The material focuses on the following areas: definition and purpose, some of the more common characteristics of the culturally different, counselor attitudes in serving the culturally different, counselor's knowledge of client's background, communication in the counseling relationship, and client attitudes toward helping services. Some…

This monograph is written from the interdisciplinary/intercultural perspectives of a black communications expert, a Chicana (Mexican American) sociologist, and a white educational innovator. It presents a discussion of the basic problems and positive features of communication across racial, ethnic, and cultural boundaries. It first considers why…

Historical, structural, cross-cultural, and communication problems within four federally funded Indian drug abuse treatment programs caused conflict between federal agencies and Indians and within the Indian communities themselves. Many of the problems duplicated those encountered in dealing with alcohol abuse among Indians. (SB)

People fail to communicate because they fail to read accurately the cultural signs that each person is sending. This consistently produces bewilderment, and often feelings of anger, frustration, and pain. Communication becomes virtually impossible when people not only operate from different cultural codes, but are unaware that different codes are…

This commentary on the Council for Exceptional Children-Council on Education of the Deaf's (CEC-CED's) Joint Knowledge and Skills Statement, which sets forth qualifications needed by those who teach deaf and hard of hearing students, discusses key issues impacting the education of students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing: cultural flexibility,…

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…

Minority cultures develop homogeneous customs, language, and thought patterns that affect the writing of individuals from these cultures. Once a student moves outside this homogeneous environment--for example, from an ethnic ghetto to white, middle class classrooms--ideas that seem to the writer to relate clearly to one another do not seem logical…

This book attempts to provide cultural information that will enable an American to communicate effectively with people in Thailand. The book discusses differences between American and Thai culture in such areas as food, laws, customs, religion, language, dress, and basic attitudes. Background information is given on Thailand and the…

As one in a series of eight articles written by different professionals concerned with Alaska Native land claims, this article focuses on the isolated rural village and its problems in understanding and acting upon the provisions of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1972. Designed to stimulate careful political/historical reading and…

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…

Discussion of the culturally diverse college student population focuses on how teacher understanding of that diversity (in which the students are experts), and on how it can inform the classroom culture can help defuse tensions and become a source for teaching. Dynamics of the culturally and linguistically diverse classroom are outlined and…

A comparative study of turn-taking in North American and Spanish conversation investigated (1) differences in styles for the two cultures and (2) any resulting misinterpretation of communicative intentions. Data for the first were drawn from two dinner parties, one with four American women, conducted in English, and one with four Spanish-speaking…

This study examined the process of parent-school communication from the perspective of Native American parents in a consolidated, rural school district. The multi-model qualitative study used participant observation, open-ended interviews, and document collection to focus on the relatively wealthy, rural consolidated district, encompassing three…

A set of procedures for coding internal state words (those words representing mental states and perceptual experiences), developed for application to data on the language of young children and those with whom they converse, is described in this report. The report first discusses the rationale for studying cultural variation in vocabulary use, the…

This report describes development of an exercise designed to improve intercultural communication skills. The exercise is intended for use in instructional programs that prepare Americans for work in a foreign cultural environment. When persons of differing cultural backgrounds attempt to communicate with each other, each makes unwarranted,…