INTERCULTURAL

COMMUNICATIONS
W E D O N ’ T SEE T H IN G S AS T H EY AR E, W E SEE T H EM AS
W E AR E” — AN O N YM OU S

IF YO U D ON ’T GIVE PEOPL E IN FOR MATION , TH EY MAKE

U P SO M ET H IN G TO F IL L T H E VO ID ” — C AR L A O ’ D EL L
 INTRODUCTION

• Globalization has made intercultural communication inevitable. Communicating

with other cultures characterizes today’s business, classroom, and community.
Hence, the art of knowing how to communicate with other cultures should be
a work place skill that is emphasized.
 LEARNING OUTCOME

• Differentiate cross-cultural and intercultural communication.

• Identify importance and effective intercultural communication.
• Illustrate some characteristics of culture.
• Describe the relationship between language and culture.
 CROSS CULTURAL VS INTERCULTURAL

• Cross - cultural communication

• cross-cultural communication involves a comparison of interactions among people
from the same culture to those from another culture

Intercultural communication
intercultural communication involves interactions among people from different
cultures.
 CROSS – CULTURAL AND
INTERCULTURAL DIAGRAM

Culture A Culture B Culture

A
Dominant
Culture
Culture
B C
 PURPOSE OF INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATION

• The primary purpose of intercultural communication is to increase

understanding of culturally mediated communication phenomena. Within this
goal, there are three distinct research avenues: culture specific, culture
general and intercultural interaction.
• The “culture specific” focuses on identifying the communication behaviors of a
specific culture.
• The “culture general” seeks to identify commonalities or universalities across
cultures.
• A combination of both culture-specific and culture general integrates different
cultures interacting hence called intercultural interaction (Zaharna, 2000).
 WHY DO WE STUDY INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATION?

• Increases Self-awareness. It help us to avoid ethnocentrism – a tendency to

think that our culture is superior to other cultures.
• Demographic changes. The study of size and distribution of population from one
place to another.
• Workplace and economic globalization. To compete effectively in the global
market.
• Creative problem solving. We learn from people who are different than us from
those who are similar to us. (Stenberg as cited in Ting-Toomey & Chung, 2005).
• Global and intrapersonal peace respect. If we are at peace with ourselves, we
will hold more compassion and caring for others around us(Ting-Toomey & Chung,
2005)
 IMPORTANCE OF INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATION

• #1- Why is intercultural communication important to know?

• Intercultural communication offers the ability to deal across cultures, which is
increasingly important, as the world gets smaller. Getting smaller doesn’t mean
the world is becoming identical, it means having more and more contact with
people who are culturally different. Being able to deal with this cultural
difference peacefully, never mind creatively and innovatively, is becoming a
survival issue to thrive in a global world as a global leader.
• – from an interview of Dr. Milton Bennett
 MILTON BENNETT

• Milton J. Bennett is an American sociologist. He is credited as the creator of

Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity. Bennett was a tenured professor
at Portland State University and is now an adjunct professor of intercultural studies
in the Department of Sociology of the University of Milano Bicocca.

Basic Concepts of Intercultural Communication: Paradigms, Principles, and

Practices, Intercultural Press, 2013

The Handbook of Intercultural Training (ed.), SAGE Publishing, 2004

American Cultural Patterns:A Cross-Cultural Perspective, co-author with Edward

Stewart, Intercultural Press, 1991
 EDWARD T. HALL

• Edward Twitchell Hall, Jr. (May 16, 1914 – July 20, 2009) was an American
anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher. He is remembered for developing
the concept of proxemics and exploring cultural and social cohesion, and
describing how people behave and react in different types of culturally defined
personal space.
• Wrote the book :The Silent Language (1959)
• Considered to some as “the founder of
Intercultural Communication”
 CULTURE: THE BASIS OF INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNIC ATION
WHAT IS IT?

Cooley,Argell and Car say,

• “The entire accumulation of artificial objects, conditions, tools, techniques, ideas, symbols
and behaviour patterns peculiar to a group of people, possessing a certain consistency of
its own, and capable of transmission from one generation to another.”
E.A. Hoebel,
• “Culture is the sum total of integrated learned behaviour patterns which are
characteristics of the members of a society and which are therefore not the result of
biological inheritance.”
According to H.T. Mazumadar,
• “culture is the sum total of human achievements, material as well as non-material,
capable of transmission, sociologically, i.e., by tradition and communication, vertically as
well as horizontally”.
 IMPORTANCE OF CULTURE

• 1. Culture helps the individual fulfill the potential as a human being.

• It helps in the regulation of a person’s conducts and prepares the person to participate in
the group life.
• 2. Through the development of culture man can overcome his physical
disadvantages and allows us to provide ourselves with fire, clothing, food
and shelter.
• The invention of the buses, ships and airplanes enables us to reach places in a shorter
amount of time. With modern technology life became much easier compared to previous
generations.
• 3. Culture provides rules of proper conduct for living in a society.
• 4. Culture also provides the individual his concepts of family, nation and
class.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE
• Learned behavior
• Culture is abstract
• Culture is a pattern of
learned behavior
• Culture is a product of
behavior
• Culture includes attitudes,
values and knowledge
• Culture includes material
objects
• Culture is shared by the • Culture is transmitted
members of society among members of
society
• Culture is super-organic
• Culture is continually
• Culture is pervasive changing
• Culture is a way of life • Culture is variable
• Culture is a human • Culture is an integrated
product system
• Culture is idealistic • Language is the chief
vehicle of culture
 HOW IS CULTURE TRANSMITTED?

• Culture is transmitted through:

• Enculturation
• Process of learning culture of one’s group.
• Acculturation
• Process of learning some new traits from another group.
• Assimilation
• Process when an individual entirely loses any awareness of previous group and takes
on the culture of other group.
 COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

Even though considerable variation exist, all cultures share four components:

Communication Cognitive Behavioral Material

Non-
Verbal Ideas/Knowledge/Belief Norms Medicine
verbal
Language Symbols Values Mores, Folkways, Rituals Technology
Gestures Accounts Law Artifacts
Transportation
 COMMUNICATION COMPONENTS

• Symbols
• Every culture is filled with symbols, or things that stand for something else and that
often evoke various reactions and emotions. Some symbols are actually types of
nonverbal communication, while other symbols are in fact material objects.
• Language
• Perhaps our most important set of symbols is language. In English, the
word chair means something we sit on. In French, the word chaise means the same
thing. As long as we agree how to interpret these words, a shared language and thus
society are possible. By the same token, differences in languages can make it quite
difficult to communicate.
 COGNITIVE COMPONENTS

• Ideas/ Knowledge/ Beliefs.

• Ideas are mental representations (concepts, categories, metaphor). Knowledge is
the storage where we accumulate representations. Beliefs accept a proposition,
statement, description of fact as true.
• Values
• Culturally defined standards of desirability, goodness and beauty, which serve as broad
guidelines for social living.
• Accounts
• How people use common language to explain, justify, rationalize, excuse or legitimize
a behavior to themselves and others.
 BEHAVIORAL COMPONENTS

• Norms
• Are rules and expectations by which a society guides the behaviors of its members.
• Types of norms
• Mores – a behavior of moralistic value.
• Laws – the most formal and important norm. Legal formalization that even non-
members of society are required to obey.
• Folkways – behavior patterns of society which are organized and repetitive. There
is no strong feeling of right and wrong. Commonly known as “customs”.
• Rituals – highly scripted ceremonies or strips of interaction that follow a specific
sequence of actions.
 MATERIAL COMPONENTS

• Technology
• collection of techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the production of goods or
services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation.
• Artifacts
• is something made or given shape by humans, such as a tool or a work of art, especially an
object of archaeological interest.
• Transportation
• Transport or transportation is the movement of humans, animals and goods from one
location to another. In other words, the action of transport is defined as a particular
movement of an organism or thing from a point A to a Point B. Modes of transport include
air, land, water, cable, pipeline and space.
 7 PRINCIPLES OF INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATION

• To help promote healthier outcomes in the workplace The Equality Academy,

experts in their field, have defined seven principles of intercultural
communication (building on the work of Deardorff & others) for you to
follow:
• 1. Respect, openness, curiosity: be willing to take a risk and to move
beyond one’s comfort zone. Be willing to be wrong, or at least to have one’s
perspective altered or widened.
• 2. You are not the centre of everyone’s universe: realize that one’s own
culture is specific, and study how it has affected one’s own world view – also
how odd or foreign it may seem to others, and how it may impact upon them
 7 PRINCIPLES OF INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATION

• 3. Culture, power, status: understand that cultures are often in a

relationship of status, power and domination / subordination – that those who
feel dominated often feel ignored and marginalized, and those who dominate
often do not recognize their privilege or power. When these power or status
relationships change, there is often upheaval, fear, anger and anxiety.
• 4. Learn from the other: with this understanding, be willing to learn as
much as possible about others’ culture, as far as possible without judgment, but
with respectful curiosity. This will often throw a new light on one’s own
culture.
 7 PRINCIPLES OF INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATION

• 5. Develop core skills: intercultural communication requires self-mastery, as

we develop our willingness and ability to observe, listen, evaluate, analyze,
interpret, and relate with less judgment and more openness.
• 6. Reap the inner dividends: this process will enrich you personally and
professionally, as you gain in flexibility, adaptability, empathy, and the ability to
really ‘get’ what others experience and perceive, whether or not you ‘agree’
with them.
 7 PRINCIPLES OF INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATION

• 7. Reap the outer dividends: Deardorff defines intercultural competence as

“the effective and appropriate behavior and communication in intercultural
situations.” and she explains that “…effectiveness can be determined by the
individual while the appropriateness can only be determined by the other
person – with appropriateness being directly related to cultural sensitivity and
the adherence to cultural norms of that person”.
 CONDITION THAT EFFECTIVE
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNIC ATION IS
ACHIEVED

• For intercultural competence or effective (intercultural) communication there

are, according to Pinto (1990), four conditions linked to:
• 1. Technical condition: there must be reciprocal understanding of the
language in which is communicated. This means that:
• you understand each other's (sign) language
• you can see each other and/or hear
• a possible interpreter does work well
• technical equipment (phone, radio, television etc..) well functions
 CONDITION THAT EFFECTIVE
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNIC ATION IS
ACHIEVED

• 2. Cognitive condition: both parties must speak at an intellectual level acceptable

for each other; This means that:
• you can understand each on intellectual manners
• the subject of conversation is familiar enough
• 3. Interpretative condition: the same interpretation must be granted to the
used words;
This means that:
• you give the same meaning to the used words, gestures and mimicry (interprets in the same
way)
• interpreting is more difficult, as the language in which you do speak is not your native
language is
 CONDITION THAT EFFECTIVE
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNIC ATION IS
ACHIEVED

• 4. Affective condition: both parties must know what the emotional meaning is of
used words, gestures or operations. This means that:
• you must have the same feeling about certain (language) actions (for example politeness
codes or look to each other directly.)
• you are prepared to communicate
• Especially the last condition can lead to wrong communication, because one
assumes when one speaks the same language the same meanings are granted to the
verbal and non-verbal language.
To serve to the affective condition, it is necessary to understand or know the
culture of each other. For development of intercultural competence, and therefore
communicate with persons from other cultures, several models have been
developed. For a compact overview I refer to Azghari (2005).
 IMPORTANCE OF INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATION IN EDUCATION

• Education relies on effective interaction between the teacher and the learners.
Intercultural communication has become important because the schools are
becoming more diverse culturally. In his paper, Roux (2002) argued that
successful educators are effective communicators and thus culturally
competent in cross-cultural encounters. Teachers should therefore be sensitive
to the potentially problematic outcomes of intercultural communication in the
culturally diverse class. Communication can be a useful source of intercultural
knowledge and mutual enrichment between culturally diverse students if
managed proactively by the teacher. Otherwise, communication could be a
source of frustration, misapprehensions, intercultural conflict and ultimately
school failure. Thus cross-cultural communication is complex and potentially
problematic in education.
 IMPORTANCE OF INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATION IN EDUCATION

• Successful communication is a prerequisite of effective transfer of knowledge

in school. A rich repertoire of verbal and nonverbal behaviors appropriate to
the intercultural situation as well as affective capabilities to react sensitively to
fellow communicators from other cultures is a necessity in education.
Obstacles to effective intercultural communication include attitudes and
dispositions, stereotyping, and ethnocentrism. A rich repertoire of verbal and
nonverbal behaviors appropriate to the intercultural situation as well as
affective capabilities to react sensitively to fellow communicators from other
cultures is a necessity in education (Linde, 1997).
 MANAGING DIVERSITY IN CLASSROOM

• Take the time to learn about your students' background, interests, and learning
style.
• This will allow you to create an environment that is conducive to each individual student.
• Allow time for the students to learn about each other and gain an appreciation for
the diversity they bring to the classroom.
• Remind them how boring it would be if we were all alike and there were no differences
among us to make each person unique.
• Teach students that everyone has strengths and weaknesses.When working in teams
encourage students to take advantage of the strengths of the team members in order to
produce the best possible results.
 MANAGING DIVERSITY IN CLASSROOM

• Bring in different people to the class as resources that students might be able
to connect with.
• Search out people that are different from yourself and that might share certain
qualities with your students.
• Students need role models. Many times when they see they are connected in some
way to a person they will be more apt to listen and learn from them.
• Never tolerate bullying, teasing, and other put-down behavior at any time in
the classroom.
• Implement a "zero tolerance" for anything that is disrespectful, hurtful, or intolerant
of diversity.
 LANGUAGE IN
INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATION
“ L E AR NING AN OT H E R L AN G UAGE I S N OT O N LY
L E ARN ING D I F F E RE NT WO R D S F O R T H E S AM E T H I N GS ,
BUT L EARNING ANOTHER WAY TO THI NK AB OUT
T H I N GS .” – F L O R A L E W I S
 COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE

• Communication (from Latin communicare, meaning "to share")[1] is the act of

conveying meanings from one entity or group to another through the use of mutually
understood signs, symbols, and semiotic rules.
• Language is a system that consists of the development, acquisition, maintenance and
use of complex systems of communication, particularly the human ability to do so; a
language is any specific example of such a system.
• When you refer to language, it means the communication system that depends on
verbal and non-verbal methods so information can be transferred. Communication is
the way two people or a group exchange information or messages. You can say that
language is a tool while communication is the process of using that tool. Language
focuses on words, symbols or signs while communication is centered on the message.
COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE
DIAGRAM
 FIELD OF STUDY COMPONENTS OF
LANGUAGE

• Phonology involves the rules about the structure and sequence of speech sounds.
• Semantics consists of vocabulary and how concepts are expressed through words
study of meaning.
• Grammar involves two parts. The first, syntax, is the rules in which words are
arranged into sentences. The second, morphology, is the use of grammatical
markers (indicating tense, active or passive voice, etc.).
• Pragmatics involves the rules for appropriate and effective communication.
Pragmatics involves three skills:
• using language for greeting, demanding, etc.
• changing language for talking differently depending on who it is you’re talking to
• following rules such as turn-taking and staying on topic
 LANGUAGE IN INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATION

• paralanguage. nonverbal means of communication, such as tone of voice,

laughter, and, sometimes, gestures and facial expressions, that accompany
speech and convey further meaning.
• The set of nonphonemic properties of speech, such as speaking tempo, vocal
pitch, and intonational contours, that can be used to communicate attitudes or
other shades of meaning.
• It is important to know the culture of whom you are communicating, different
culture mean different meaning in their paralanguage.
 THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS

• The hypothesis of linguistic relativity, part of relativism, also known as

the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis /səˌpɪər ˈhwɔːrf/, or Whorfianism is a
principle claiming that the structure of a language affects its speakers' world
view or cognition, and thus people's perceptions are relative to their spoken
language.
• The strong version says that language determines thought and that linguistic
categories limit and determine cognitive categories.
• The weak version says that linguistic categories and usage
only influence thought and decisions.
 THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS

• One important question that many intellectuals have asked is how the language
that our society uses influences its culture.
• Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which states that how we look at the world is
largely determined by our thought processes, and our language limits our
thought processes. It follows that our language shapes our reality. In other
words, the language that we use shapes the way we think and how we see the
world. Since the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis theorizes that our language use
shapes our perspective of the world, it follows that people who speak different
languages have different world views.
 THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS
EXAMPLES

• Sexist words:
• Fireman female fireman
• Policeman female policeman
• Mankind female mankind
• nurse male nurse
We may think that fireman, policeman is a job for males and nurse is a job for females
and mankind means male dominates women.
 SEMANTICS TYPES OF MEANING

• Linguistic perspective
• Lexical meaning refers to the meaning of words that belong to one of the four
lexical word classes. It is the aspect of meaning usually given in a dictionary.
• grammatical meaning includes the meaning of grammatical items (e.g. function
words and inflectional affixes), grammatical functions (e.g. subject and object), and
different sentence-types (e.g. declarative and interrogative).
 SEMANTICS TYPES OF MEANING

• Non-linguistic perspective Geoffrey Leech (1981) lists seven different types of

meaning:
• Referential meaning (also called denotative meaning, descriptive meaning, conceptual
meaning, or sense) refers to the logical, cognitive, or denotative content of an expression.
• In contrast, connotative meaning (associative meaning) denotes the associations and
secondary meanings the expression evokes.
• Information that the linguistic expression conveys about certain social characteristics is
called social meaning(stylistic meaning)
• while the emotive or affective component of the expression is referred to as its affective
meaning.
• “Social meaning and affective meaning together are sometimes called connotation”.
 SEMANTICS TYPES OF MEANING

• The term reflected meaning refers to certain associations with another

sense of the same expression.
• collocative meaning (collocation) is conveyed by associations of a word
because of its usual co-occurrence with certain types of words.
• thematic meaning denotes the organization of a message in terms of
information structure.
 NON-LINGUISTIC MEANING EXAMPLES

• Referrential meaning: description in a dictionary. The literal meaning of a word.

• Run fast! The dog is chasing you! – Run is literally running using your legs.
Connotative meaning: Second meaning of same word.
The woman had a baby. – you think of motherly.
The woman is the killer. – you think of hideous criminal.
Social meaning: cultural or stylistic way of the words.
I ain’t done nothing – black american
Come on yaar, be a sport. Don’t be Lallu. – indian close friends
Lugar lang dayon! Asa man ta padulong lugar. – from cagayan de oro
 NON-LINGUISTIC MEANING EXAMPLES

• Social meaning variation: different words but same meaning but is used in
different settings.
• Residence(formal), abode( poetry), home (ordinary use), domicile (official)
• Affective meaning: affects different emotion on personal feeling of a reader
or listener.
• The word “family” may differ in emotional feelings towards different persons.
• Positive reaction for those with happy family
• Negative reaction for those with broken family
 NON-LINGUISTIC MEANING EXAMPLES

• Reflected meaning: it depends on the sense or associations.

• The “holy ghost” – ghost in religious person may find this awesome.
– ghost in non-religious person may find this dreadful.
Collocative meaning: when a word is usually seen beside a word and we know what
it points to or mean.
wander and stroll is synonymous but using stroll may be wrong in the example.
The cow strolls in the meadow.
The cow wanders in the meadow.
 NON-LINGUISTIC MEANING EXAMPLES

• Pretty and handsome have the same meaning to be good looking but may be
wrong to interchange them.
• The male body builder is very muscularly sexy and pretty.
• The female receptionist is exceptionally handsome.
Thematic meaning: the way the speaker organizes his words to emphasize a meaning.
Mr. Bean has donated a large amount of money.
A large amount of money has been donated by Mr. Bean.
First sentence give importance to who gave the money.
Second sentence give importance to the amount of money.
 REFERENCES

• https://mkbconseil.ch/intercultural-communication-important-know-summary-
interview-dr-milton-bennett/
• https://medium.com/intercultural-mindset/28-quotes-that-will-level-up-your-
intercultural-communication-skills-57790f649d97
• http://www.mediacom.keio.ac.jp/publication/pdf2002/review24/2.pdf
• https://ixmaticommunications.com/2011/02/03/cross-cultural-vs-intercultural/
• https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=ojwed
 REFERENCES

• https://www.mastersincommunications.com/research/intercultural-
communication/
• http://people.tamu.edu/~i-choudhury/culture.html
• http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/culture/culture-the-meaning-characteristics-
and-functions/9577
• https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/sociology-brief-edition-v1.1/s05-02-
the-elements-of-culture.html
• Vega V. A., Prieto N.G., Carreon M.L.(2015). Social Dimensions of Education
revised ed. Quezon City: LORIMAR PUBLISHING INC., pp. 26-43.
 REFERENCES

• https://www.thecentre.co.uk/blog/post/7_principles_of_intercultural_communi
cation_by_the_equality_academy
• https://www.nde-ed.org/TeachingResources/ClassroomTips/Diversity.htm
• http://good-id-in-schools.eu/artikel/effective-intercultural-communication
• https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/language/17-language-quotes-to-turbocharge-
your-learning/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication
• https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/language-and-communication-they-are-
two-different-things/
 REFERENCES

• https://www.yourdictionary.com/paralanguage
• https://study.com/academy/lesson/sapir-whorf-hypothesis-examples-and-
definition.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity
• http://www.ello.uos.de/field.php/Semantics/Typesofmeaning
• https://www.slideshare.net/MiftadiaLaulaAmm/seven-types-of-meaning