...10 Incorporating Cross-cultural Communication in ELT: A Pedagogical Approach ■ Y. Suneetha Rajeev Gandhi Memorial College of Engineering & Technology, Nandyal G.M. Sundaravalli Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupathi ABSTRACT: Cross-cultural communication has become ever more significant through the globalization of markets, affairs of nation-states and technologies. Consequently, the cultural quotient (CQ) is becoming increasingly important, especially in the context of the changing dynamics of work culture around the world. This paper makes a case for the need to pay attention to intercultural communication and discusses some specific approaches and strategies in the teaching of intercultural communication in the classroom. These approaches include addressing issues like learning to honour one’s own culture and sharing it with others while developing a capacity to be open to other cultures. Other strategies include progressing from an ethnocentric to an ethno-relative state of understanding and acceptance of cultural differences and increasing one’s ability to communicate with non-native speakers. Specifically, classroom practices and strategies suggested include intercultural explorations, use of texts, films, short stories and other multi-media resources, contrastive case studies of cultures, group encounters and role plays. Introduction Sir Francis Bacon said that if a man was gracious and courteous to strangers, it showed that he was a citizen of the world, and...
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...Unit 5 Intercultural Communication Overview. This unit focuses on the role of communication in the relationships of peoples and groups with different cultural, ethnic, religious or social backgrounds. It looks at both the cultural barriers to effective communication as well as to various ways those barriers can be overcome. This unit also addresses the concept of dialogue as the use of communication to achieve harmony, mutual understanding and respect among peoples and groups. Learning Outcomes: Students who complete Unit 5 will be able to: explain the role of ethnocentrism in intercultural communication discuss guidelines for effective intercultural and interreligious communication compare Arabic and English communication patterns demonstrate intercultural aspects of inter-religious communication Key Concepts for Unit 5 Definition and conceptualization of intercultural communication and overview of guidelines Overview of ethnocentrism and prejudice in communication Definition and conceptualization of dialogue as a model of communication ► Intercultural Communication Nations and people of the world are increasingly interconnected and mutually interdependent. Globally, most cities and countries are becoming more diverse internally, with citizens and residents of varying races, religions, ethnicities and national backgrounds. Meanwhile, greater the risk is associated with economic or political aloofness and social isolation. All of these social forces are fostering increasingly...
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...INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN YOUR CHOSEN FIELD Intercultural Communication - Comm. 4002-E90 In the health care setting, medical interactions require effective communication between health care providers and patients. The achievement of having effective communication; is complicated by a variety of situational factors including cultural issues. Intercultural communication is an essential component in the healthcare field. It is very unknown if the health care professionals communicate effectively with the ethnic minority patients. Not only are there language difficulties, but also cultural differences such as beliefs and understanding of the disease may result in problems in intercultural communication. (Van, Harmsen and Bruijnzeels, 2002). Communicative misunderstandings between patient and provider can lead to simple dissatisfaction, misdiagnosis, lack of any medical care, or even death. Ineffective intercultural communication can also lead to stress for health care providers, causing anxiety, being puzzled, and job dissatisfaction. Our medical staff must be trained to become competent intercultural communicators so that they can provide better care to our increasingly diverse population, and so that they become less stressed about their jobs. I don’t know about you, but I certainly would want my surgeon to be relaxed and not anxious about their job. Some recommendations that were suggested to health care workers are, that the provider should have training...
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...the intercultural communication area of study? a. it originated with scholars looking for practical answers to help overseas workers. 2. Which approach to intercultural communication has the goal of initiating social change? b. critical 3. Which of the following approaches to intercultural communication views reality as external to humans? c. social science 4. Which methods are primarily used in the critical approach to intercultural communication? d. text and media analyses 5. the social science approach is also called the e. functionalist approach 6. researchers using a critical perspective attempt to explain f. how macro contexts such as political structures influence communication 7. one limitation of social science approach is g. the possibility that the methods used are not culturally sensitive 8. The goals for the social science approach are h. describe and predict human behavior 9. the study of how people use personal space is called i. proxemics 10. Which dialectic of intercultural communication addresses the fact that some of our cultural patterns are constant and some are shifting? j. static-dynamic dialect 11. The privilege-Disadvantage dialectic recognizes that k. some people are disadvantaged in some contexts and privileged in other contexts 12. Which of the following might explain why early intercultural researchers paid little attention to intercultural communication...
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...Intercultural communication is not new and has existed for quite some time. The world has come closer together since globalization. Anytime that a person has to travel to different parts of the world for their job or just for vacation they have to adapt to the new environment they will be going to. If you do not have any support for your co-workers, adapting to the new environment is not going to be easy and trying to fit in is going to be very difficult. (Novinger, 2001) One on-going problem in the company is intercultural communication. Intercultural communication in the company relates speech and cultural issues of those belonging to an environment or land different from their own. A person who is raised in India is going to have a different culture than someone raised in the United States. People from India find it difficult to adapt to the United States and vice versa. Divergent thinking and convergent are similar, but different. Divergent thinking starts off with imagining all possibilities, during which the analyzing of the problems comes from convergent thinking. In turn after analyzing the problems, it helps you select all possible solutions. Apparently, the divergent and convergent thinking processes are the yin and yang of creative problem solving. One is not better than the other. They are just more suitable for the job at hand. Both processes are important to the eventual outcome of any group brainstorming session. It’s important to understand the benefits...
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... SOCIAL SCIENCES, AND DESIGN January-April 2011 Subject name: Mass Communication Research Subject code: SM 312 Lecturers: Kenneth Teo Student ID: 1000922384 Topic : Benefits of learning intercultural communication to university student. Chapter 1 Introduction Background of the Study Anthropologist Edward T. Hall is the founder of intercultural communication during the 1951-1955 when he was at the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. Department of States. The scholarly field of intercultural communication was then mainly advanced by university-based scholars of communication in the United States and Japan, and in other countries. The development of intercultural communication in the U.S. and Japan is analyzed here. Intercultural communication is one of the most important communications and also a structure of global communication as the world today is characterized by an ever growing number of contacts resulting in communication between people with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. This communication takes place because of contacts within the areas of business, military cooperation, science, education, mass media, entertainment, tourism but also because of immigration brought about by labour scarcity or political conflicts. Hence, there is communication which needs to be as constructive as possible, without misunderstandings and breakdowns...
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...1 INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION: ITS IMPORTANCE TO VARIOUS CAREER FIELDS AND PERSPECTIVE BY VARIOUS AUTHORS Priscilla N. Gitimu Doctoral Student Southern Illinois University Carbondale Department of Workforce Education and Development 311G Quigley Hall Southern Illinois University at Carbondale Carbondale, IL 62901-4605 618-453-1982 ukic@siu.edu 2 ABSTRACT Intercultural communication refers to messages transmitted between members of two or more different societies Globalization has made intercultural communication inevitable. Communicating with other cultures characterizes today’s business, classroom, and community. Technology especially the internet has increased the probability that whatever is documented online will be read by someone from another culture. Intercultural communication is of importance in any career field thus the art of knowing how to communicate with other cultures should be a work place skill that is emphasized. This is a conceptual paper whose purpose is two fold. First the paper gives a synopsis of the importance of efficient and competent intercultural communication in various career fields; namely, education, business, medicine and in counseling. Secondly, the paper presents studies and perspectives that various authors have on intercultural communication. INTRODUCTION Globalization has made intercultural communication inevitable. Communicating with other cultures characterizes today’s business, classroom, and community. Hence...
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...MBA 592 Article: Mindful Communication By David C. Thomas Joyce S. Osland Communication is the act of transmitting messages to another person who interprets the message by giving it meaning. In order for such exchange of meaning to occur, the sender and receiver must share common understanding. Mindfulness means attending to one’s internal assumptions, cognitions, and emotions, and simultaneously attuning to the other’s assumptions, cognitions and emotions. Mindful communication can be judged by the criteria of appropriateness, effectiveness, and satisfaction. A deep knowledge about different cultural activities, values, attitudes, and communication practices makes our communication with others more meaningful. Mindful intercultural communication can be defined as a symbolic exchange in which individuals interactively negotiate shared meanings. The first stage concerns how messages are sent, perceived, diagnosed, and decoded. In the second stage, individuals must identify how to respond, which involves making attributions about the meaning of the message they have received. Finally, people must choose from their repertoire of possible responses and enact those that they think are most appropriate in the third stage. Fluency in a foreign language affects a global manager’s ability to accurately perceive and diagnose the situation. Non verbal communication is also important which add meaning to our verbal messages. For example, tone of voice, body position, facial expressions...
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...education stated that there are about 10,000 of people who come to the United every month for schooling from different countries and they all have be affected by cultural shock. * Thesis: Today we are going to look at the different areas how cultural shock has affected most people in education, language and lifestyle/culture. And these three main points will help you to understand the areas. BODY I. Education: A. Making adjustment to a new education environment. 1. Most students who come to the United State or go to other countries for schooling had found it hard to adjust when it come to fitting in. 2. Difficulty in making friends. B. According to Kennedy E. in Educational and child psychologists he’s idea was to work to reduce the impact of school culture shock in the. 1. Education system 2. Age Transition: next, let’s look at how cultural shock can affect people when we talk about language. II. Why do people get affected in language when they moved from their comfort zone? A. Majority of people have hard time adjusting to different culture because every country in the world speech differently. 1. Pronunciation of words 2. Communication...
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...uk/fac/cross_fac/globalpeople/resourcebank/researchpapers Achieving Mutual Understanding for Effective Intercultural Management Helen Spencer-Oatey Centre for Applied Linguistics, University of Warwick WORKING PAPER Abstract Purpose – To introduce an approach to managing intercultural communication that is effective for achieving mutual understanding among people in culturally complex situations. Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes a ‘meaning negotiation’ approach to the intercultural communication process. It argues against a generalised ‘differences/adaptation’ approach, and maintains that people need to interact in contextually sensitive ways. Findings – The paper outlines a set of strategies that can help people in intercultural interaction contexts negotiate and agree the messages they are trying to convey. It draws them together into a conceptual framework of intercultural communication competencies. Research limitations/implications – The paper only focuses on the communication of messages, not the use of language to manage relationships. It also does not attempt to suggest practical techniques for helping managers and their staff develop competence in using the strategies. Practical implications – Since mutual understanding is achieved through meaning negotiation, it is important for managers and their staff to know how this takes place and to develop a communication strategy for implementing it. Social implications – Without adequate mutual understanding, people...
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...A DEVELOPMENT OF CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR STUDYING COMMUNICATION COMPETENCIES AMONG DIRECT SELLERS IN MALAYSIA FOR THE 12TH ABC ASIA-PACIFIC CONFERENCE AT DOSHISHA UNIVERSITY, KYOTO, JAPAN ON MARCH 13 – 15, 2013 FIRST AUTHOR NUREDAYU OMAR (PRESENTER) UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA nuredayu@uum.edu.my CO-AUTHOR PROFESSOR CHE SU MUSTAFFA UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA chesu402@uum.edu.my *THIS MANUSCRIPT IS ORIGINAL AND HAS NOT BEEN PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE A DEVELOPMENT OF CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR STUDYING COMMUNICATION COMPETENCIES AMONG DIRECT SELLERS IN MALAYSIA Many studies have been conducted related to communication competencies since the last decade until now. However, the availability of the studies on communication competencies has not been explored in depth particularly in the direct selling context in Malaysia. To understand the direct sellers’ communication competencies, a conceptual framework will be built based on related literature studies. Literature reviews have shown a variety of studies on communication competencies from the behavioral and cognitive perspectives. Although numerous studies have provide understanding of communication competence in various context, there is a gap in viewing communication competencies in a more dynamic context, particularly in the process of communication of direct sellers with their potential customers. This paper attempts to discuss the importance of...
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...Ch r i s t i n e Ro e ll Intercultural Training with Films ilms are a great medium to use not only to practice English, but also to facilitate intercultural learning. Today English is a global language spoken by people from many countries and cultural backgrounds. Since culture greatly impacts communication, it is helpful for teachers to introduce lessons and activities that reveal how different dialects, forms of address, customs, taboos, and other cultural elements influence interaction among different groups. Numerous films contain excellent examples of intercultural communication and are highly useful resources for teachers. Additional reasons for teachers to incorporate films in class and encourage their students to watch movies in English include: • Films combine pleasure and learning by telling a story in a way that captures and holds the viewer’s interest. • Films simultaneously address different senses and cognitive channels. For example, spoken language is supported by visual elements that make it easier for students to understand the dialogues and the plot. • Students are exposed to the way people actually speak. 2 2010 N u m b e r F • Films involve the viewers, appeal to their feelings, and help them empathize with the protagonists. • DVDs usually come with subtitles in English, which facilitates understanding and improves reading skills. After discussing the importance of teaching intercultural communication and suggesting films that match specific cultural...
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...Co-Cultures in a Multicultural Society Paper The movie Fools Rush In is a great example of how gender as well as cultural differences can hinder communication in a multicultural society. Fools Rush In is about two people, Alex and Isabel, who come from two different cultural backgrounds who after a one night stand become pregnant and decide to get married. However, along with the marriage come compromises that include cultural traditions and personal sacrifices. The movie is a comedy but can also be viewed as romantic and shows how two people who love each other can resolve the issues of cultural and gender differences. Male and female differ in their use of communication because their reasons for communicating are different. Men generally communicate to transmit information and solve specific problems, while women usually use communication to express feelings and achieve emotional intimacy (Dunn, 2009). Women use nonverbal communication more than men, because they feel a closer connection to the opposite sex when communicating. Research has shown girls display more nurturance communication behavior than boys and this would account for a higher sensitivity to nonverbal cues (Dunn, 2009). Women can pick up on any nonverbal cue that is given and know if the person is being genuine or if a person is upset, men on the other hand have a hard time picking up on these cues. This can be seen in the movie where Alex does not understand how Isabel truly feels by her nonverbal cues...
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...Different Meanings of Body Language in China and West Abstract: There’s language in her eye, her cheek, her lip. Nobody and dignity, self-abasement and servility, prudence and understanding, insolence and vulgarity, are reflected in the face and in the attitudes of the body whether still or in motion. While we speak with our vocal organs we converse with our whole bodies. Body language plays a very important role in both communication of daily lives and intercultural communication. However, in the past time, the attention paid to body language is not enough. Due to the cultural differences between China and west, differences in the meaning of body language exist. The importance of body language is reviewed and stressed, the features of body language in Sino-West cultural communication are analyzed, and some advices for body language using in intercultural communication is provided. Key words:intercultural communication, body language, china and western countries. What is the significance of American dating? Often dating means no more than getting to know one another and having some fun. It is often the beginning of a friendship with someone whom you may like but not necessarily marry. Dating is not as serious in America as it is in some countries, but it is important because every person has the freedom to choose his own marriage partner, one with whom he hopes to spend the rest of his life. Dating is one way to accomplish that goal. Where do most Americans go...
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...Saborio Business 600 Final Paper August 27, 2012 By Keith Alston In today's workplace, communication is the key of every aspect of your job. With the increased globalization of workplace settings across most industries, today’s managers need a more precise understanding of intercultural communication in an effective management strategy. It is important that managers proactively engage in communication skills assessment and make necessary adjustments in order to address the current needs of today’s increasingly diverse workforce. When assessing intercultural communication, it is important to have a plan in place and keep these points in mind like knowing your team and doing your homework. While getting to know as many cultures as possible is a noble endeavor, in reality managers are strapped for time like everyone else. If your functional outsourcing group is diverse, or you have recently hired a new group of employees, or your company is reaching out to more overseas investors, then you have a great opportunity to develop more effective intercultural communication skills that will be most applicable to your team. Just as in any group, there are differences among individuals, and understanding general distinctions within a cultural group is important. Do your homework without singling out individuals. One major area is religious beliefs. After honing their own intercultural skills, managers should be able to lead effective training sessions to explain nuances of several...
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