Multicultural (mis)communication in IT research labs

Communication in multinational environment is per se challenging. This difficulty increases even more when interaction takes place in the highly technical setting of a Computer Science and Engineering institution. Additional obstacles emerge due to language impairments (lack of a common language, low proficiency in the language(s) of instruction and/or research). This paper reports on a work in progress study based on the interviews and surveys conducted in 11 research labs, with supervisors of 9 nationalities, and 22 students of 12 nationalities, mostly MSc and PhD students, with 13 of them working as TAs instructing undergraduate students. Altogether, there are currently 21 research advisers of 11 nationalities at our engineering university who have experience supervising international students (45 regular students and 5 exchange students, constituting 5% of the total undergraduate and 30% of the graduate student population), whereby those students predominantly tend to choose, if possible, supervisors with whom they share their native language. Based on the results derived from the interviews and 2 cultural sensitivity and awareness questionnaires, certain observations and recommendations regarding the role of culture in (mis)communication are put forward, with differences in supervisor-students perception and levels of cultural awareness pointed out.