Transcultural Communication - CED00003H

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Module summary

This module is intended for final year undergraduate students preparing for imminent employment. It is particularly intended for those students who need practical and theoretical guidance in envisaging their future working possibilities in a transcultural or global context. In this sense, the module intends to complement other modules in the students' programmes by allowing students to express concepts and practices in a transcultural environment. The module is also intended for Exchange and Visiting students, who have indicated that they would like to undertake work at level 6, with a strong practical component.

 

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Autumn Term 2023-24

Module aims

This module is intended for final year undergraduate students preparing for imminent employment. It is particularly intended for those students who need practical and theoretical guidance in envisaging their future working possibilities in a transcultural or global context. In this sense, the module intends to complement other modules in the students' programmes by allowing students to express concepts and practices in a transcultural environment. The module is also intended for Exchange and Visiting students, who have indicated that they would like to undertake work at level 6, with a strong practical component.

 

Module learning outcomes

Successful students will

• have a comprehensive understanding of views of culture, will critically analyse how cultures have been categorised

• be able to: analyse transcultural communication data relevant to Education (e.g. recordings of transcultural conversation) using appropriate techniques;

• synthesise, with minimum guidance, from a range of relevant sources and data in order to confidently construct criteria for the assessment of transcultural competence; critically evaluate a range of inter/transcultural assessment systems;

• be able to: interact effectively within a multicultural team; manage their learning using a full range of resources, make confident use of constructed transcultural assessment criteria and tools; select and manage relevant information competently; work autonomously (manifested in self-direction, self-discipline, time management and self-critique); engage effectively in formal spoken and written interaction in a multilingual/multicultural environment;

• be able to: engage with other cultures; appreciate and evaluate critically their own culture; develop criteria to describe and assess intercultural communicative competence;

• be able to reflect critically on transcultural communication factors, and their own use of transcultural communication skills, in research and practice in Education.

 

Module content

This module aims to help students understand factors and issues in transcultural communication and how this differs from 'intercultural communication': students will be expected to critically analyse sterotyped or essentialist views of culture, whether national, religious or otherwise socio-historically constructed, and move towards an understanding of communication in a constantly fluctuating context where cultural identities are emergent. It is hoped and expected that participation in this module will bring about cultural and identity shifts, as well as changes in perceptions of culture and language.

 

 

Transcultural Communication Course Outline

 

Session 1

Intro

Identifying issues in transcultural communication, students participate in a goal focussed group communication task and then discuss the interaction and identify personal challenges, success in the task and contributing factors to success or failure of communication

 

There will be a discussion of issues and challenges in transcultural communication. Understanding definitions in the field: cross, inter and transcultural communication

 

Session 2

Culture

Discussing different definitions of culture and evaluating cultural models such as collectivist and individualist, power distance, high/low context cultures etc.

Establishing what an effective transcultural communicator is drawing on personal experiences.

 

Session 3

Identity

Developing awareness of identity, national and cultural identity and the effect of experience on developing and changing identities.

Identifying categories for the assessment of transcultural communication skills in participants: developing a working model of assessment criteria for use on the task

 

Session 4

Language

Defining language and analysing the overlap between languages. Considering English as a lingua franca and investigating ?the native speaker variety? and standard language forms

Analysing models of transcultural assessment tools

 

Session 5

Formative Transcultural Communication Task

Students participate in the formative transcultural communication task and reflect on it with the group members.

Phenomena from the formative task: students present ?interesting? phenomena from the transcultural communication task and connect it to the literature

 

Session 6

Critical reflections on TC themes from weeks 1-4

Developing alternative views of analysing culture: Neo-racism, Cosmopolitanism, Cultural Stereotyping, Othering and Labelling

Finalising the assessment tool

 

Session 7

Summative Communication Task: Writing the tasks

Reading share: students present insights from their reading

 

Session 8

Summative Task

Phenomena from the Summative task with critical evaluation using criteria and literature

 

Session 9

Report Writing: gaining understanding of the structure of the report

Feedback, course evaluation and reflections

 

 

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	34
Essay/coursework	33
Oral presentation/seminar/exam	33

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

The oral task will involve students in a transcultural discussion; they will be assessed on their ability to engage sensitively with others and to contribute relevant ideas and knowledge.

One written task will require students to write a critical analysis of the assessed discussion they have participated in; they will be assessed on the richness and relevance of the background literature they have referred to and on the validity and robustness of the analytical tools they have used.

The other written task will require students to reflect critically on their own journey through the teaching weeks of the module, articulating any changes in their culturally-oriented self-perceptions. They will be assessed on their appreciation and awareness of their own culture, related to background reading, and on their level of awareness of the extent to which they have changed (in attitude and outlook), or could have changed.

 

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	34
Essay/coursework	33
Oral presentation/seminar/exam	33

Module feedback

Due to the nature of the teaching, students will receive immediate feedback on their performance in formative assignments. There will be a four week turnaround on written work after which students will receive a written report.

 

Indicative reading

Baker, W. (2015). Culture and identity through English as a Lingua Franca: rethinking concepts and goals in intercultural communication. (Developments in English as a Lingua Franca [DELF]; No. 8). Berlin, DE: De Gruyter Mouton.

Jackson, J (2014) Introducing Language and Intercultural Communication, London: Routledge

Neuliep, J. (2012). Intercultural Communication: A Contextual Approach, London: Sage

Samovar, L., Porter, R. & Mc Daniel, E., (2006). Intercultural Communication: A Reader, Wadsworth: Cengage Learning

Samovar, L., Porter, R., Roy C. & Mc Daniel, E., (2017). Communication between cultures, 9th Ed, Cengage Learning