| Summary: | Based on the class observations and survey answers from the multicultural class members in higher education who were teaching or studying in China, Russia, South Korea and USA—this study explores the nonverbal factors that facilitate or impede the reciprocal process of enculturation and acculturation. The respondents were 40 instructors from 13 countries and 111 international students from 34 countries. Meanwhile, the author visited 5 instructors’ classes of altogether 101 participants with records and class meeting minutes. After carefully analysing the collected data with the help of recent scholarship, this study finds that some multicultural higher education experiences were still the results of cultural domination and resistance and calls for attention to emotional clarity and individuation in nonverbal communications, especially the emotional dynamics that can reciprocate both processes of enculturation and acculturation instead of racialising or nationalising cultural differences. The aim of this research was to partially review and refresh the humanistic attention to universal, but individuated, ideals of nonverbal emotional equality, equal emotional physicality and sociality in multicultural classrooms.
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