Lecture Communication skill: Chapter 11 - Tracey Bretag, Joanna Crossman, Sarbari Bordia

The topics discussed in chapter 11 are intercultural communication. This chapter includes contents: Introduction: impact of globalisation, understanding the term culture, defining ‘intercultural communication’, Third space communication, strategies for effective intercultural communication.

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Chapter 11

Intercultural communication

Topic overview

• Introduction: impact of globalisation

• Understanding the term ‘culture’

• Defining ‘intercultural communication’

• ‘Third space’ communication

• Strategies for effective intercultural

communication

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Impact of globalisation

• Globalisation has resulted in diverse

societies and workplaces

• Increasing diversity: need to develop

intercultural communication competence

Activity 1

• Form groups of three to four students and

discuss the following questions:

1 What are the key components of culture?

2 Individually, or in pairs, write a simple

definition of ‘culture’

3 Compare your definition with another

group Note the similarities and differences

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Defining ‘culture’

• There are over 100 definitions of ‘culture’

• The following definitions of culture are tied together by an understanding that:

– culture is learned – culture is shared – cultural experiences vary within a cultural group – culture changes continuously

– every exchange with others is intercultural.

• Culture permeates everything we think, say,

do and are

Defining ‘culture’ (cont.)

Chaney & Martin (2004, p 268):

• Culture is ‘the structure through which the communication is formulated and

interpreted; deals with the way people live’

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Defining ‘culture’ (cont.)

Ferraro (2002):

• Culture is ‘everything that people have,

think, and do as members of their society’ (cited in Gudykunst & Kim 2003, p 19)

Defining ‘culture’ (cont.)

Gudykunst & Kim (2001, p 15):

• ‘Our culture provides us with a system of

knowledge that generally allows us to know how to communicate with other members of our cultures and how to interpret their

behaviour.’

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Defining ‘culture’ (cont.)

Hofstede (2001):

• Culture is ‘the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another’ (cited in Dwyer 2005, p 201)

Defining ‘culture’ (cont.)

Mohan, McGregor, Saunders & Archee (2004,

p 80):

• ‘… culture can best be understood if it is

broken up into four main dimensions:

– history and world view, including values, beliefs and religion

– socialisation, including education, enculturation and personal growth

– language – non-verbal communication’.

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Defining ‘culture’ (cont.)

Windschuttle & Elliott (1999, p 481):

• ‘A culture is a shared system of behaviour, values, beliefs, attitudes, manners, symbols and assumptions.’

Activity 2

• Form groups of three or four students.

1 Working alone, write down five ‘rules’ or

conventions your family follows when eating a meal together In one household, the five rules might be as follows:

– Set the table.

– Turn off the television.

– Help bring the food to the table.

– Wait until everyone is seated before starting to

eat.

– At the end of the meal, thank whoever cooked

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Activity 2 (cont.)

2 Now, compare your family’s ‘rules’ with

those in your group What is different?

What is the same?

3 How much of your family meal rules are

based on your family’s own ideas and how much on wider cultural expectations (e.g

using a knife and fork vs using chopsticks)?

4 Spend some time in your group discussing

how the ‘rules’ change depending on particular circumstances (e.g when a guest comes to dinner; when a family member

has a birthday; on the weekend, etc.)

The unspoken ‘rules’

• Life is made up of hundreds of unspoken

expectations and ways of behaving

• Even within the same ethnic and linguistic background, the ‘culture’ will be distinct from one family to another

• Individual behaviour also depends on the

context and the other individuals with whom the interaction is taking place

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Understanding culture

• Understanding culture is about being

conscious of what we do everyday without even thinking about it

• The key to understanding culture is the

recognition that ‘culture is transmitted and maintained solely through learning,

enculturation and group interaction’ (Dwyer

2005, p 33)

Iceberg analogy of culture

• Tip (external culture):

– language, customs, typical food, dress – acquired through observation, education/training – easily learned and can be changed.

• Under water (internal culture):

– values, ways of thinking and perceiving, verbal communication

non-– overtly learned (formal education) or implicitly learned through socialisation

– influences/motivates our behaviour

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Ethnocentrism

• ‘The belief in the superiority of one’s own

culture’ (Guffey 2001, p 12)

• Judging others by our own values

• Often results in stereotypes

• Oversimplified behavioural patterns applied

to entire groups

– e.g ‘all Australians drink beer’

• Fixed and distorted generalisations about all members of a group

• Ignore individual differences and specifics of the person or the situation

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Stereotypes (cont.)

• Support underlying prejudices or biases

• Support a superiority/inferiority belief system

• Used to justify unfair differential treatment

• Learnt through socialisation and often

reinforced or perpetuated by the media

(adapted from Cross-cultural awareness

training module n.d.).

Activity 3

• In groups of three or four, write a brief

stereotype for each of the following nationalities:

– Australians – New Zealanders – Chinese

– British – Japanese – German – French

• Present your feedback to class

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Activity 3 (cont.)

1 Was it easy to agree on a simple

stereotype for each nationality?

2 Who taught us these stereotypes?

3 Based on your own experience, are these

stereotypes true?

4 How are stereotypes used to discriminate

against others?

5 Can you think of any situations where

stereotypes might be useful?

Conceptualising communication

• Communication is a symbolic activity

– words, non-verbal displays and objects (e.g the national flag)

• The meanings of symbols vary from culture

to culture

• Communication is a process involving the

transmitting and interpreting of messages

– messages can be transmitted, but meanings cannot

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• The context also influences the

interpretation of the message (e.g work, home, school) and issues of power affect the interpretation of a message

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Communication intention

• Intention is not a necessary condition for

communication

• Other conditions include:

– habits (rituals such as greetings) – emotions (responding to others without thinking, e.g becoming defensive if we feel we have been insulted).

Non-verbal communication

• Only 7 per cent of what is communicated

between people is transmitted through words (Lahiff & Penrose 1997, p 61)

• So often we focus on language (the words), when effective communication is much more about culture

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Activity 4

Working in pairs, complete the following

exercises:

1 List five communication symbols (words,

non-verbal displays or objects)

2 Consider issues of power in an educational

setting How does this affect the communication between student and

teacher?

Activity 4 (cont.)

3 Think of a recent communication exchange

with a person from another country Can you recall any non-verbal issues that

impeded your communication (e.g kissing, touching, hand signals)?

4 Consider the same question in relation to

communicating with a person from your own country

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Intercultural or

cross-cultural?

• Intercultural communication: social

interaction, sharing of meanings between people from diverse cultures, focus on

‘understanding and sharing’ rather than

‘comparing’

• Cross-cultural communication: focus on

comparison of communication styles

Intercultural communication

• Concept of ‘stranger’: anyone unknown or

unfamiliar

• Self-disclosure: a major factor in

develop-ment of personal relationships with strangers

• Need for communication partners to validate and confirm the other

• Speaking the same language is no guarantee

of shared understandings (consider gender, age, status)

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‘Third space’

• Effective communicators ‘step outside’ their own culture when communicating, taking on

a ‘third space’ perspective

– Describes the possibility for a negotiated imagining of cultural identity

re-– Identity is constructed and deconstructed

• Removal of ‘us vs them’ distinctions

• Requires mutual commitment

• Need to find ‘common ground’

Strategies for effective intercultural communication

• Be aware of non-verbal communication

• Aim for clarity

• Recognise and rectify mistakes

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Activity 5

• Do an Internet search on Geert Hofstede

and the five cultural dimensions How useful

do you think Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are in developing effective intercultural

communication skills?

• To develop intercultural communication

competence, we need first to understand the concept of ‘culture’

• Compare cross-cultural communication with intercultural communication

• Be aware of ethnocentrism, stereotypes and other barriers to communication

• Aim for ‘third space’ communication