Prof. Wilkinson Daniel Wong Gonzales:
In my role as one of her co-supervisors, I am nominating Tse Wing Yan Arius for the Exemplary Capstone Award in recognition of their insightful research on “Facework and Conflict Management: A Qualitative Study of Pakistani Students’ Groupwork Experience in Hong Kong’s Higher Education.” Arius’s dedication to understanding the complex dynamics of intercultural conflict in higher education, particularly among a marginalized population, demonstrates an exceptional commitment to academic excellence and social relevance. Their innovative use of Face Negotiation Theory and the concept of Small Culture, combined with rigorous qualitative data collection and analysis, sheds light on the nuanced interplay of face, power, and intercultural competence. This work not only deepens our understanding of conflict negotiation strategies but also emphasizes the importance of inclusion and awareness in intercultural groupwork, making Arius a deserving candidate for this award.

Dr. Tongle Sun:
Arius investigated the intercultural conflict competence of Pakistani students at a Hong Kong university, with a particular focus on their conflict management styles in intercultural groupwork. Rich qualitative data showed that the participants adopted varied conflict negotiation styles, influenced by multiple factors (e.g., language choice, power dynamics, gendered identity). Findings point to the role of intercultural education in enhancing intercultural competence and optimizing student learning. Arius has a solid grasp of the topic under investigation and applied sound methods in alignment with the research aim. Her work is of excellent quality. I enthusiastically recommend her for the Exemplary Capstone Project Award.

Student-to-student level intercultural conflict is a major part in higher education that involves face, power, and intercultural competence, especially for ethnic minorities. This study explores the intricacies behind Pakistani students’ conflict negotiation strategies in Hong Kong’s higher education groupwork experience. By using in-depth interviews and combining Ting-Toomey’s Face Negotiation Theory and Holliday’s notion of Small Culture as tools for qualitative interpretation, this study first examines Pakistani students’ facework and conflict management style, compare for possible style variations with member’s cultural or linguistic background, and provide insights for their underlying motivations using their narratives. Findings have shown that Pakistani students use different types of conflict management style and have different face concern that may or may not differ based on group member’s cultural background, but surprisingly may differ depending on Pakistani group member’s gender. The underlying motivations are ingroup-outgroup categorizations, their reactance against ethnic marginalization and reciprocity towards their group members’ behavior, which affects their conflict experience both behaviorally and cognitively. This study provides a more comprehensive understanding of Pakistani students’ conflict negotiation situation in relation to self- and other-face, power imbalance, and majority group’s inclusion, calling for more awareness for intercultural competence in groupwork situations.

This study is the culmination of what I have learnt from my previous courses. The course Language and Intercultural Communication has informed me of the need to address implicit intercultural issues in higher education, and has also taught me important concepts used in this project. Meanwhile, the Oxford Summer Programme gave me first-hand experience in conducting interviews and doing qualitative analysis, whereas the Methods course informed me of the basic principles in doing a research, the key elements in drafting interview questions, and the ways to code and analyze data. I have the fortune to be supervised by the instructors in these courses: my supervisor Dr. Tongle Sun and co-supervisor Prof. Wilkinson Daniel Wong Gonzales. I would like to use this opportunity to thank both of them; without your support and guidance in the courses and during my capstone project, this project would not have been successful.