TIU LUN (1)

TIỂU LUẬN MÔN: GIAO THOA VĂN HÓA
Topic
Write an essay of about 300-3500 words, suggesting what Vietnamese teachers of EFL should
do to improve EFL Vietnamese learners’ intercultural competence.
Alternatively, choose a specific textbook of English and show how you can cultivate your
learners’ knowledge of intercultural communication - cultural differences and improve their
intercultural competence with that textbook.
BÀI LÀM
Abstract
Intercultural communication is the product of the interact between people with different
backgrounds, and in the modern world, with the fast development of transportation and
information transformation, intercultural communication become and will become the necessary
part in the life of human being. For reducing the problems and conflicts in the intercultural
communication, we should become intercultural communication competence.
In this essay, we have discussion about the definition of intercultural communication, crosscultural communication impact factors. And then, give some problems in cross-culture
communication and suggestions for improving intercultural communication, so that we can
become intercultural communication competence, and have effective intercultural communication
with others.
How to improve the intercultural communication
1. Introduction
In cross-cultural communication, people from different cultural backgrounds who even overcome
the natural barriers of language difference often fail to understand or to be understood. The
problems are not due to any inability to hear them or understand their words. There exist culture
differences. Cultural differences are seen as the main reason of cross-cultural conflicts. And if we
are unaware of the significant role culture plays in communication, it may cause the pragmatic
problems. Pragmatic problems which arise due to culture differences is an area of cross-cultural
communication breakdown. Pragmatic failure can be divided into pragmalinguistic failure and
sociopragmatic failure. Pragmalinguistic failure is simply a question of highly conventionalized
usage which can be taught straightforwardly as part of the grammar. It is fairly easy to overcome
it. And sociopragmatic failure is much more difficult to deal with, since it involves the student’s
system of beliefs as much as their knowledge of the language. So English learners should

acquire pragmatic competence and refine student’s awareness to become a better
communicator.
2.Culture and communication
2.1The relationship of culture and communication
Culture and communication, although two different concepts, are directly linked. Whenever
people interact they communicate. To live in societies and to maintain their culture they have to
communicate. Culture is learned, acted out, transmitted and preserved through communication.
Communication----our ability to share our ideas and feelings is the basis of all human contact.
Whether we live in a city in Canada, a village in India, or the jungles of Brazil, we all participate in
the same activity when we communicate. The results and the methods might be different, but the
process is the same. All five and a half billion of us communicate so that we can share our
realities with other human beings. Communication and culture are inseparable. The way people
communicate is the way they live. It is their culture. When the elements of communication differ
or change, the elements of culture differ or change.
2.2 The importance of culture in communication
Because of cultural differences, misunderstandings may arise in communication, although the


language used in communication may be faultless. The same words or expressions may not
mean the same thing to different peoples. Because of cultural differences, jokes by a foreign
speaker may be received with blank faces and stony silence. Yet the same stories in the
speaker’s own country would leave audiences holding their sides with laughter. With difference in
cultures, difficulties often arise in communication between cultures and across cultures.
Understanding is not always easy. We should learn the ways in which native speaker’s language
reflects the ideas, customs, and behavior of their society. Learning a language is inseparable
from learning its culture.
3.Cross-cultural communication
Although all cultures use symbols to share their realities, the symbols employed are often quite
different. In one culture you smile in a casual manner as a form of greeting, whereas in another
you formally in silence, and in yet another you acknowledge your friend with a full embrace.

Communication becomes even more complex when we add cultural dimensions. Having
developed the relationship between culture and communication, we are now ready to discuss the
study of cross-cultural communication.
The term “cross-cultural” as a shorthand way of describing not just native---non-native
interactions, but any communication between two people who, in any particular domain, do not
share a common linguistic or cultural background. This might include workers, management,
members of ethnic minorities and the police. In its most general sense, cross-cultural
communication refers to a communication between people from different cultures. It implies a
comparison between cultures. It occurs when a member of one culture produces a message for
consumption by a member of another culture. More precisely, Samovar (1994:19) claims that
cross-cultural communication is communication between people whose cultural perceptions and