The problem may require more than a "band-aid" approach of a few techniques
and beefing up a briefing and debriefing. Granted, you certainly need to
address these issues and the preflight brief and debrief are logical times to
do such.
However, what may be missing is that the crews don't have any set procedures
for their communications. Thus, it becomes very difficult to comply with CRM
conventions that can be interpreted differently by individuals. Traditional
"awareness" training provides little in the way of concrete procedures.
Instead, they offer guidelines, things like "don't hesitate to speak up if
you see anything wrong"; using first names (which does not necessarily apply
to all cultures); asking for input; and so forth. These are too prone to
personal, cultural and situational interpretation.
Teach your students (and of course your instructors and evaluators) carefully
researched and designed specific procedures (which must be required). Then,
instruct and evaluate performance based on these required procedures. The
procedures, of course, must be "cross-cultural" in that they must apply to
all flight crews, regardless of cultural background.
Skip Mudge