An Introduction to Intercultural Communication

Intercultural communication is of importance to international businesses as it examines how people from different cultures, beliefs and religions come together to work and communicate with each other. Demands for intercultural communication skills are increasing as more and more businesses go global or international. They realize that there are barriers and limitations when entering a foreign territory.  Without the help of intercultural communication they can unknowingly cause confusion and misunderstandings. For these intercultural businesses to breach the cultural barriers encountered when stepping into foreign grounds it is vital for them to fully understand the cultural differences that exist so as to prevent damaging business relations due to intercultural communication gaps. There are many theories that set principles to help interpret the basis of intercultural communication. These theories help to iron out possible ripples of misunderstanding by giving a basic guideline on how to address situations. These guidelines help prevent clashes between different cultures groups caused by misperceptions.     The basic skills of intercultural communication are fundamentally general communication skills that can be used universally by all cultures and races. These skills are simply tweaked in a direction that takes the cultural limitation into consideration. An example of such communication skills in the intercultural environment is to listen without judging, repeat what you understand, confirm meanings, give suggestions and acknowledge a mutual understanding. In a nutshell the main purpose of following such theories is to earn respect from others. Respect in all cultures in the world is a common language and by earning it through respecting other peoples culture and religion; the favor is returned.

Intercultural communication: a teaching and learning framework

Author: Donna Humphrey

© Donna Humphrey, Nottingham Trent University

Abstract

The objectives of this paper are to; present a teaching and learning framework which provides the foundation for the effective acquisition and mediation of intercultural communication skills in the modern language classroom; balance the theory with practical examples of teaching methodology, materials and activities. The framework presented here merges theories of learning from the fields of intercultural education, intercultural communication studies and educational psychology.

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Table of contents

• Introduction

• The cultural criticality approach

• The 'emic' and 'etic' approach

• The dynamic, process approach

• The experiential learning approach

• Appendix 1: Module materials

• Bibliography

 

This paper was originally presented at the Setting the Agenda: Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies in Higher Education conference, 24-26 June 2002.

Introduction

The starting point for this paper is that the acquisition and mediation of effective intercultural communication skills as a new objective in modern language learning and teaching requires new methodological approaches. These methodological approaches need to offer a guide to curriculum development and structure, a means for students to progress through the material, and a way of checking to see if both the students and the course are achieving what is intended.

The aim of this paper is to consider a range of complementary approaches that could be combined to bring about a concept of learning which is:

• up-to-date;

• compatible with current approaches to language learning methodology;

• tailored to the development of effective intercultural communication skills.

To address the above needs, it was necessary to research the literature for methodological approaches that could inform practice from within the fields of intercultural educational practice, cross-cultural and intercultural research methodology, intercultural communication studies and educational psychology (see bibliography). As a result of that research, four diverse but complimentary approaches were selected and integrated into a teaching and learning framework.

The criteria for selection were based on the following assumptions and beliefs about culture and intercultural learning:

• culture should be seen as a dynamic, changing and developing process;

• culture is a complex entity and this complexity should be represented;

• educational approaches to the development of interpersonal communication skills should include personal and social development;

• educational approaches should equip learners with the means of accessing and analysing a broad range of cultural practices and meanings, whatever their status;

• educational approaches should assist learners in developing an understanding of the processes involved when those from different cultural backgrounds interact and produce or build a communicative event;

• educational approaches should afford learners opportunities to analyse and reflect on their encounters, identify any conflict areas, describe them, and in the light of their experience recognise opportunities for building relationships, and/or changed future actions or behaviour.

• Based on the above criteria four approaches were selected. They are:

• the cultural criticality approach;

• the dynamic, process approach;

• the 'emic' and 'etic' approach;

• the experiential learning cycle approach.

An explanation of what each approach has to offer pedagogically is given in the following section. Concrete examples of how these theories may be translated into practical teaching material is available in appendix 1.