Teaching intercultural communication differs greatly from teaching many other courses within communications and the larger curriculum. How the audience is impacted differs from most courses, and ignoring that reality short-circuits a professor's ability to maximize the learning experience. With goals of understanding and bridging cultural…

THE AUTHOR'S PROGRAM, COLLEGE ORIENTATION PROGRAM FOR ALASKAN NATIVES (COPAN), WAS DEVELOPED TO PROVIDE A SMOOTH TRANSITION FOR NATIVE ALASKAN STUDENTS INTO THE AREA OF WESTERN CULTURE, IN COLLEGE. THE FINE ARTS WERE UTILIZED AS A COMMUNICATION BRIDGE BETWEEN THE ESKIMO AND WESTERN CULTURES. THE MEDIA OF THE DANCE AND DRAMA WERE THE BASES FOR…

Examples of cross cultural misunderstandings are examined in this paper to show how cultural (contextual) meaning must be regarded as an integral feature of the overall semantic meaning of an utterance. The examples, taken from the Filipino dialect Tagalog, illustrate how ignorance of the cultural assumptions and attitudes associated with an…

Examines the sociolinguistic aspects of Saudi greeting rituals, discussing the phraseology and nonverbal signals employed by greeter and greetee in various situations. Also explores the communication problems that Saudis and Americans have when communicating in each other's language and culture. (MDM)

A cross-cultural study was undertaken to examine levels of communication apprehension reported by five- to eleven-year-old subjects in the United States and Sweden. The approach was twofold: the examination of elementary age subjects and the use of their native language. The Personal Report of Communication Fear was administered to 186 males and…

A key characteristic of multinational companies is a worldwide perspective and orientation in managerial decision making. In its quest for international opportunities, a multinational company confronts many problems and uncertainties in evaluating and dealing with political, legal, economic, social, cultural, and governmental policy variables and…

Sojourners, people who stay for a period of time in countries of which they are not natives, sometimes may encounter communication situations for which they are not prepared. A program seems necessary whereby people living in nonfamiliar cultures can learn to interpret cultural idiosyncrasies inherent in communication patterns and to function as…

After describing scenes that reveal a pattern in which whites regard blacks' speech behavior as threatening, aggressive, or hostile, and in which blacks disagree with their interpretation, this paper explores differences between black and white cultural assumptions, values, and conventions of aggressive behavior to account for the different…

Cultures differ in rules that govern communicative behavior, and these differences can cause teacher/student miscommunication in the classroom and can also interfere with the academic performance of minority group children. These differences can be overcome, however, by knowledgeable teachers who endeavor to build and expand the communicative…

UNESCO's International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems recommends that a new world information and communication order be established. This order advocates that the news media serve the public directly, and that the public in turn hold the media accountable. Alfred Korzybski's General Semantics paradigm is one system that can…

To show that the bottom line for successful operation of a multinational company is understanding the cultural background of its employees and adapting to cultural change, this paper cites studies indicating that attitudes, communication, interpersonal skills, and motivation may be more important than technical skills in ensuring success in…

Both North American and Latin American business professionals were investigated in a study that focused on the perceived communication problems between the two groups. A number of major areas of interest were considered, including the following: (1) source of credibility (what dimensions of personality were seen as most desirable in the…

Communication between individuals from different cultures can fail simply because of the culturally-oriented assumptions that speakers make about one another's responses. The higher rate of discipline referrals among African-American males involves behavior that is related to cultural and communicative issues. In an effort to build their…

This handbook provides detailed guidelines for conducting the exercise described in SO 009 457 as a workshop on intercultural communication. The objective of the workshop is to improve participant skill in intercultural communication by increasing the ability to recognize cultural influences in participants' own thinking. Aspects of conducting the…