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Cross-Cultural Communication
Lecturer：Dr. Xiaohui Pan
Course Description
Objectives:
-- To raise cross-cultural communication awareness
-- To learn cross-cultural communication knowledge
-- To develop cross-cultural communication competence
-- To know the differences between cultures
-- To develop the abilities of avoiding and handling cultural conflicts
-- To have better communication and cooperation in cross-cultural
communication
Contents
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Basic concepts: English, culture, communication, cross-cultural
communication, cross-cultural communication studies, culture shock, etc.
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Related fields: Communication, anthropology, sociology, psychology,
sociolinguistics, behaviorism, folklore, etc.
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Topic Areas:
1 Cross-cultural communication: differences between Chinese and English in
beliefs, values, attitudes, customs, thought patterns, concepts of time, space, privacy,
human right ranking, etc.
2 Cross-cultural association: differences between Chinese and English in
association of animal, plant, colour , figure, culture-loaded words, culture-lacked
words, loan-words, etc.
3 Cross-cultural pragmatics: polite and cooperative strategies，implication,
tactfulness, appropriateness, customary speech acts, etc.
4 Cross-cultural translation: different language features, ways of expression,
thought patterns, social and contextual backgrounds, etc.
5 Cross-cultural study themes: education, business communication,
negotiation, investment, management, trading, sales, etc.
Methods
lectures, case studies, speech acts analysis, error analysis, pragmatic analysis,
difference analysis, discussion, debate, presentation, translation (C-E), etc.
Stimulating and Enlightening Quotations:
* People begin to understand their own cultures only after the have begun
interacting with people from another culture.
* What is “right” in one culture may be “ wrong” in another.
* Communication is a risky business.
* In order to avoid “communication break-down” caused by “cultural bumps”
on the “business highway”, we must develop cultural awareness of the influential
factors behind the speech acts and gain the knowledge of each other’s behavior
patterns, polite strategies and cultural associations, etc.
* To learn a foreign language without learning its culture is a very good way
to make oneself a language fluent fool.
Special terms
Culture/culture, Culture C, culture shock, cultural biases, cultural adjustment/reentry,
cultural labels, overgeneralization, pragmatics, face threatening acts(FTAS), etc.
Special Terms(From English to Chinese)
大写文化， 小写文化， 亚文化， 中介文化， 文化震惊， 文化意识，
文化身份， 文化成见， 文化认定， 文化调适， 文化敏感， 文化障碍，
文化碰撞， 文化标记， 文化形态，以偏概全， 跨文化交际， 传播，
沟通， 交流， 跨种族交际， 交际失误， 心理难受， 语用学，
面子威胁行为， 话语行为
Introductory remarks
21st Century is a new age. What kind of age is it? Information age. What is
needed to pass on information? Language. Who use language? People.
Communication is impossible when different peoples speak different languages.
Communication can take place when people from different cultural backgrounds
share a same language. But the point is if such a kind of communication is fluent
or not depends on many factors. That’s why cross-cultural communication studies
were developed.
In this sense, we can say that the new age is a cross-cultural communication age
which demands people to have cross-cultural communication awareness and
knowledge. What knowledge? Why awareness? What competence is necessary?
This is what the course is open for.
Questions before learning
1 Are you interested in cross-cultural communication? Why/why not?
2 Have you ever had any experience of cross-cultural communication?
In what situations? With whom?
3 How much do you know about cross-cultural communication?
4 Why is cross-cultural communication knowledge needed?
5 What knowledge is needed for cross-cultural communication?
6 What is culture?
7 What is cross-cultural communication?
8 What is cultural conflict?
9 What competence is needed for cross-cultural communication?
10 What is the relationship between language and culture? What are the
affecting factors that influence the speech acts?
11 How much do you know about your native language and its culture, e.g.
polite remarks, social linguistic and communicative strategies and the rational
underneath?
12 How much do you know about English and its culture as well as the
rational underneath?
13 What’s the biggest difference between Chinese and English behavior
culture?
14 What conflicts usually take place the communication between Chinese and
English speakers?
15 What shall we do when culture shock or mis-communication happen?
16 Whose courtesy or customs should be followed? Why?
Chapter 1
Communication and Culture:
The Voice and Echo
The Challenge of Intercultural Communication
• How do cultural differences influence
communication?
• Which cultural differences are important and which
are inconsequential?
• Why is it difficult to understand and appreciate
cultural differences?
• Intercultural Contact –International ContactDomestic Contact
International Contact
• New Technology and Information Systems
• Evolving Populations
• Natural resource
The environment
International conflict
• The Global Economy
Domestic Contact
• As changes have taken place throughout the world
so too has the culture landscape of the United States
been altered
• What once was considered a homogeneous
has changed
group
Defining Our Terms
• Intercultural communication-produces a message
between cultures/interaction
• The Dominant Culture
• Co-Culture
Essentials of Human Communication
• Defining Communication
• Principles of Communication
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a dynamic process
Symbolic
systemic (location/occasion/time/number of people)
making inferences
cosequence
Culture
• The Basic Functions of
Culture
• The Elements of
Culture
history/religion/values/social
organization/language
• Defining Culture
Defining Culture
• A pattern of basic assumptions invented, discovered or
developed by a given group (as it learns to cope with its
problems of external adaptation and internal integration ....)
taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think
and feel in relation to these problems. (Edgar Schein 1985)
• This silent language includes a broad range of evolutionary
concepts, practices and solutions to problems which have their
roots ... in the shared experiences of ordinary people. (Edward
T. Hall 1959)
Characteristics of Culture
• Culture is learned
• Learning culture through proverbs，Folktales,
Legends, Myths，Art and Mass Media
The Louvre
Culture is Shared
• Culture is Transmitted from Generation to
Generation
“All the past is here.”
Thoreau( American philosopher)
Culture
• Culture is Based on
Symbols
• Culture is dynamic
• Culture is an integrated
system
Church symbolize sacred
Studying Intercultural Communication
• Individual Uniqueness
• Stereotyping
• Objectivity
Discussion Ideas
1 Discuss national or domestic news stories from the past week to determine
under what circumstance cultures coming in contact whit one another display
problems. Cite both the cultures and the problems.
2 Identity your culture or co-culture. Discuss with other members of the group
the types of communication problems that have occurred when you have interacted
with people from cultures different from your own. Explain how these difficulties
have made you feel.
3 Discuss the various ways in which the dominant cultural influence and
controls the values, attitudes, and behavior of co-culturaes.
4 Discuss the following topic:“we are alike and we are different.”
5 Discuss how changes in the demographics of the United States have
affected you. How do you believe these changes will ultimately affect society?