Fall+2007+...+G5

Note: This document is a summary of the work we did for the Search Activity for English 7730 at East Carolina University. We created a wiki to organize and post our findings in an asynchronous environment. Please visit this site to review the details of our search process. ([|www.tpctopicnarrowing.wikispaces.com]) ** From S Southard: I'm presenting the bottom line first to show you difficulties that you might encounter if you narrow too much. Also you definitely do not have to go into as much depth as this group did to satisfactorily complete the activity. **  **What We Learned** In retrospect, we realize that this was not a viable topic for secondary research with a TPC focus because it may be too new to have received scholarly attention and such research may lead to classified or otherwise inaccessible information. If we had reframed our research question to something like "What barriers to cultural communication does a US citizen (businessman, teacher, NGO personnel, etc.) face in (some specified) country/region?" we would have had better success. Alternatively, had we used a wider time frame we might have discovered a more scholarly body of work on our topic dating from the time of the Vietnam War, which may have led to comparisons with the current situations that the U.S. military faces. Further, Dr. Southard helped us realize (accept) that all topics are not researchable from an academic perspective and some may face inherent obstacles related to accessibility and national security. Even though we were very pleased with the specificity of our topic scenario, we found that it is easy to narrow a subject too much, creating an unfortunate cycle of results which consistently returns the researcher to the same point, rather than a recursive cycle pointing to tangentially related subjects. This being said, our research seems to indicate that this topic would be an appropriate topic for primary research, assuming the investigator received necessary support from the United States Armed Forces. Obviously, the only way to judge the effectiveness of military cultural training is to review military engagement records and accounts from servicemen employing the skills acquired in such training classes. **Final Thoughts** Even when you use textbook narrowing and search methods, there is a chance that your topic will produce inclusive or inappropriate results. Our work returned a substantial body of knowledge; however, very little of the literature was scholarly in nature or appropriate for academic citation. We would not have been able to use our narrowed topic for the annotated bibliography and literature review projects in Engl 7730. ** Beginning at the Beginning ** We began by choosing International Communication as the theme for this group search activity. Our first attempt at narrowing this topic produced six fictional scenarios depicting several communicative environments where international communication predicaments would necessitate an evaluation of secondary research. While all of our narrowing attempts appeared to be feasible, we chose a military scenario (#3) because of its current relevance and urgency as well as because this one held the most mystique for us. This topic was something new in that neither of us had experience with the study of military training. The US Army has received word from the secretary of defense that a battalion of soldiers must be prepared for deployment to Japan to assist with reconstruction in the aftermath of a recent tidal wave which made landfall in the Ryukyu archipelago last month. The unit, led by Captain Jim Knot from Fort Hood, Texas, will be replacing a first responder medic unit that is normally stationed in Alabama. In order to prepare his troops for the situation in Japan, Captain Knot requests information from the Pentagon related to the culture, common practices and religious background of the citizens in the wrecked Ryukyu village so that he can share the information with his personnel. As officials in the Pentagon delve into the traditions and customs of the Japanese village, they begin to wonder whether or not other branches of the US Armed Forces are adequately prepared with cultural information about areas where they are engaged in combat and humanitarian efforts. ** How are ** ** US troops prepared for cultural communication barriers in these regions? Is training adequate to protect them from hostilities related to communication differences? ** Developing keywords to use in our search was relatively easy and straightforward. We approached our keyword brainstorming by focusing on five themes that we anticipated would lead us to a wealth of information about our topic. As the activity proceeded, searches for our first level keywords pointed us to other terms that we felt would be useful in the search. We have listed all keywords on our [|wiki] and have identified those that were added along the way with asterisks. While this activity was recursive during the keyword brainstorming stage, it proved to be less directional toward the end of the project (see below). We approached the task of searching and evaluating our research from a scholarly communicative perspective by running an actual search using various combinations of our keywords. The first sign that we might be in for a tumultuous experience appeared as we parceled out the various aspects of the search. Given the extreme specificity of our research question, looking at each of the keyword areas seemed inadequate as we felt the topic needed to be considered in its entirety so the uniqueness of the subject matter could be explored. Our strategy was to run independent searches of the entire topic and use the results to compare and deduce all relevant information. Contrary to the typical search process of using various keywords to conduct individual searches with a goal of migrating information together, this topic did not lend itself to an inductive approach. Why? There has been little viable scholarly research done on this topic; therefore, there was little convergence of information revealed in our initial search attempts. We were dismayed to find a paucity of scholarly treatments of the subject evidenced by returns from several databases and search engines where most of the articles revealed were in "trade" literature (i.e., military periodicals) and did not treat the topic from a communication theory standpoint. Below is an outline of the details of our search. More details, including the relevant citations that we discovered in our search, are listed in our [|wiki]. How are US troops prepared for cultural communication barriers in other countries? Is training adequate to protect them from hostilities related to communication differences? Searching by variations of "military and cultural and training" was fairly successful, as was "military and language and training." Likewise, cultural awareness and leadership and military yielded useful returns. The burden of the majority of the articles was that more linguistic and intercultural competency training is absolutely necessary to minimize danger both to American soldiers and to civilian populations. We located information regarding a number of accounts of pilot programs to provide such training, but they were short on pedagogical details and evaluations of effectiveness. Interestingly, the fact that several articles mentioned the use of web-based simulations, games, and language learning programs in cross-cultural education illustrates the developing interface between the topics of international communication and e-learning. The number of key figures in this area of expertise as revealed through this search was low due to the discovery that the majority of writing on the topic of cultural training in the military is prepared as commentary or in the form of press releases. ** S Southard ... see above for what they learned and their conclusion **
 * Group 5 **
 * Scenario 3: Traditions and Customs in Military Training **
 * (5 remaining scenarios available on [|wiki]) **
 * Keywords **
 * (full list available on [|wiki]) **
 * Keyword Taxonomy **
 * Military
 * Communication
 * Humanity
 * Culture
 * Teaching
 * Keywords Used in Varying Combinations **
 * (US) armed forces
 * military
 * soldiers
 * deployment
 * mission
 * preparedness
 * intercultural
 * cross-culture
 * language
 * skills
 * civilian population
 * attitudes
 * cultural competency
 * traditions
 * overseas
 * foreign soil
 * humanitarian
 * local
 * customs
 * training
 * learning
 * awareness
 * deployment
 * assimilation
 * nonverbal
 * tradition
 * Research Question **
 * Databases Searched **
 * ISI Web of Science
 * ProQuest Research Library
 * Storming Media (unclassified Pentagon reports)
 * Joyner Library databases
 * Communication Abstracts
 * Communication and Mass Media Complete (CMMC)
 * Military and Government Collection
 * Web Sites Consulted **
 * TECOM website: [|www.tecom.usmc.mil/]
 * CAOCL website: [|www.tecom.usmc.mil/caocl/]
 * [|www.universityofmilitaryintelligence.us/main.asp]
 * TRADOC Web site:
 * [|www.tradoc.army.mil/]
 * [|www.tradoc.army.mil/pao/tnsarchives/january%202007/010507-1.html]
 * [|www.tradoc.army.mil/pao/training_closeup/036004.htm]
 * [|www.estripes.com]
 * [|www.carson.army.mil/units/div_west/public/article11.html]
 * [|www.uaf.edu/news/a_news/20050218084241.html]
 * [|www.army.mil/-news/2007/01/22/1458-tilt-language-learning-via-video-gaming/]
 * [|www.voanews.com/english/archive/2005-08/2005-08-10-voa17.cfm]
 * Books **
 * Caforio, G. (ed). __Handbook of the Sociology of the Military__. (2006)
 * Metz, Steven. __Learning from Iraq__ (2007)
 * Wong, Leonard. __Strategic Leadership Competencies__ (2003)
 * Periodicals **
 * // Air & Space Power Journal //
 * // Air Force Magazine //
 * // Applied Linguistics //
 * // Armed Forces and Society //
 * // Army //
 * // Army Logistician //
 * // Foreign Policy //
 * // Journal of Military History //
 * // Infantry //
 * // International Journal of Intercultural Relations //
 * // Leatherneck //
 * // Marine Corps Gazette //
 * // Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin //
 * // Military Review //
 * // National Defense //
 * // National Guard //
 * // Political Science and Politics //
 * // Sea Power Soldiers //
 * // Special Warfare //
 * // US Federal News Service //
 * // World Policy Journal //
 * Proceedings **
 * // US Naval Institute Proceedings //
 * Key Figures Revealed through Research **
 * Wong, Leonard
 * Metz, Steven
 * M. Fowler
 * Mumford, Monica G.
 * Leipold, J.D
 * Dingman, Roger V.
 * Discussion **