Intercultural differences in communication

Investigating intercultural communication

Intercultural communication” and “Cross-

cultural communication”.
- implies a comparison between cultures
- less restrictive term
Intercultural communication (ICC)
The term first used by Edward T. Hall in 1959 and
is simply defined as interpersonal
communication between members of
different cultures.
- can include international, interethnic,
interracial, and interregional communication.
 International communication

Takes place between nations and governments

rather than individuals; it is quite formal and
ritualized, e.g the dialogue at the United
Nations, Russian and American Presidents’
communication.
 Interethnic communication

Ethnic groups usually form their own

communities in a country or culture.
• Interethnic communication refers to
communication between people of the same
race but different ethnic background: in China,
if a Tibetan communicates with a Han, there’s
interethnic communication, as they are from
different ethnic groups.
 Interracial communication

The source and the receiver exchanging

messages are from different races, which
pertains to physical characteristic: if an Afro-
American interacts with a white American, it’s
interracial communication.
Interracial communication may or may not be
intercultural.
Interregional communication

• The exchange of messages between members

of the dominant culture within a country: a
northerner interacts with a southerner.
Members of a culture sharing common
messages and experiences over a long period
of time but living in different regions of the
same country.
 Features if ICC
• It is a universal phenomenon
• Its history is almost as long as human history
itself
• is a common daily occurrence
 The development of ICC as a science

The pioneer in this field and founder of ICC

study in the United States is Edward Hall.
- 1959 The Silent Language, which has since
become a classic.
• different directions: psychological, socilolgical
and linguistic.
 Socilolgical direction
Applies inquiry forms to determine values and stereotypes among people
of different groups; examines human behavior mainly in working
environment and business communication. The results obtained find
application in intercultural trainings for personnel of transnational
corporations.
• Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions: Power Distance, Individualism
versus Collectivism, Masculinity versus Femininity, Uncertainty
Avoidance.
• Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, eds. J. William
Breslin and Jeffery Z. Rubin, (Cambridge: The Program on Negotiation at
Harvard Law School, 1991), pp. 251-260.
•  
•  
 Psychological direction
Is interested in examining cultural values with
regard to their influence on interpretation and
characterization, as well as determining the
essence of particular behavioral stereotypes.
 Linguistic approach
is focused on finding language signals showing
intercultural communication. This approach
tries to reveal the context of communication
and then define mechanisms for leveling
misunderstanding.
 Discourse approach
• formal business writing differs in structure,
manner and terms depending on a cultural
context.
• comparative linguistic analysis of two culturally
opposed groups using one common language
code. Debora Tannen in her work You Just
Don’t Understand, 1990 describes the
peculiarities of communication behavior based
on gender roles.
 Top works and scholars in ICC

• Landis & Brislin (eds.): Handbook of Intercultural Communication

Training, 1983.
• Samover & Porter (eds.): Intercultural Communication: A Reader, (1972).
• Hofstede: Culture’s Consequences, 1980.
• Brislin: Cross-cultural Encounters, 1981.
• Brislin: Cross-cultural Orientation Programs, 1976.
• Hall: Beyond Culture, 1976.
• Brislin, Bochner & Lonner: Cross-cultural Perspectives on Learning, 1975.
• Triandis (ed.): Handbook of Cross-cultural Psychology, 1979.
• Furnham: Cultural Shock, 1986.
• Furnham: Culture in Contact, 1982. (Hu Wenzhong, 1999, p.23)
 Top ten scholars in ICC
• Gudykunst, Triandis, Bristin, Ruben, Hall,
Hofs.tede, Kim, Hanner, Furnham, and Landis.
 Discourse Analysis

• Language beyond the level of a sentence

• Language behaviors linked to social practices
• Language as a system of thought
 Discourse Analysis (DA)
• Aims to study and analyze the use of discourse
in at least one of the three ways stated above,
and more often than not, all of them at once.
Analysis of discourse looks not only at the
basic level of what is said, but takes into
consideration the surrounding social and
historical contexts.
• E.g. ‘terrorist’ or a ‘freedom fighter’
 Study of Discourse Analysis

• Conversation analysis: social interaction, encompasses both

verbal language and non-verbal language such as body language
• Interactional_Sociolinguistics: takes interaction into account
when studying the meaning created by language users.
• Critical Discourse Analysis: views language in terms of its social
practices; considering how social and political powers are
represented in speech.
• Stylistics: studies and interprets texts. It links literary criticism
and linguistics together, but remains descriptive.
 Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA).

• looks at discourse from a politically motivated

level
• collects a corpus of texts, before finally
analyzing the given text to identify how
language is used to reproduce ideologies in
this text
• looks at the different levels of a text; the
macro, meso and micro levels.
 Three levels of discourse context: Macro,
Meso and Micro.
• macro level: the relationship between the text
and broader social processes and ideologies;
• meso level: focuses on the context of
production and reception of the text; where
was the text made?
• micro level of discourse context simply looks at
what is actually being said in the text, and what
linguistic features and devices are being used to
depict an idea.
 Linguistic analysis in CDA

• Active or Passive voice: "Police attack protestors“/

"Protestors attacked".
• Nominalization: "Attack on protestors.
• Naming: five Asian youths involved in armed robbery
• Pre-modifiers: ‘gay marriage’
• Indirect quotes: poll shows 70% oppose gay marriage