified
personalities and culture diversities. More further, we debated that students’ different behaviours in
study groups were anchored and determined by individual personalities, underpinned by various
experiences and culture backgrounds.
In conclusion, despite that smartphone facilitates to enhance international relationships as well as
foster communicational competences in group studies, university students are supposed to reduce
challenges and cross-culture clashes with appropriate behaviours and correct communication skills
when using smartphones in different intercultural contexts.
Chapter 6: Discussion
(Student number: 201605610; 201605141)
Based on our previous parts, we have stated the current background of the entire society – tight and
close interrelationships with each other – due to the increasing tendency of globalization. In
particular, the emergence of smartphones as well as advanced technologies enable university
students to be inter-correlated to a higher degree. In addition, we have also clearly presented how
we answer our research questions, ranging from conducting interviewing to exploring some
findings and results. This part will make effort to discuss further so that we are able to discover our
limitations to this study, relationship to previous literature review and potential extension in the
future.
6.1 Limitations
There are certain limitations to this study, however. To name a few, the number of participants were
covered to a very small scope, merely three interviewees. Thus, collection of data is limited, only 33
codes in total. Another point is that, although our research area was designed in several universities,
the fact is that it was only conducted in Aarhus University, rather than other contexts of university
intercultural interaction with smartphones. In addition, it is also desired that different levels of
English speakers’ dimension requires to be investigated more extensively, because during our entire
research procedure, we felt that students who did not have fluent English-speaking skills were more
nervous or anxious. No matter such students are interviewers or interviewees, it may cause some
effects on the whole study. For interviewers, language proficiency means excellent listening skills
as well as precise transformation of interviewees’ expressions. Likewise, on interviewees’ side,

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conversant English skills could make sure smooth process in interviewing. For instance, unclear or
ambiguous expressions of problems made interviewees not understand, which resulted in redundant
or no-value responses. Last but not least, another one is time limitations. Due to limited time period,
we are not able to observe as well as compare the original motivation of interviewees to their
behaviours or performances. There is a possibility that students may have different points of view
with time variation. However, we are not available to these changes and related reasons, which is
worthy of deep research and study.
6.2 Relatedto Literature Review
As we discussed in the paper, we tried to explore the usage of smartphones by university students in
intercultural study groups. Back to our literature review, we have already found literatures on the
current situation of smartphones, smartphone enabling to communicate inter-culturally and
smartphones as learning tools. We believe that prevalence usage of smartphones must have effects,
both positively and negatively, on people’s daily life. Due to the development of society and the
boom of higher education in international environment, there are an increasing number of overseas
as well as exchange students, which means intercultural communication often takes place under
such circumstances. However, there lacks literature about how smartphones affect cross-cultural
communication in the contexts of study group. This is how we related to our current literature
review and our study research.
6.3 PotentialExtension
In a world with large levels of human mobility and cultural diversity, international communication
is a heated issue right now.
Even though people know how to behave appropriately to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings
or cross-culture clashes, there appears to be a lack of both researches and theories in connection to
how our motivations for voluntarily solving intercultural conflicts function. What precisely
motivates an individual (e.g. students) to engage with those whom they perceive to have different
understandings on cultures?
Separately, we have mentioned both “motivation” and “personality” relating to smartphone using
in intercultural group study, using some theoretical models. Further work could also be finished
exploring the degree of which certain personality types (e.g. outgoing, empathy, cautious etc.) may
be interrelated with individual’s motivations to involve in intercultural contract with group
members.

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Currently, existing study as well as our study are mainly in form of description, which means
lacking explanatory researches and theories. Solutions are also indispensable in order to help
students better utilize smartphones for studying and communication, even cultivate capability for
intercultural communication. On the perspective of educationists or faculties, being aware of such
kind of solutions is useful to manage student diversity on a better level, if they could take full
advantage of these resources.
Chapter 7: Bibliography
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Chapter 8: Appendices
8.1 Interview Guide
Before the interview:
1. Introduce the interviewer
2. Purpose of interview:
Our research is aiming at exploring experience of university students using smartphones to
communicate with their foreign members in study groups.
3. NOTE: This interview will be recorded and will be transcribed. Only the research group and
the lecturers from the university have full access to the results of the interview.
The guide is designed to help us prepare for the interviews. The following are suggestions of
questions that are based on the research questions and might be appropriate to ask:
Background:
Ask interviewee to introduce him/herself including:
– Age
– Gender
– Major
– In which year of university
– Preference or habits in study life
Topic 1 Intercultural background

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Questions in this part are concentrate on experience of interviewee in study with foreign group
members including:
– In what courses he/she has a study group
– The task of their study group
– How the work is distributed in their group (interviewee work with others or do individual
work)
– Descriptions about foreign fellow students in term of interviewee (how much they know each
other)
– The satisfied or unsatisfied experience during group work
Topic 2 Daily smartphone habits
Questions in this part are concentrated on interviewee’s usage of smartphone in daily life,
including:
– Making phone calls, text or social media, which is the preference
– How does he/she contact to others
 Phone calls: when, who, how long, how often.
 Text: when, who, how often, text length, stickers, voice message.
 Social media: which social media, who, how often, what kind of interaction (leave
message, reply or like post…)
– Possibilities to change communication way (e.g. from social media to phone calls)
Topic 3 smartphone & intercultural communication
Questions in this part will explore phenomenon in using smartphone to communicate with
students from different culture, including:
– Making phone calls, text or social media, which is the preference when communicate with
foreign students
– How does he/she contact to foreign students
 Phone calls: when, who, how long, how often, language.
 Text: when, who, how often, text length, stickers, voice message, language.
 Social media: which social media, who, how often, what kind of interaction (leave
message, reply or like post…)
– Possibilities to change communication way with foreign students
– Talk about experience of using smartphones in intercultural communication when studying in
group (benefit and challenges of using smartphones instead of face to face, examples)
Topic 4 Acquirement or idea in intercultural communication
Questions in this part will concentrate on knowing how interviewee think about intercultural
communication through smartphones, including:
– What role do you think smartphone plays in intercultural communication?
– What will you do if you don’t have smartphone to contact foreign group members during the
whole group work?

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– In using of smartphone to communicate with foreign group members, is there anything you
find that need to pay attention to?
Specific questions and sequences can be changed in context.
8.2 Transcriptions of The Interviews
8.2.1 Interview 1
Interviewer: Right now, I’m going to introduce myself. We are doing a qualitative research which
is aiming at exploring experience of university students using smart phones to communicate with
their foreign members in study groups. And This interview will be recorded and will be transcribed.
Only the research group and the lecturers from the university have full access to the results of the
interview. Our interview questions have been divided into five parts. The first part is background. In
this part we are going to ask you to introduce yourself.
Can you tell me your age, gender, gender and the year of university?
Interviewee: So I’m 23 years old and I’m currently enrolled in the master’s program in the
quantitative economics. What the more?
Interviewer: Is this your first year of master?
Interviewee: no this is my second year.
Interviewer: OK. And I want to know more about your study life. Do you have any preference or
habits when you study, like in lecture or group work?
Interviewee: Well, what I prefer is to do exercise in groups because that way we can talk about
the exercise and if we have any problems, we can discuss how to solve things. So I think that’s a
better way to approach exercise. Regarding the lectures I prefer to read the material before as in the
lectures I have the idea of what the lecture is going to go through and prepare myself. I think that’s
my mean of preferences.
Interviewer: Next, I want to know something about your daily life. What’s your hobbies?
Interviewee: My hobbies…well, when I have time, I would like to go out with friends to have
fun, play football or exercise some sports activities. Or sometimes just be at home and relax. Maybe
just get way from study for a moment.
Interviewer: In your bachelor’s degree, do you have much time to do hobbies?

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Interviewee: No, I guess. After beginning the university I didn’t real feel like that much time to
really dig into some hobbies, say playing football or other stuff when I just began. I think that’s one
of the things that has been cutting way from my daily life simply because of time constraint, but I’m
trying to find time to exercise my hobbies and continues to keep it.
Interviewer: OK, now next is the topic one. This interview is about your intercultural
background. In this part, our questions are concentrate on experience of interviewing in studying
with foreign group members. So first, we want to know, in what courses do you have a study
group?
Interviewee: Actually, I think, all of courses I have been attending have study groups. During my
bachelor degree, I have more like fixed study groups. We were three people. We met and did
exercises together. And if we encountered any problems with exercises, we would go to other study
groups to ask them whether they had solved problems. If we encountered the same problems, we
would discuss the way they approached to exercises. This for us worked well because instead of
sitting alone and using a lot time to think about how to solve the problem, we can instead talk to
each other about how to approach different exercises and we all think that it is more efficient of
using time, because sometimes you may find some problems hard, you can spend a lot of time and
get hard moving on. So, I think that’s the main way we’ve used in study groups to supplement each
other. And our study group were apart from… were consisted of two other Danish guys. So, I was
the only foreign… if we put in that way. Actually, we didn’t have much problem in working
together. I don’t think there were any problem in relation to that.
Interviewer: Yes, and can you choose one of your experience in study group, like to tell me more
details, your task and the whole process?
Interviewee: Well, let’s say, now also during the Master we have study group, although the study
group change semester to semester due to us taking different courses. We have assignment needed
to be handed in in a week. What we do is to meet in the morning and then we sit down together, and
look at the exercises, and solve these together. If we encounter some problems, we, of course, spend
some time trying to solve them. And if we can’t solve it, we will write down the problems that we
have so that we can ask in the lecture or other study groups which might be able to solve it. And we
will move on to the other exercises. And usually what we will do is that we sit by ourselves in our
group and solve the exercises individually. We talk about how to solve it but we solve it
individually, so that it’s not like the other person has solve the problem and I don’t need to solve it.
We all solve all exercises. So, I think that is the important part to take with you because I know

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some other study groups, they solve problems in collaboration, not all solve all exercises. But that is
the way we do it because we think that is where we learn most. If we were able to solve the entire
exercises or assignment, basically we’ve done. Or we would talk to our lectures to ask questions for
hints and then we would, depending on how times fixed to our schedules, meet again together to
solve the problems that we had. Or we might, two of us, meet and solve. And then we would send
the answer to the other group member. Or maybe we sit down individually at our home or school
and try to solve problems and afterwards we meet and talk about it. It depends on how it fits to our
schedule. Especially during our master degree, we have different courses as well as different
assignments, this will play a more important part because we have lectures at different time. Our
schedules are very different. That’s more in detail to see how study group is working. During the
bachelor degree, it was more like, we meet and we sit down and solve exercises together. And if we
encounter some problems, we would not solve it all. It’s fine. Again, we ask in the lecture and we
sit together because we have the same schedule. We know exactly when we will have time to solve
the exercises. That’s the main differences, I think, between how the study group work in bachelor
and master.
Interviewer: OK get it. And can you describe some of your foreign fellow students, like where do
they come from and how do you know about each other?
Interviewee: Actually, in my case, there were many foreign students. Most of them were all from
Denmark. The only foreign… I think…
Interviewer: ok, where are you from?
Interviewee: I am from China.
Interviewer: But you can speak Danish?
Interviewee: Basically, my parents are from China. But I was born here in Denmark. And I can
speak Danish, Chinese fluently. Most of my fellow students have Danish background. I know a few
that are from Muslim countries. But it’s not that many. I don’t know… Maybe because my
education is in Danish. I don’t know if it influences which people… since the education. I don’t
think I have much to say about these foreign student…
Interviewer: And how do you think about your experience of group work?
Interviewee: I think that the experience has been very good. And definitely it helps me a lot to
learn and to understand materials to go through. Because I have mentioned we are able to d iscuss

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the materials and to discuss potential problems that we might encounter, but also to discuss…we’ve
had about something we have read in materials. So, I think my experience has been very good. I
don’t think I would have…outcome or what we should call it… Instead of sitting alone and trying
to figure out this make sense or why does not make sense. So definitely I recommend that every
student can find a study group.
Interviewer: So how about unsatisfied experience, don’t you have?
Interviewee: Emm… My experience is mostly positive. Maybe just because I was lucky to find a
good study group. But I know that other people have different mixed experiences. Because the way
I look for a study group, when I started my bachelor degree, was to look for people that had the
same ambitions as I had. I would say I am ambitious and I wanted to do a great job in order to get
good grades and learn. Then I would seek other people that would follow the same ambitions, so
that I don’t create study group with people that only want to pass. So, I know that some of my
friends, maybe, have been involved in study groups where the workload between different group
members have been very different because the people that want to do well – they spent a lot of time
working on the different exercises whereas others just wanted to pass, they didn’t put sufficient
effort to pass. I think that others might have that problem but I didn’t have that problems. I think it
is import to align the expectations at the beginning when you form study groups.
Interviewer: the topic two is about daily smart phone habits. I will concentrate on your usage of
smartphone in daily life. First, what is your preference in making phone calls, text or social media,
to connect with others?
Interviewee: I think it depends on who I want to get connected with, because I have some friends
that if I write to them on Facebook or social media, I mean it like to take a year to get answer. So
what I do is to call them for it’s faster and also if questions I want to ask them are urgent or I need
immediate answer, I will definitely prefer to call them so that we can get things done immediately.
But if it’s more like I haven’t seen this person for a long time and I want to know how it’s going, I
would use social media, and mostly Facebook to write to them, how things going and how they are
doing as such. Because I don’t expect an immediate answer. If I have to say which means I prefer, I
would it definitely depends on the person that I want to get touch with. If the things are urgent, I
choose phone call, and if not, social media.
Interviewer: and I want to specific every dimension use phone calls, you can tell me an example
to whom and how long and how often?

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Interviewee: So actually, I have a friend who studies in Copenhagen now. And quiet quickly
after I met him during my bachelor degree, I found out that his horrible answer at social media so I
decided to get touch with him and I called him. Now he studies at Copenhagen. It’s not often to
gather, but I would say, maybe once a week, either I call on him or he calls on me. And just talking
about how things are going and how we are doing. We are seeing at… That’s specific case I use
social media to ask how things are going and such. But I would say that’s more an exception, rather
than rule.
Interviewer: and about social media, which social media are you using?
Interviewee: As social media I am using Facebook, and Linkedin, but Linkedin is mostly for
more professional agreement and rather personal. And I also use Wechat to get touch with my
family in China because Facebook is not allowed. I think it’s long time ago, I used to use QQ, but
right now I am not using it any more. I mean we have Wechat, so that’s fine.
Interviewer: Next topic is we want to know how do you think about the role of smartphone plays
in intercultural communication? Like what tips will you give when you using smartphone?
Interviewee: I would say if you text messages to communicate, it’s definitely important to clear
in formulation and it’s important not to ask questions and trying to come up with a big explanation
of what you are trying to ask because they can confuse the …of your message. It’s also important to
try to use a near pro language in the sense that you don’t use any…some of your knowledge from
your original country’s language, but try to use short formulations and formulate in a clear way so
that we can reduce the chance of misunderstandings. If there’s something small involving, I would
recommend that to make a phone call instead of taking messages because any misunderstandings or
things that unclear can be resolved immediately. I think the same holds when using social media.
Try to be concise on what you are trying to ask or tell, and avoid miss of words and things like that
because that might be different of formulating in different way across different languages.
Interviewer: If you don’t have smartphone, will it make any change?
Interviewee: I think the presence of smartphone makes it easier to communication across culture
but I don’t think it’s the only way because…I mean if you have smartphone, it’s easier for you to
get access to social media and that way communicate across cultures but I mean…nowadays you
almost carry out your computer everywhere and there’s internet connection almost everywhere now
at least in big cities, so not be that much of problem but it is smaller that if you trying to kill some
time often, thinking about writing to some of your foreign friends, it’s definitely easier to do it

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when you have smartphone but it’s not the only way to do it. I think in some way it’s can be
important to have a smartphone because it makes it more convenient while on the other hand, it’s
not that if you don’t have a smartphone then you don’t… it’s a matter of convenience. Prior
knowledge from each other, which not necessarily can remember or need to log out and if we
somewhere we don’t have our computer, it’s more difficult to discuss problems we have. So it’s
much easier to meet and sit by computer and we can show ok I have problem here and here…what
do you think about this? I think it’s more to question about the convenience that is easier to meet
face to face. But before when we had the more simpler problem in quotation marks…we also use
social media to discuss topics… to discuss exercise given and had come up with some plan,
structuring our schedule about when to do and what and so on. I think that the role of social media
has changed when the workload is different.
Interviewer: Can you talk about your experience of using smartphones in intercultural
communication in studying in group?
Interviewee: Your question is how I’m using smartphones to communicate across cultures in
relation to study groups?
Interviewer: Like benefit or… have you met some challenge?
Interviewee: Yes. As I mentioned before, most of my fellow students are Danish but actually I
have encountered a remarkable problem in relation to that… it’s not that we have any difficulty in
formulating what we are wanting to say. I can image that might be difficult if the culture
background is very different because we might have different ways to understand formulations, but
sometimes I do feel that if some of others is writing something maybe…I don’t know…with some
discussing, and the other person is trying to make joke out of something and I don’t get it
immediately because I’m not a Danish…I don’t know. Sometimes I try to make a point and using
some formulation that not clear for them what I mean by their formulation because kind of join of
my knowledge in the Chinese language maybe… so it’s not clear that I’m trying to say. That’s has
been minor issues and it’s not in our study group.
Interviewer: Do you think that using smartphone making your relationship stronger? Or it doesn’t
change anything?
Interviewee: I don’t think…regard to the study group it changes much…what I think, the use of
the smartphone can do is to keep connection to people that we do not see often. In relation to the

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study group, I don’t think that’s making a huge difference because we can just use alternative media
to get in touch if we are not immediately in …of smartphones.
8.2.2 Interview 2
Interviewer: First, I’m going to introduce myself. We are doing a qualitative research which is
aiming at exploring experience of university students using smart phones to communicate with their
foreign members in study groups. And This interview will be recorded and will be transcribed. Only
the research group and the lecturers from the university have full access to the results of the
interview. Our interview questions have been divided into five parts. The first part is background. In
this part we are going to ask you to introduce yourself. Can you tell me your age and the year of
university?
Interviewee: I’m 24 years old and I’m studying in business, in the third semester.
Interviewer: OK. And I want to know more about your study life. Do you have any preference or
habits when you study, like in lecture or group work?
Interviewee: Well, I like to read lecture slides in advance so that I can have an overview on what
I’m going to learn. I prefer to study alone because it’s more effective and efficient for me. It’s easy
to be distracted when studying with other people.
Interviewer: You mean you prefer to study alone, what do you think the difference between
studying alone and in groups?
Interviewee: yes, they’re totally different. Studying alone, what I do is depending on my habits
and plans. However, if I study in groups, I have to be used to others’ study habits. And it’s often
wasting time when group members talk about other things than study. But, I think we still need
group study because it’s helpful for doing some assignments, that you can’t do yourself.
Interviewer: OK, now next is the topic one. This interview is about your intercultural
background. In this part, our questions are concentrated on experience of interviewing in studying
with foreign group members. So first, we want to know, in what courses do you have a study
group?
Interviewee: Actually, we have several study groups each semester. For example, in Intercultural
Communication last semester, I had a study group. We had four persons here to do a presentation in
class.

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Interviewer: Yes, and can you choose one of your experience in study group, like to tell me more
details, your task and the whole process?
Interviewee: Okay, as mentioned before, I had one study group in Intercultural Communication
class. It was random to form a group. We sat together in the first class, so we were in one group.
We were asked to do a group presentation in class. We had four persons, a German, a Japanese, and
two Chinese. We met in the school canteen and talked about the topic we had to present. We
divided the presentation into four parts, and everyone selected one part to present. If we had some
idea for others’ parts, we could spoke out and discussed it together. If we had something we
couldn’t understand well, we also discussed it. Sometimes we had no time to meet in the canteen,
we discussed in the Messenger group. It was convenient.
Interviewer: OK get it. And can you describe some of your group member, like where do they
come from and how do you know about each other?
Interviewee: My group member… well, one of them is from Germany. She was an exchange
student for one semester. In the first class, we sat together so we were assigned to be in the same
group. During the group study, I found she was smart and she was a really great presenter. She
looked confident when standing in front of the whole class. And she was good at making notes in
class. She was helpful in our study group.
Interviewer: Besides cooperation in study, would you like to chat with your foreign group
members after school, like talking about your own daily life?
Interviewee: No, not really. We just talked about our presentation. If there’s no class or group
discussion, I usually leave the school. And I rarely use Facebook or Messenger, we have few
chances for us to chat with each other. And we come from different countries, we have different life
and habits. It’s hard to find a common topic about daily life to talk.
Interviewer: Then, in general, how do you like your experience of group work?
Interviewee: Well, I think it is good. We respect each other, even though we come from different
places. If we had different ideas, we might discuss and find the best one. If we couldn’t solve it, we
might ask for help from the lecturer. Everyone was active and participated in almost every meeting.
Interviewer: the topic two is about daily smartphone habits. I will concentrate on your usage of
smartphone in daily life. First, what is your preference in making phone calls, text or social media,
to connect with others?

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Interviewee: Well, I would say I prefer to use social media, because it enrich my spare time and
it is convenient. Basically, I usually use social media to contact others because network provides
with so much convenience in today. For example, everyday I talk with my family and my friends
through video chatting. I use Facebook just to connect with my foreign classmates for some study
assignments. But I seldom use phone calls except from in some emergent cases. I seldom use text,
either. For me, there is no difference to contact others between text and social media.
Interviewer: and I want to specific every dimension use social media, you can tell me an example
to whom and how long and how often?
Interviewee: Well, I would say I use social media almost every day and about every ten to fifteen
minutes I check my phone to see whether there are any new messengers. For example, I chat with
my family every day through video talking, just to know what is happening in their daily life and to
know how they going. I also like to use social media, for instance, Instagram and Twitter, to follow
some entertainment and fashion information.
Interviewer: and about social media, which social media are you using?
Interviewee: For social media, I often use Facebook, Instagram and Youtube. As I have
mentioned before, I use Facebook to connect with my group members for study assignment, like to
decide meeting time and location and share some study resources. During my leisure time, I often
watch videos on Youtube to kill time. For instance, I have subscribed some channels about keeping
fit because I am interested in healthy lifestyle. I also like to use Instagram for some fashion pictures
and professional photography.
Interviewer: Next topic is we want to know how do you think about the role of smartphone plays
in intercultural communication? Like what tips will you give when you using smartphone?
Interviewee: In current world, I think smart phone is very important for human beings. As you
can see, no matter where we are, every one hold smartphones, on bus, on road or even in lectures.
People use smartphone to communicate with others. With help of internet and increasing number of
platforms, it is much easier to make new friends around world. Therefore, there is no deny that
smartphone plays a significant role in intercultural communication, especially in international study
environment. As I have said before, smartphones have become our major communication tool. To
some degrees, I would say smartphone is like a bridge for me to exchange my thoughts with my
group members. Through using smartphones, more and more topics are created among us. Unlike

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face-to-face chatting, we have more time to express our ideas. In addition, colourful pictures and
voice messengers are also helpful to tell others what and how we are thinking.
For some tips to use smartphones in intercultural communication, I think using correct words are
important, because literature we use is direct to express our thoughts. In different cultural contexts,
maybe the same word has different meanings. Therefore, when we talk with foreign classmates, to
know and understand others’ background and culture is crucial, otherwise, it may arise some
unnecessary misunderstandings.
Interviewer: So do you find any challenges when you use smartphone to communicate with
people?
Interviewee: Well, only a few I think. The main problem is raised by different cultures I think.
We don’t know each other’s culture so much and we have barriers in language. Also, we can’t see
others’ facial expressions and behaviours during our chatting. For example, if I don’t reply for a
long time, my group members may think I don’t’ respect to them. However, the reality is that I am
too busy to give a response. Therefore, understanding cultural background is important.
Interviewer: If you don’t have a smartphone, do you think it is better or worse to your life?
Interviewee: I think it depends on how we use smartphones. If we use smartphones reasonably, it
is beneficial to our life, because it provides convenience and it makes us much closer with others.
However, if we use smartphones too much, it is not a good thing. Too obsessive in smartphones is
bad for our health and it even makes someone in virtual world – that means he or she neglects face-
to-face communication.
Interviewer: So do you think you overuse smartphone in daily life?
Interviewee: No, I don’t think so because I value face-to-face communication. Smartphone is a
tool to search information and to kill time. Although it connects us to other people, I still think we
cannot neglect face-to-face communication that enables us for deep and sensible interaction.
Interviewer: Okay, that’s all. Thank you for your participation.
8.2.3 Interview 3
Interviewer: Can you first introduce yourself?
Interviewee: I’m 26 years old, and I’m studying business and economics administration. I came
in 2016, so this is my second year of study.

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Interviewer: okay, can you tell me a bit of your preferences and habits in your study life?
(including attending lectures and tutorials)
Interviewee: Okay, like in this semester and second semester, I was regularly participant. I came
every day for lectures and I came every day in tutorials. Well, I skipped one or two, that something
happened… But like, in the first semester, I just suited to another country, there were lot things to
do like documentation, things about my Visa, so I like skipped the whole first semester. When I
started to come to the university, it was like almost the end of the semester. But from the second
semester till now, I enjoyed my life so much here in the university, I have…not a lot of friends, but
a few friends. I think I have those friends because I started coming daily to the university. So yes,
I’m so happy and I’m so progressive in my study than I was in my first semester. Even in the
tutorial, I really try to be an active participant, I try to do at least half of the tutorials before I go to
the tutorial classes. But there are also exceptions, for example when there are too much of work in
the week, so I couldn’t do all things, but I come to the tutorial for sure.
Interviewer: do you think that you learn more in the lecture or the tutorial?
Interviewee: I learn more in the tutorials than the lecture. Because the lecture is like of recapping
of what I have read from my textbook. But the tutorial… I believe the tutorials were there to guild
the students to use the theoretical perspectives in a practical way. So, I learn more from the tutorial
class, because the tutors teach the practical application of the theory I learned in the lecture.
Interviewer: So, do you have many group works in the tutorials?
Interviewee: In tutorials… like, I have four tutorials in this semester and in that four tutorials, I
have three active groups. Because like in one subject, I’m in one group, but the group member is
just missing always, and I can’t find him. So, he is also like kind of exchange student, so there were
different perspectives of studying then. But there are three group studying I’m doing, specially for
two projects and one for problem sets. So I like learning more in group activities, because there are
some aids that I don’t understand, but another group member who understand that, so it’s a kind of
exchange of knowledge. So I like working in the group more than working individually.
Interviewer: Okay, can you tell me more about the process of your group work? Like how do you
solve the different exercises?
Interviewee: sometime, when we solve the exercises, we divided the exercises between each
other, or if we divided the exercises between each other, it will be more like individual work. In

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