Intercultural Communication in Education - EDU00051M
Module summary
This interdisciplinary module draws on insights from fields such as sociolinguistics, psychology and language education to better understand the complexities behind interactions which take place between people of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
Module will run
Occurrence | Teaching period |
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A | Semester 2 2023-24 |
Module aims
This interdisciplinary module draws on insights from fields such as sociolinguistics, psychology and language education to better understand the complexities behind interactions which take place between people of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. As our world becomes increasingly globalised and opportunities for transnational education and business opportunities grow, the resulting multicultural contexts require communication skills that acknowledge that one’s interlocutor may not necessarily hold the same beliefs and assumptions as oneself. By encouraging critical and reflective engagement with study materials, learners will gain theoretical knowledge of the key issues in intercultural communication and develop an awareness of how their own cultural practices shape their communicative behaviour. At the end of the module, learners will be better prepared to make socioculturally informed decisions regarding the pedagogical approaches they employ in their own future teaching practice.
Module learning outcomes
By the end of this module learners will have developed:
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a critical understanding of the key issues and theoretical constructs surrounding intercultural communication;
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an increased awareness of how various dimensions of culture act as barriers to successful communication;
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an enhanced understanding of how to interact successfully in unfamiliar settings, particularly within academic contexts;
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the ability to critically evaluate research focusing on communication between people from different cultures;
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a critical understanding of the implications of intercultural communication for L2 educators working primarily within post-secondary contexts.
Module content
Module content
The module consists of two-hour sessions which
comprise of a mixture of lectures, whole-group discussions,
small-group activities and presentations. Learners will be expected to
complete selected readings prior to each session and take an active
role during in-class activities.
Week 1. Overview of the
module: Why study intercultural communication?
This initial
session will outline the main themes of the module and discuss what is
meant by the terms of ‘culture’, ‘communication’, and ‘intercultural
communication’. We will then reflect on how an increasingly globalised
and connected world calls for individuals with dynamic communication
skills and a non-rigid mindset. We will also consider how
intercultural communication has grown to become an important subfield
within applied linguistics and what implications this has for foreign
language educators.
Week 2. Approaches to understanding
culture
This session will introduce students to two major views
of culture, non-essentialism and essentialism, which have been
powerful in influencing people’s behaviour and communication. We will
consider in particular the frameworks of cultural patterns introduced
by Hofstede and E.T. Hall, while also critically reflecting on the
dangers of applying these patterns in intercultural communication. We
will then define Holliday’s notion of a ‘small’ culture and focus on
culture as a complex, fluid, and creative process. Students will also
reflect on their own views of culture and critically examine their
influence on intercultural communication.
Week 3. Identity
in intercultural communication
Identity deals with the way in
which people bring with them their own understandings and feelings of
culture and negotiate these in communication. The focus of this
session is to understand how people create and negotiate their
identities in the process of communicating with others and to discuss
possible effects that these representations have on their
intercultural communication. Students will also consider the role of
power in the construction of identity and reflect on power dynamics in
their own intercultural encounters and relationships.
Week
4. Ethnocentrism and stereotyping as barriers to intercultural
communication
In this session we will focus on how the general
level barriers of stereotyping and ethnocentrism impede effective
intercultural communication. We will define the notion of stereotyping
and examine the various ways in which stereotypes hamper face-to-face
contact with other groups. Students will also be provided with an
opportunity to self-assess their own levels of ethnocentrism.
Week 5. Politeness and face systems
This session will
discuss the critical role that linguistic politeness and pragmatic
face systems play in intercultural communication encounters. Students
will be introduced to Brown and Levinson’s (1987) model of positive
and negative politeness and consider how notions of face and
appropriate facework are interpreted in different contexts and may
become a source of misunderstanding and communication breakdowns.
Week 6. Culture shock and sojourner adaptation
Adapting to
an unfamiliar cultural context is a far from straightforward
undertaking, and the acculturative stress associated with this process
can lead to reductions in both one’s physical and mental health. This
session discusses the issue of culture shock, paying particular
attention to international students’ experiences, and explores
potential strategies for managing the disorientation and stress that
can arise from such a condition.
Week 7. An intercultural
perspective on the English language teaching
This session
examines how culture impacts upon one’s notion of what is acceptable
behaviour and appropriate discourse within educational settings. With
a particular focus on the English language teaching and learning, the
discussion will centre around the challenges associated with adopting
unfamiliar communication orientated pedagogies in various educational
contexts.
Week 8. Written intercultural communication
This session focuses on the construction of texts in academic
discourse contexts. Students will be first introduced to the key
concepts such as discourse community and genre and will then discuss
specific ways that the construction of texts differs in different
discourse communities. In this session, students will also consider
the challenges that student writers face when attempting to
accommodate their tutors’ expectations for writing and their own
perceptions of writing that they bring with them from their previous
literacy experiences.
Week 9. Schema in text interpretation
and intercultural communication
The aim of this session is to
highlight the importance of schema that people use when interpreting
texts and which are specific to particular cultures. Defining schema
as people’s cognitive representations of reality, we will focus on the
sociocultural differences in these representations and discuss how
cultural preconceptions are continually adapted in the process of text
interpretation, rather than imposed on texts and determine how texts
are understood. We will also consider how the use of schema is used in
‘reading’ other signs (e.g., images) and analysing different cultural
encounters discuss how the use of inappropriate schemata can result in
false interpretations and intercultural miscommunication.
Week 10. Developing intercultural competence
By this stage of the
module, it is hoped that students will be more aware of their own
cultural assumptions and biases and their socially constructed
identities. This knowledge will act as the foundation for this week’s
session which explores some specific practical strategies that
students can utilise to enhance their own intercultural competence and
achieve successful intercultural communication.
Week 11.
Student presentations and course conclusions
In this final
session, students will work in small groups to give presentations
focusing on issues associated with intercultural communication. Rather
than being formal ‘speeches’, these interactive presentations will act
as mini-lessons and will provide an opportunity for students to
revisit the key themes raised during the course.
Indicative assessment
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100.0 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
The module will be assessed by an assignment of 3000 words reflecting the aims and learning objectives of the module.
For formative assessment, students will undertake a number of practical tasks throughout the module (e.g., writing their reflections in the Intercultural Learning Journal).
Indicative reassessment
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100.0 |
Module feedback
You will receive feedback in a range of ways throughout this module. This will include oral feedback in class as well as individual written feedback reports with follow-up tutor discussion if necessary. The feedback is returned to students in line with the university policy. Please check the Guide to Assessment, Standards, Marking and Feedback for more information.
Indicative reading
Indicative reading
Bennett, M. J. (2013). Basic concepts
of intercultural communication. Paradigms, principles and practices
(2nd ed.). Boston: Intercultural Press.
Byram, M., Nichols, A.,
& Stevens, D. (2001). Developing Intercultural Competence in
Practice. Bristol, Blue Ridge Summit: Multilingual Matters.
Connor, U., Nagelhout, E., & Rozycki, W. (Eds.). (2008).
Contrastive rhetoric: Reaching to intercultural rhetoric. Amsterdam:
John Benjamins.
Holliday, A., Hyde, M., & Kullman, J. (Eds.).
(2021). Intercultural Communication. An advanced resource book for
students (4th ed.). London: Routledge.
Jackson, K, (2020). The
Routledge handbook of language and intercultural communication (2nd
ed.). London: Routledge.
Jandt, F. E. (2017). An introduction to
intercultural communication: Identities in a global community (9th
ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Johns, A.M. (Ed.). (2002). Genre in
the classroom: Multiple perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum.
Kanwit, M., & Solon, M. (2023). Communicative
competence in a second language. Theory, method, and applications. New
York: Routledge.
Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2022).
Intercultural communication in contexts (8th ed.). New York, NY:
McGraw Hill LLC.
Neuliep, J. W. (2017). Intercultural
communication: A contextual approach (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
Piller, I. (2017). Intercultural Communication: A Critical
Introduction (2nd ed.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Porto, M., & Byram, M. (2017). New perspectives on intercultural
language research and teaching. Exploring learners’ understandings of
texts from other cultures. New York: Routledge.
Samovar, L. A.,
& Porter, R. E. (Eds.). (2014). Intercultural communication: A
reader (14th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
Swales, J.
(2008). Research genres: Explorations and applications. Cambridge: CUP.