LECTURE 2:

CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION

I. COMMUNICATION

1. Defining communication

Communication is a symbolic, interpretive, transactional, contextual process in which

people create shared meaning.
Lustig, M.W. & Koester, J. (2006)
A conscious or unconscious, intentional or unintentional process in which feelings and
ideas are expressed in verbal and nonverbal messages. It occurs in intrapersonal,
interpersonal, and public levels. Human communication is dynamic, continuous,
irreversible, interactive and contextual.
Berko, R.M. et al. (1989)

Communication is any process in which people share information, ideas and feelings
that involve not only the spoken and written words but also body language, personal
mannerisms and style, the surrounding and things that add meaning to a message
Hybels, S. and Weaver, R. (1992)

2. Characteristics of communication

COMMUNICATION

symbolic interpretive transactional contextual

word, action, object interprete - shared creation physical, social and

representing a unit understand - of messages and interpersonal
of meaning agree (optional) meanings context

- communication is a process: involves both past and future experience, is always

moving and changing.
- Communication involves shared meanings:
Lustig, M.W. & Koester, J. (2006)
3. Levels of communication

a. Intrapersonal communication
b. Interpersonal communication:
c. Small group communication:
d. Public speaking:
e. Mass communication:

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4. Elements of communication

a. Sender – receivers:

b. Message:

c. Channels:

d. Feedback:

e. Noise:

f. Setting:

(Hybels & Weaver II, 1992:7-10)

5. Channels of communication

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II. CULTURE

1. Common concepts

• Culture is a shared background (for example, national, ethnic, religious)

resulting from a common language and communication style, customs, beliefs,
attitudes and values.

Levine and Adelman (1993:XVII)

• Culture is everything that people have, think and do as a member of a society.

Ferrando. G.

HAVE • Material objects

THINK • Ideas, values,

attitudes

DO • Behavior patterns

• Culture is a learned set of shared interpretations about beliefs, values, norms,

and social practices, which affect the behaviors of a relatively large group of
people.

Lustig, M.W. & Koester, J. (2013)

Task 1. Read the related parts about culture in your textbook (Intercultural competence)
and find the words/ phrases from the text to complete the following summary.

Defining culture for the study of communication

Culture is learned:
People are not born with any genetic inherence of culture. Instead, they learned about
their culture in a number of ways. First, culture is learned through the people you
(1)…………….. with, for example, your parents, other family members, friends and
even (2) ……………….. Second, culture is taught by the (3)………………….people
receive for the natural and social events around them. A good example for this is the
(4)…………………ways in which people from different cultures respond to the same
situation.

Culture is a set of shared interpretation:

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The meanings of symbols exist in the minds of the (5)…………………communicators;
when those (6) ……………… are shared with others, they form the basis for
(7)……………. A culture can form only if symbolic ideas are shared with a relatively
large (8)…………………………

Culture involves BELIEFS, VALUES, NORMS, AND SOCIAL PRACTICES:

Beliefs refer to the (9)………………… of a group of people about what the world is
like or what is (10)………….. or (11)………………...
Values refer to what a group of people defines as (12)……………. and
(13)……………. or what it regards as (14)………………….
Norms refer to rules for (15)…………………. behavior, which provide the expectations
people have of one another and of themselves.

Social practices are the (16)…………………….. behavior patterns that members of a

culture typically (17)………………...

Culture affects behaviors:

The shared interpretations about beliefs, values, and norms affect the behaviors of large
groups of people. The social practices that characterize a culture give people
(18)…………………… about what things mean, what is important, and what should or
should not be done.
However, no one is (19) ……………. “typical” of the culture to which she or he
belongs. Nor is “culture” the complete explanation for why people behave as they do.
Thus, “culture” is an important, but not the only, explanation for people’s conduct.

Culture involves large groups of people:

The use of the term culture is restricted to large (20) …………………… levels of
organization rather than small groups of individuals.

Task 2. Read the culture connection on page…. and find illustrations for the ideas
presented in each heading of the summary in task 1.

Examples from the story in culture connections

Culture is learned

Culture is a set of shared

interpretation

Culture involves BELIEFS,

VALUES, NORMS, AND
SOCIAL PRACTICES:

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Culture affects behaviors

• Levine and Adelman’s iceberg of culture:

- ¼ of the iceberg: tangible, visible, explicit
- ¾ of the iceberg: intangible, invisible, implicit

Food
Language Appearance

Belief Values Customs

Attitudes Perceptions

Traditions Taboos

Holliday’s view of culture (2004:4-5):

Essentialist view Non-essentialist view

Nature Culture – physical identity Culture – a social force

(I visited 3 cultures – Spain, (There was something culturally different

Morrocco and Tunisia) about each of the countries I visited)

Place Culture – a country and a Culture – Value

language

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 Relation The world – Mutually Cultures can flow, change, intermingle,
exclusive national cultures cut across and through one another

(People from Egypt cannot (Schools throughout the world have a lot
… when they arrive in of cultural similarities)
French Culture)

Membership People belong exclusively to one People can belong to and move through a
national culture and one complex multiplicity of cultures
language
(A sense of Iranian culture comes into play
(No matter how long she lives in when I listen to Iranian music)
Italy, she belongs to Austrian
culture)

Behaviour People’s behaviour is defined People are influenced by or make use of a

and constrained by the culture in multiplicity of cultural forms
which they live

Communication To communicate with someone To communicate with anyone who belongs to

who is foreign, we must first a group with whom we are unfamiliar, we
understand the details or have to understand the complexity of who she
stereotype of their culture is

2. Components of cultural patterns

2.1. Beliefs
- Beliefs: the assumptions we make about ourselves, about others in the world and about
how we expect things to be.

- Belief: psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise

(argument) to be true without necessarily being able to adequately prove its main
contention to other people who may or may not agree.

2.2. Values
- are ideals that guide or qualify your personal conduct, interaction with others, and
involvement in your career
- help you to distinguish what is right from what is wrong and
- inform you on how you can conduct your life in a meaningful way

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2.3. Norms
 Folkways: A society's web of cultural rituals, traditions and routines. Deviation
is not usually considered a serious threat to social organization and is thus
sanctioned less severely than moral deviation. Example: In certain households in
the U.S., it is a folkway to say grace before eating Thanksgiving dinner.
 Mores: Moral judgments that define wrong and right behavior, the allowed and
the disallowed, what is wanted and not wanted within a culture. A violation of
mores is usually considered by society as a threat to social organization and
harshly sanctioned. Examples: Drug use, sexual promiscuity, and extreme styles
of dress.
 Laws: The breaking of legal norms, or laws, invokes procedures and judgments
through formal, legal institutions, such as police and the courts, set up to enforce
them. These norms generally relate to individual violations of mores or to the
adjustment of proprietary relationships.

Values:

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# beliefs:

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# perceptions:

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.# communication styles:

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# taboos:

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 .# habits:

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# customs and traditions:

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3. Intracultural, intercultural, cross-cultural communication and other related

term.

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