De Baets, G. A., Decock, S., & Van Praet, E. (2021).

Interviewing aikido experts : aikido as an embodied pedagogy for

recipient design in intercultural business communication. PLIN Linguistic Day 2021, Pôle de Recherche En Linguistique,
Abstracts. Presented at the PLIN Linguistic Day 2021, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, online.

Interviewing aikido experts: aikido as an embodied pedagogy for recipient design in intercultural business
communication

Greet Angèle De Baets, Sofie Decock, Ellen Van Praet

Aikido is one of the martial arts practised globally. Most martial arts stand for combat and self-defence.
However, aikido typically stands for seeking harmony by turning opponents into partners (Shimizu, 1994;
Ueshiba & Stevens, 1993). Because of this, it is applied as a metaphor or an embodiment method (a
combination of cognitive and physical experience) in fields such as therapy, conflict resolution and
communication training (Brawdy, 2001; Faggianelli & Lukoff, 2006; Lukoff & Strozzi-Heckler, 2017). In the field
of intercultural business communication training, for instance, it may be argued that aikido meets a need for
training approaches using experiential discovery rather than conventional didactic expository (Waxin &
Panaccio, 2005; Treven, 2003; Graf, 2004; Díaz & Moore, 2018). However, few scholars have investigated
aikido as a training approach for intercultural communication or business communication.

As a first step in exploring the possible effectiveness and efficiency of aikido as an embodied pedagogy for
intercultural business communication training, we identified the core principles of aikido. We performed a
global benchmarking study with semi-structured interviews: twenty aikido experts from all over the world
reflected on the principles of aikido. Relying on NVivo software, we performed a qualitative content analysis
of the interview data (Gibbs & Flick, 2018). Preliminary findings show at least four core principles which focus
on the careful attention to the other in aikido interaction: adaptability, other-relative view, safety and win-win
attitude. Firstly, in an aikido interaction, an aikido practitioner adapts to the moves, the speed, the direction,
the power and the physiology of the training partner. Secondly, an aikido practitioner practises an other-
relative view to see the other in relation to one self and to understand any inequality in the interaction.
Thirdly, an aikido practitioner behaves safely, i.e. effectively and efficiently without doing harm to all the
people involved in the interaction. Fourthly, an aikido practitioner aims for a win-win outcome. These four
principles could be interpreted as recipient-design principles, with recipient design referring to the capacity
and sensitivity for tuning communicative behaviour to conversation partners (Blokpoel et al., 2012; Kecskés,
2018; Sacks et al., 1974). Kecskés developed the notion of 'conscious recipient design' in the context of
intercultural interaction. As successful aikido interaction matches recipient-design principles, it may indicate
that intercultural business communication training could teach conscious recipient design relying on the
embodied pedagogy of aikido, thus potentially increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of intercultural
business training.

Although the interview findings still need to be triangulated with a large-scale survey for aikido practitioners
all over the world, we can already propose a first version of two models. Firstly, the aikido principles inspired a
model that shows the steps, the flow and the intention of intercultural interaction. It includes the conscious
recipient design. Secondly, this paper proposes an aikido-based version of Deardorff’s pyramid model of
intercultural competence (Deardorff, 2006). Scholars referred to Deardorff’s model for being rather complete
(Nadeem et al., 2018; Szőke, 2018; Tong et al., 2018; Tran & Seepho, 2016). On the one hand, the model
shows attitudes, knowledge and skills that are comparable to aikido principles. On the other hand, some
aikido principles add to the model and thus create a new version, an aikido-based pyramid model of
intercultural competence.

The two models (intercultural interaction and intercultural competence) and the results of both the interview
study and the survey study will feed a pedagogical framework for teaching intercultural business
communication. The framework will use the body as a learning tool, called embodied pedagogy. It will focus
on experiencing the aikido motions rather than cognitively understanding the aikido principles, i.e. more on
inductive than on deductive learning. In the next step in exploring the possible effectiveness and efficiency of
applying aikido in intercultural communication, we will conduct a longitudinal comparative experiment
between aikido-based and non-aikido-based intercultural business communication training.
De Baets, G. A., Decock, S., & Van Praet, E. (2021). Interviewing aikido experts : aikido as an embodied pedagogy for
recipient design in intercultural business communication. PLIN Linguistic Day 2021, Pôle de Recherche En Linguistique,
Abstracts. Presented at the PLIN Linguistic Day 2021, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, online.

Keywords

Intercultural business communication, intercultural training, embodied pedagogy, expert interviewing,

recipient design

References
Blokpoel, M., van Kesteren, M., Stolk, A., Haselager, P., Toni, I., & van Rooij, I. (2012). Recipient design in
human communication: Simple heuristics or perspective taking? Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00253
Brawdy, P. (2001). Exploring Human Kindness through the Pedagogy of Aikido. Annual Meeting of the
American Educational Research Association, Seattle. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED451451.pdf
Deardorff, D. K. (2006). Identification and Assessment of Intercultural Competence as a Student Outcome of
Internationalization. Journal of Studies in International Education, 10(3), 241–266.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315306287002
Díaz, A. R., & Moore, P. J. (2018). (Re)imagining a course in intercultural communication for the 21st century.
Intercultural Communication Education, 1(3), 84–99. https://dx.doi.org/10.29140/ice.v1n3.84
Faggianelli, P., & Lukoff, D. (2006). Aikido and psychotherapy: A study of psychotherapists who are aikido
practitioners. The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 38(2), 159–178.
Gibbs, G., & Flick, U. (2018). Analyzing qualitative data (Second edition). SAGE.
Graf, A. (2004). Assessing intercultural training designs. Journal of European Industrial Training, 28(2/3/4),
199–214. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090590410527618
Kecskés, I. (2018). How does intercultural communication differ from intracultural communication? In A.
Curtis & R. Sussex (Eds.), Intercultural Communication in Asia: Education, Language and Values (pp.
115–135). Springer.
Lukoff, D., & Strozzi-Heckler, R. (2017). Aikido: A martial art with mindfulness, somatic, relational, and spiritual
benefits for veterans. Spirituality in Clinical Practice, 4(2), 81–91. https://doi.org/10.1037/scp0000134
Nadeem, M. U., Mohammed, R., & Dalib, S. (2018). Historical Development and Models of Intercultural
Communication Competence (ICC). 7.
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E., & Jefferson, G. (1974). A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for
Conversation (A. Korbut, Trans.). Language, 50(4), 696–735.
Shimizu, K. (1994). Aikido, the heavenly road. Edition q.
Szőke, J. (2018). The effect of intercultural competence on intercultural communication. Proceedings of the
42nd International Academic Conference, Rome. 42nd International Academic Conference, Rome.
https://doi.org/10.20472/IAC.2018.042.044
Tong, S. K., Yau, H. Y. J., & KP Kwan. (2018). Developing students’ intercultural competences through
international service-learning: A toolkit for teachers. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.14209.20323
Tran, T. Q., & Seepho, S. (2016). An Intercultural Communicative Competence Model for EFL Learners. 27–42.
Treven, S. (2003). International training: The training of managers for assignment abroad. Education +
Training, 45(8/9), 550–557. doi.org/10.1108
Ueshiba, M., & Stevens, J. (1993). The Essence of Aikido, Spiritual Teachings of Morihei Ueshiba, compiled by
John Stevens. Kodansha International.
Waxin, M., & Panaccio, A. (2005). Cross‐cultural training to facilitate expatriate adjustment: It works!
Personnel Review, 34(1), 51–67. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480510571879