Lecture Communication skill: Chapter 11 - Tracey Bretag, Joanna Crossman, Sarbari Bordia

Chapter 11
Intercultural
communication

Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Topic overview
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•
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Introduction: impact of globalisation
Understanding the term ‘culture’
Defining ‘intercultural communication’
‘Third space’ communication
Strategies for effective intercultural
communication

Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Impact of globalisation
• Globalisation has resulted in diverse
societies and workplaces.
• Australia:
– 43 per cent of the population born overseas or at
least one parent born overseas.
– Over 200 languages are spoken (Department of
Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous
Affairs 2005).

• Increasing diversity: need to develop
intercultural communication competence.
Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Activity 1
•

Form groups of three to four students and
discuss the following questions:

1. What are the key components of culture?
2. Individually, or in pairs, write a simple
definition of ‘culture’.
3. Compare your definition with another

group. Note the similarities and differences.

Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Defining ‘culture’
• There are over 100 definitions of ‘culture’.
• The following definitions of culture are tied
together by an understanding that:
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culture is learned
culture is shared
cultural experiences vary within a cultural group
culture changes continuously
every exchange with others is intercultural.

• Culture permeates everything we think, say,
do and are.
Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Defining ‘culture’ (cont.)
Chaney & Martin (2004, p. 268):
• Culture is ‘the structure through which the
communication is formulated and
interpreted; deals with the way people live’.

Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Defining ‘culture’ (cont.)
Ferraro (2002):
• Culture is ‘everything that people have,
think, and do as members of their society’
(cited in Gudykunst & Kim 2003, p. 19).

Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Defining ‘culture’ (cont.)
Gudykunst & Kim (2001, p. 15):
• ‘Our culture provides us with a system of
knowledge that generally allows us to know
how to communicate with other members of
our cultures and how to interpret their
behaviour.’

Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Defining ‘culture’ (cont.)
Hofstede (2001):
• Culture is ‘the collective programming of the
mind which distinguishes the members of
one human group from another’ (cited in
Dwyer 2005, p. 201).

Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Defining ‘culture’ (cont.)

Mohan, McGregor, Saunders & Archee (2004,
p. 80):
• ‘… culture can best be understood if it is
broken up into four main dimensions:
– history and world view, including values, beliefs
and religion
– socialisation, including education, enculturation
and personal growth
– language
– non-verbal communication’.

Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Defining ‘culture’ (cont.)
Windschuttle & Elliott (1999, p. 481):
• ‘A culture is a shared system of behaviour,
values, beliefs, attitudes, manners, symbols
and assumptions.’

Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Activity 2
• Form groups of three or four students.
1. Working alone, write down five ‘rules’ or
conventions your family follows when
eating a meal together. In one household,
the five rules might be as follows:
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–
–
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Set the table.
Turn off the television.
Help bring the food to the table.
Wait until everyone is seated before starting to
eat.
– At the end of the meal, thank whoever cooked
the meal.
Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Activity 2 (cont.)
2. Now, compare your family’s ‘rules’ with
those in your group. What is different?
What is the same?

3. How much of your family meal rules are
based on your family’s own ideas and how
much on wider cultural expectations (e.g.
using a knife and fork vs using chopsticks)?
4. Spend some time in your group discussing
how the ‘rules’ change depending on
particular circumstances (e.g. when a guest
comes to dinner; when a family member
has a birthday; on the weekend, etc.).
Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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The unspoken ‘rules’
• Life is made up of hundreds of unspoken
expectations and ways of behaving.
• Even within the same ethnic and linguistic
background, the ‘culture’ will be distinct from
one family to another.
• Individual behaviour also depends on the
context and the other individuals with whom
the interaction is taking place.

Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Understanding culture
• Understanding culture is about being
conscious of what we do everyday without
even thinking about it.
• The key to understanding culture is the
recognition that ‘culture is transmitted and
maintained solely through learning,
enculturation and group interaction’ (Dwyer
2005, p. 33).

Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Iceberg analogy of culture
• Tip (external culture):
– language, customs, typical food, dress
– acquired through observation, education/training
– easily learned and can be changed.

• Under water (internal culture):
– values, ways of thinking and perceiving, nonverbal communication
– overtly learned (formal education) or implicitly
learned through socialisation

– influences/motivates our behaviour

Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Ethnocentrism
• ‘The belief in the superiority of one’s own
culture’ (Guffey 2001, p. 12)
• Judging others by our own values
• Often results in stereotypes

Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Stereotypes
• Oversimplified behavioural patterns applied
to entire groups
– e.g. ‘all Australians drink beer’

• Fixed and distorted generalisations about all
members of a group
• Ignore individual differences and specifics of

the person or the situation

Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Stereotypes (cont.)
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•
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Support underlying prejudices or biases
Support a superiority/inferiority belief system
Used to justify unfair differential treatment
Learnt through socialisation and often
reinforced or perpetuated by the media
(adapted from Cross-cultural awareness
training module n.d.).

Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Activity 3
• In groups of three or four, write a brief
stereotype for each of the following
nationalities:
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–
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Australians
New Zealanders
Chinese
British
Japanese
German
French

• Present your feedback to class.
Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Activity 3 (cont.)
1. Was it easy to agree on a simple

stereotype for each nationality?
2. Who taught us these stereotypes?
3. Based on your own experience, are these
stereotypes true?
4. How are stereotypes used to discriminate
against others?
5. Can you think of any situations where
stereotypes might be useful?

Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Conceptualising
communication
• Communication is a symbolic activity
– words, non-verbal displays and objects (e.g. the
national flag).

• The meanings of symbols vary from culture
to culture.
• Communication is a process involving the
transmitting and interpreting of messages
– messages can be transmitted, but meanings
cannot.

Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd

PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Creation of meaning
• The channel used to transmit the message
influences how we interpret the meaning.
For example:
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face-to-face
telephone
computer-mediated (e.g. email, Internet)
handwritten message.

• The context also influences the
interpretation of the message (e.g. work,
home, school) and issues of power affect
the interpretation of a message.
Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Communication awareness
• Communication takes place at varying levels
of awareness.
• Much of what we know was learned
unconsciously.
• Most of the time we are unaware of the
process of communication.
• Awareness is heightened in new or strange
situations.

Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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Communication intention
• Intention is not a necessary condition for
communication.
• Other conditions include:
– habits (rituals such as greetings)
– emotions (responding to others without thinking,
e.g. becoming defensive if we feel we have been
insulted).

Copyright 2009 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
PPTs t/a Communication Skills, by Bretag, Crossman and Bordia

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