Intercultural communication - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Intercultural communication is a form of global communication. It is used to describe the wide range of communication problems that naturally appear within an organization made up of individuals from different religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. Intercultural communication is sometimes used synonym

Synonym

Synonyms are different words with almost identical or similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn and onoma . The words car and automobile are synonyms...

ously with cross-cultural communication

Cross-cultural communication

Cross-cultural communication is a field of study that looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate, in similar and different ways among themselves, and how they endeavour to communicate across cultures.- Origins :The Cold War, the United States economy...

. In this sense it seeks to understand how people from different countries and culture

Culture

Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

s act, communicate

Communication

Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...

and perceive

Perception

Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs...

the world around them. As a separate notion, it studies situations where people from different cultural backgrounds interact. Aside from language, intercultural communication focuses on social attributes, thought patterns, and the cultures of different groups of people. It also involves understanding the different cultures, languages and customs of people from other countries. Intercultural communication plays a role in anthropology

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

, cultural studies

Cultural studies

Cultural studies is an academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism. It generally concerns the political nature of contemporary culture, as well as its historical foundations, conflicts, and defining traits. It is, to this extent, largely distinguished from cultural...

, linguistics

Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

, psychology

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

and communication studies

Communication studies

Communication Studies is an academic field that deals with processes of communication, commonly defined as the sharing of symbols over distances in space and time. Hence, communication studies encompasses a wide range of topics and contexts ranging from face-to-face conversation to speeches to mass...

. Intercultural communication is also referred to as the base for international businesses. There are several cross cultural service providers around who can assist with the development of intercultural communication skills. Research is a major part of the development of intercultural communication skills.

Theories

The following types of theories can be distinguished in different strands: focus on effective outcomes, on accommodation or adaption, on identity negotiation and management, on communication networks, on acculturation and adjustment.

Theories focusing on effective outcomes

Cultural Convergence
- In a relatively closed social system in which communication among members is unrestricted, the system as a whole will tend to converge over time toward a state of greater cultural uniformity. The system will tend to diverge toward diversity when communication is restricted.

Theories focusing on accommodation or adaption

Communication Accommodation Theory
- This theory focuses on linguistic strategies to decrease or increase communicative distances.

Intercultural Adaption
- This theory is designed to explain how communicators adapt to each other in "purpose-related encounters", at which cultural factors need to be incorporated.

Co-cultural Theory
Co-Cultural Communication Theory
Co-cultural communication theory was built upon the frameworks of muted group theory and standpoint theory. The cornerstone of Co-cultural communication theory is Muted Group theory as proposed in the mid 1970’s by Shirley and Edwin Ardener...
- In its most general form, co-cultural communication refers to interactions among underrepresented and dominant group members. Co-cultures include but are not limited to people of color, women, people with disabilities, gay men and lesbians, and those in the lower social classes. Co-cultural theory, as developed by Mark P. Orbe, looks at the strategic ways in which co-cultural group members communicate with others. In addition, a co-cultural framework provides an explanation for how different persons communicate based on six factors.

Theories focusing on identity negotiation or management

Identity Management Theory
Identity Management Theory
Identity Management Theory is an intercultural communication theory from the 1990s. It was developed by William R. Cupach and Tadasu Todd Imahori on the basis of Erving Goffman's Interaction ritual: Essays on face-to-face behavior...
Identity Negotiation
Identity negotiation
Identity negotiation refers to the processes through which people reach agreements regarding “who is who” in their relationships. Once these agreements are reached, people are expected to remain faithful to the identities they have agreed to assume. The process of identity negotiation thus...
Cultural Identity Theory
Double-swing model
Double-swing model
The double-swing model is a model of intercultural communication, originated by Muneo Yoshikawa, conceptualizing how individuals, cultures, and intercultural notions can meet in constructive ways...

Theories focusing on communication networks

Networks and Outgroup Communication Competence
Intracultural
Intracultural
The term intracultural is used to describe data and interactional data from within one cultural group. For example: Value variations among Palestinians are intracultural. Often used in Subaltern Studies, Development Studies and Sociology....

Versus Intercultural Networks
Networks and Acculturation

Theories focusing on acculturation and adjustment

Communication Acculturation
- This theory attempts to portray "cross-cultural adaption as a collaborative effort in which a stranger and the receiving environment are engaged in a joint effort."

Anxiety/Uncertainty Management
- When strangers communicate with hosts, they experience uncertainty and anxiety. Strangers need to manage their uncertainty as well as their anxiety in order to be able to communicate effectively with hosts and then to try to develop accurate predictions and explanations for hosts' behaviors.

Assimilation, Deviance, and Alienation States
- Assimilation and adaption are not permanent outcomes of the adaption process; rather, they are temporary outcomes of the communication process between hosts and immigrants. "Alienation or assimilation, therefore, of a group or an individual, is an outcome of the relationship between deviant behavior and neglectful communication."

Other Theories

Meaning of Meaning Theory - "A misunderstanding takes place when people assume a word has a direct connection with its referent. A common past reduces misunderstanding. Definition, metaphor, feedforward, and Basic English are partial linguistic remedies for a lack of shared experience."
Face Negotiation Theory
Face negotiation theory
Face Negotiation Theory is a theory first postulated by Stella Ting-Toomey in 1985 to explain how different cultures manage conflict and communicate....

- "Members of collectivistic, high-context cultures have concerns for mutual face and inclusion that lead them to manage conflict with another person by avoiding, obliging, or compromising. Because of concerns for self-face and autonomy, people from individualistic, low-context cultures manage conflict by dominating or through problem solving"
Standpoint Theory
Standpoint theory
Standpoint theory is a postmodern method for analyzing inter-subjective discourses. "Developed primarily by social scientists, especially sociologists & political theorists. It extends some of the early insights about consciousness that emerged from Marxist/socialist feminist theories and the wider...

- Is an individual experiences, knowledge, and communication behaviors are shaped in large part by the social groups to which they belong.
Stranger Theory - At least one of the persons in an intercultural encounter is a stranger. Strangers are a 'hyperaware' of cultural differences and tend to overestimate the effect of cultural identity on the behavior of people in an alien society, while blurring individual distinctions.
Feminist Genre Theory - Evaluates communication by identifying feminist speakers and reframing their speaking qualities as models for women’s liberation.
Genderlect Theory - "Male-female conversation is cross-cultural communication. Masculine and feminine styles of discourse are best viewed as two distinct cultural dialects rather than as inferior or superior ways of speaking. Men's report talk focuses on status and independence. Women's support talk seeks human connection."
Cultural Critical Studies Theory - The theory states that the mass media impose the dominant ideology on the rest of society, and the connotations of words and images are fragments of ideology that perform an unwitting service for the ruling elite.
Marxist Theory - Marxism is a theory based on Dialectical Materialism, which aims at explaining class struggle and the basis of social relations through economics.

Intercultural Communication Competence

Intercultural Communicative Competence has been said to combine three components:

knowledge (= information necessary to interact appropriately and effectively)
motivation (e.g. positive affect toward the other culture, empathy)
skills (= behavior necessary to interact appropriately and effectively)

Relationships of the Dimensions of Intercultural Communication Competence” (by Guo-Ming Chen). It is classifying 'Intercultural Communication Competence' to 4 Dimensions and several Components, such as *Personal Attributes (Self-Disclosure, Self-Awareness, Self-Concept, Social Relaxation) *Communication skills (Message Skills, Social Skills, Flexibility, Interaction Management) *Psychological Adaptation (Frustration, Stress, Alienation, ambiguity) *15Cultural Awareness (Social Values, Social Customs, Social Norms, Social Systems). H1 is about correlations among 4 Dimensions, and H2 is about relationship between the Ruben's other-report Intercultural Behavioral Assessment Indices and the subjects' data of the components of intercultural communication competence. The paper used the methods with 149 international students' questionnaires. As the result, *significant relationships among measures of self-consciousness, self-disclosure, communication adaptability, social situations, and interaction management. *significant relationship only between (15)Cultural Awareness and Communication Skills.((15)Cultural Awareness was only significantly correlated with measures of communication adaptability and communication responsiveness.)