Barriers and Strategies of Intercultural Manadonese and Japanese Communication in Japan

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

1.     1. General comments:

The manuscript subject is meaningful. However, a number of statements are not clearly made and fail to hit the point. Large chunks of texts are not so relevant to the sub-headings either (see below).

First, the introduction section should provide some background information about the issues that have been identified, highlight the rationales why the topic needs research and attention, and explain whether the topic has been researched and published by others. It appears that the author didn’t hit the point until L 56-65. I recommend that lines 25-55 need to be rewritten.

Second, the sentences (L68-86) are not so relevant to the sub-heading 2.1. intercultural communication though a large number of relevant publications are available. Some concepts are listed but not explained, for example,  “namely, the act, scene, agent, purpose, and functional goals.” (L85-86). It would be relevant to review ‘intercultural communication barriers’ which would hit your topic and provide a theoretical foundation on which you’re going to analyse data and discuss your findings. For another example, the contents and the sub-heading 3.3. Data collection procedure (L181) are not coherent (see below).

Although the next sub-heading 2.2. intercultural communication strategy is good as it’s relevant to the topic, it should spell out Giles’ communication accommodation theory (CAT) about convergence and divergence as a primary source rather than using a secondary one, for example, “Therefore, the following processes were observed in Giles’s strategy of IC (West and Turner 2009), “ (L101-102). Then, some publications should be reviewed around the two communication strategies.

Third, some statements are made without sufficient information or details. For example, it was not explained why “The open-structured questionnaire …” (L172) or five items only was used though most researchers commonly use Likert scale 5 or 7 for the questionnaire with a number of items. The basic principle is that the fewer items there are the less reliable or valid the results would be. This may result in a lack of data comprehensiveness and representativeness.

Fourth, no research questions or hypotheses were proposed.

Fifth, I was wondering why the author started the section 4. Results and Discussion with literature review (L193-241) instead of describing the results and then discussing them with reference to Giles’ CAT and relevant literature. The author didn’t describe the findings of Q1 until L270, but reviewed the literature (L193-267) instead separately. This gives the feel that the literature cited here has no specific purpose. It’s recommended that the author describe the findings of each question and then discuss them with relevant publications in an integrative manner.

Finally, while the conclusion gives a good summary of key findings, it needs to add limitations and future research, for example, using a mixed-methods approach.

2.     2. Specific comments:

L6-11 The abstract needs to hit the point by stating the purpose of the project in the opening sentence. It is recommended that the first three sentences about the background be removed from the abstract.

L32-33 …when a common interpretative understanding was 32 observed between the communicator and convey.

Check the typo “convey”.

L55-56 Meanwhile, the Manadonese only have spoken and written languages.

The author needs to make the meaning of the above sentence clear. It seems to suggest that the Japanese have something more than spoken and written languages.

L163 Table 1. Range of respondents by language and gender (by percentage)

Replace “Range” with ‘Age range’. 

L181 3.3. Data collection procedure

The first sentence is about data analysis, thus making your text flow an issue. It’s recommended that the subheading include data collection and analysis and you describe how the data were collected first and how the data were analysed second. 

L270 Who do you usually use intercultural communication strategies with? (Q1)

L346 What types of people use intercultural communication strategies when talking to you? (Q3)

L359 What types of people usually use intercultural communication strategies? (Q4)

L389 Who uses intercultural communication strategies more often: men or women? (Q5)

In four of your five questionnaire items above, you used the keyword “intercultural communication strategies”. How did you ensure or know that your respondents understood what “intercultural communication strategies” mean? Did you give them any examples or scenarios in your instructions?

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for reviewing our manuscript and giving suggestions. We have already revised the manuscript to improve its quality. Please, kindly find the attached file.

Best regards,

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The theme of this article is interesting, clearly defined and well argued. However, two points deserve to be put into perspective and improved (better clarified and argued). The first concerns the fact that all the results of the present research are rooted in the results of previous research and especially in the categories that their authors have proposed from their empirical studies. However, certain results and certain categories seem specific to the field investigated. See, for example, the reference to Hooi & Yong, 2015, whose study and therefore the categories of barriers concern administrative staff. Thus, barriers related to language appear only in 7th position, which does not seem easily transferable to other forms of interpersonal communication. The second point concerns the sometimes not sufficiently justified generalization of the results collected by the protocol implemented, especially since this protocol is at the level of declarative knowledge on communication and on the barriers and strategies of intercultural communication and not on authentic or elicited communication sequences. We suggest that the author specify these elements of the data collection protocol and thus contextualize the results obtained, on the one hand, and on the other hand, specify the reasons why the categories of barriers obtained by the authors cited, find their justification in the present study.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for reviewing our manuscript and giving suggestions. We have already revised it to improve its quality. Please, kindly find the attached file.

Best regards, 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The topic of the article is interesting, but methodology must be improved. There is a disconnection between your theoretical framework and the items you are analyzing. Information should be better organized and English should be improved, as the article as a whole is quite confusing. There is no evidence that your questionnaire is measuring anything other than non-informed opinions of the respondents.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for reviewing our manuscript and giving suggestions. We have already revised it to improve its quality. Please, kindly find the attached file.

Best regards, 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The author’s revision of their manuscript has made it better than before. For example, the abstract provides brief key statements to the point of the topic under research. However, others remain unrevised or need further updates. For example, in 3.4. Research question, you need to propose a question (in the form of a question) to be studied;

4. Results and Discussion section would be effective and well-organised if the pattern below were followed. First, reinstate the research aim, then describe the results of Q1, and discuss it with reference to the theories and previous publications. It’s the same case with Q2, Q3, Q4, and Q5. As you talked about the theories and previous publications before describing the results separately rather than integratively, your discussion was not supported with theories or citations. Also, readers had to work out themselves to which questions the citations were relevant. It’s your job to clearly organise this for the readers. You did make many changes in this section, but several paragraphs at the beginning of this section should go where they can support your results.

There are also some issues (e.g., grammar, missing sentence elements, lack of support for claims through citations) in the new paragraphs you added to the manuscript (see below).

Many citations don’t use a consistent format as others. Please delete the comma. Below are a few examples.

P34-35 between communicators and communicants from different cultures (Liu and You, 2018).

P39 practices are observed (Ou and Gu, 2020).

P104 served in Giles’s strategy of IC (Giles, 1991),

I recommend you revise the above as “…served in Giles’s (1991) communication accommodation strategy.”

P34 between communicators and communicants from different cultures

Communicants refer to the people who receives communion regularly in the Christian Church. Replace “communicators and communicants” with ‘people’ or ‘speakers’.

P42 the futsugo, teineigo, and sonkeigo levels.

Other languages than English should include their English translation in brackets to facilitate international readers.

PP42-49 Meanwhile, the Manadonese only have spoken and written languages. This shows that a communication strategy is needed between different cultures when Manadonese and Japanese natives communicate using Japanese to obtain the conveyed message (Kuramoto 2019) effectively. Manado people are seen from how they communicate using only spoken and written language without other languages such as Japanese. Japanese people communicate in addition to spoken and written language. They also use body language. For example, when greeting Japanese people, they bow. 

It’s important that you make yourself understood and avoid making categorical statements. The above sentences seem to state that Manadonese do not use body language at all. This is not the case because all human beings use body language of different kinds in different ways and in different settings. 

P56 Barriers and Communication Strategies between Manado and Japanese Cultures

Common nouns should be used in their lower case. “Manado” should be used in its adjective form. 

P58-59 For example, the people of Manado have a straightforward way of communicating that is delivered directly. Meanwhile, Japanese people's communication tends to be long-winded. 

When you contrast the differences, consider to use ‘while’ or ‘whereas’ to join the two sentences.

P65 and to ensure that the communicant receives the message. 

Receiving the message does not mean the interactants understand it. When this occurs, they do not communicate even if they interact. 

Pp148-149 Japanese people who often use sign language

Sign language (usually for the deaf) differs from body language (e.g., bowing) you mentioned earlier. As you don’t talk about the former, it’d be consistent to use the latter.

Pp154-156 The results of research (Yang, 2020) state that intercultural verbal communication is audio-oriented voiced and externalized with open messages. Intercultural nonverbal comunication is visual-oriented, silent, and internalized with hidden cues.  

When you put the above contrastive concepts into two sentences, the citation would not cover the second sentence. Suggested:  According to Yang (2020), intercultural verbal communication… whereas intercultural nonverbal communication…

Pp189-191 Based on the results of the questionnaire test, it shows a reliability level of 0.856 which in the correlation interpretation table is in the “high reliability” category. It can be concluded that this questionnaire is “rliable.”

Suggested: a reliability level of 0.856 in the correlation interpretation table is in the “high reliability” category. Check a typo in “rliable”. 

P193 The open questionnaire provides opportunities

Replace “The open questionnaire” with ‘It’.

P201 because of the diverse character of the respondents in Japan. Especially the Manadonese in Japan have various characters.

Replace “character” and “characters” with ‘characteristics’. 

Pp206-210 In this study, to obtain data and analyze data, researchers used qualitative methods. This type of research uses descriptive research. This research data can be collected through a questionnaire. The type of questionnaire used is an open questionnaire that allows respondents to answer in their own words and is adapted to the respondent's experience. The questionnaire has seven questions…

There are contradictory and repetitive statements. In L166 you stated “quantitative research” but here “qualitative methods”. L196 informs that there are 5 questions in the questionnaire, but 7 here. Check the repetitive statements and remove redundant ones.

Pp260-261 In general, the respondents revealed that although there are differences in some cultural matters with their place of origin. 

An independent clause is missing after the dependent clause headed by “although”.

Pp280-281 Understand Japanese to communicate to be accepted by the environment and not to show cultural identity.

Check the above sentence. 

Pp293-294 The Japanese communication strategy used gestures, such as ojigi, a greeting, thankful, and respectful pattern.

Rewrite “The Japanese communication strategy” which doesn’t work with the verb “used”. 

P344 They also used this strategy for master, respected person, and neighbor’s apartment.

“Master”, “person”, and “apartment” should be used in their plural from.  

Pp392-393 These results were in line with a previous study, where communication strategies differed across all cultures.

Citations are required to support the latter part of the above sentence.

P404 comparison of Javanese and Japanese men, respectively

P436 in a specific Javanese culture

Javanese were not mentioned in your sample.

P422 Japanese people believed that they meet for the first time had low close intimacy…

Check the grammar error in the above.

P440 abided with the Manado cultural ethics

Replace “abided with” with “abided by”. 

P442 in interacting or respecting the interlocutor.

Consider using ‘in respecting the interlocutor during talk in interaction’ 

Pp460-462 Several studies that are related to the knowledge of cultural differences with gender 460 issues became important in the sociolinguistic sector (Pérez-Gracia et al. 2020; Solhaug 461 and Kristensen 2020).

Describe the results first and then relate them to the other researchers’ work through citations.

P472 Despite these results, the Manadonese believed that their women mostly used IC strategies than men.

 

Check a grammar issue. Consider ‘their women used more IC strategies than men’.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for reviewing my work. Please, kindly find the revised file and Rebuttal Letter.

Thank you for your kind cooperation.

 

Best regards.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

I am afraid that my comments have not been addressed. Methodology is the same and has not been further explained, apart from stating that the questionnaire authors used was open. Results are discussed, which is welcome, but they have not been objectively presented.

I really think the piece of research is interesting and much needed, but scientific soundness should be improved.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for reviewing my work. Please, kindly find the revised file and Rebuttal Letter.

Thank you for your kind cooperation.

 

Best regards.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf