Helen Spencer-Oatey


Helen Spencer-Oatey is a British applied linguist and social psychologist. She is an emeritus professor at the University of Warwick and managing director of GlobalPeople Consulting.
WWW www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/so...

Academic career

After studying psychology at the University of Durham, Spencer-Oatey moved to Hong Kong and later to Shanghai, where she taught at Shanghai Jiaotong University. While there, she experienced how closely interconnected language and culture are, and how misunderstandings can easily occur. This formed the foundation for her ongoing interest and research into intercultural communication and rapport management. On her return to the UK, she completed a PhD at Lancaster University and later set up the first masters degree in the UK on intercultural communication at the University of Luton. In 2002 she became manager for HEFCE of their £4M Sino-UK e-Learning Programme, after which she took up the post of Director of Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick.
Spencer-Oatey researches and publishes on rapport and workplace relationships, as well as intercultural communication and intercultural competence. She has developed a range of resources and tools for professionals on these topics. She retired in 2020 and is now running a consultancy company that specialises in people management, especially in contexts of diversity.

Recognition

In 2023, the book Negotiating Intercultural Relations was dedicated to Spencer-Oatey for her interdisciplinary work in the field.

Selected works

Books

  • Spencer-Oatey, H., Franklin, P. and Lazidou, D. Global Fitness for Global People: How to manage and leverage cultural diversity at work. Melbourne: Castledown..
  • Spencer-Oatey, H. and Kádár, D. Intercultural Politeness. Managing Relations across Cultures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Jordans, E., Ngweno, B., and Spencer-Oatey, H. Developing Global Leaders: African Case Studies. New York: Palgrave.
  • Spencer-Oatey, H. and Franklin, P. Intercultural Interaction: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Intercultural Communication. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
  • Spencer-Oatey, H. Culturally Speaking. Culture, Communication and Politeness. London: Continuum.
  • Kotthoff, H. & Spencer-Oatey, H. Handbook of Intercultural Communication. . Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
  • Spencer-Oatey, H. e-Learning Initiatives in China: Pedagogy, Policy and Culture. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press and the Wah Ching Centre of Research on Education in China.
  • Spencer-Oatey, H. Culturally Speaking: Managing Rapport through Talk across Cultures. London: Continuum.
  • Oatey, H. The Customs and Language of Social Interaction in English. Shanghai, China: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

Encyclopedia & Handbook articles

  • Spencer-Oatey, H. & McConachy, T. Cultural schemas, evaluation and the socio-moral order. In: A. Korangy Handbook of Cultural Linguistics. Springer.
  • Stadler, S., Işık-Güler, H. & Spencer-Oatey, H. Intercultural discourse: identity perspectives on business interaction. In Handford, M. & Gee, J.P, The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge.
  • Spencer-Oatey, H. Politeness and rapport management. In I. Kecskes, The Cambridge Handbook of Intercultural Pragmatics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Debray, C. & Spencer-Oatey, H. Discourse and intercultural communication. In K. Hyland, B. Paltridge & L. Wong. Bloomsbury Handbook of Discourse Analysis. 2nd ed. London: Bloomsbury.
  • McConachy, T. & Spencer-Oatey, H. Cross-cultural and intercultural pragmatics. In M. Haugh, D. Kádár, & M. Terkourafi The Cambridge Handbook of Sociopragmatics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Spencer-Oatey, H. & Debray, C. Linguistically and culturally diverse project partnerships and teams. In J. Jackson The Routledge Handbook of Language and Intercultural Communication. 2nd edition. London: Routledge, pp.487–502.
  • Franklin, P. & Spencer-Oatey, H. Developing intercultural interaction competence in organisations. In S. Habscheid, A. Müller, B. Thörle, & A. Wilton Handbuch Sprache in Organisationen. Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 403–423.
  • Spencer-Oatey, H. and Dauber, D. Internationalizing the student experience. In: Teixeira, P.N. and Shin, J-C., Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions, sub-section Higher Education as a Global Reality. Springer.
  • Spencer-Oatey, H. & Zegarac, V. Power, solidarity and politeness. In: J. Culpeper, M. Haugh & D.Kadar The Palgrave Handbook of Linguistic Politeness. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.119–141.
  • Spencer-Oatey, H. and Wang, J. Intercultural pragmatics. In: Sybesma, R. Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics, Vol. 2. Leiden: Brill.
  • Spencer-Oatey, H. Politeness and rapport management. In: Bennett, J. The Sage Encyclopedia of Intercultural Competence. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
  • Spencer-Oatey, H. Rapport management. In: Tracey, K. The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction. London: Wiley.