INTERCULTURAL AWARENESS
WORKSHOP
• Culture
• Communication
• Cross- and Intercultural Communication
Peter Sercombe, ECLS,
Newcastle University
1
Culture
What does it mean?
• ‘Culture or civilisation, taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is that
complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law,
custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a
member of society’ (Tylor 1871: 1)
• Culture is an active process of meaning making and contest over
definition … This then is what I mean by arguing that Culture is a
verb (Street 1993: 25)
• ‘Culture in all its meanings and with all its affiliated concepts, is
situational’ (Blommaert 1998: n.p.)
Peter Sercombe, ECLS,
Newcastle University
2
Communication
What does it mean?
• 1 an act or instance of communicating 2 a verbal or written
message 3 a process by which information is exchanged between
individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or
behaviour (Longman Dictionary of the English Language 1991: 324)
• ‘an information process going on between at least two human
communicators (not necessarily two persons as long as one can
communicate with oneself) embedded in a context’ (Berge 1994:
614)
• ‘Communication is a term used to describe the structured dynamic
processes relating to the interconnectedness of living systems’
(Birdwhistell 1973: 93)
Peter Sercombe, ECLS,
Newcastle University
3
Shannon and Weaver’s (1949) Model of Communication:
Communication as a process of transmitting information - a
‘common sense’ view?
message
information
source
medium
transmitter
received message
receiver
destination
noise
source
Peter Sercombe, ECLS,
Newcastle University
4
Strengths and weaknesses of Shannon and
Weaver’s (1949) model
Strengths
Simplicity
Generalisability
Quantifiability
Weaknesses
Metaphor
Linearity
Content and meaning
Instrumentalism
Context
Relationships and purposes
Time
Medium
Miscommunication
Peter Sercombe, ECLS,
Newcastle University
5
Culture’s links with communication
• Communication creates culture: culture is
a means of communication. Language
carries culture, and culture carries,
particularly through orature and literature,
the entire body of values by which we
come to perceive ourselves and our place
in the world (Ngugi 1986: 15-16).
Peter Sercombe, ECLS,
Newcastle University
6
Cross- and Intercultural
Communication
What do they mean?
• Cross-Cultural Communication (CCC) tends to compare patterns
of communication and interactions across peoples from different
cultural backgrounds (an ethnological position)
• Intercultural Communication (ICC) considers (interpersonal)
communication which has the added characteristics of cultural
‘variance’ between those people involved, in one or more areas,
such as: values, beliefs, thought patterns, practices (including
language) and other habits of behaviour. Cultural variance can be
salient in that it can create differing expectations and interpretations
of interactions between people. [See Scollon & Scollon (2001: 13)
for the distinction they make between ICC and CCC, as well as
Gudykunst (2000: 314)]
• Is all communication intercultural?
Peter Sercombe, ECLS,
Newcastle University
7
Intercultural Communication
Examples:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=s5S2LNOqe
zE
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kvZNb_tFod
w&feature=related
http://www.bbc.co.uk/tribe/tribes/penan/inde
x.shtml
Peter Sercombe, ECLS,
Newcastle University
8
Recommendations
• Avoid ‘essentialism’ (i.e. assuming a set of
properties as common to all members of a
group)
• Avoid ‘reductionism’ (i.e. identifying a
single property as particular to a whole
group)
• The ‘Other is in Us and we are in the
Other’ (Kramsch 2001: 205)
Peter Sercombe, ECLS,
Newcastle University
9
References
• Berge, K. L. (1994). Communication. In R. E. Asher, & J. M. Y. Simpson (eds) The
Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Oxford: Pergamon, pp. 614-620.
• Birdwhistell, R. L. (1973). Kinesics. In Argyle, M. (ed.) Social Encounters. Harmondsworth:
Penguin, pp. 93-102.
• Blommaert, J. (1998). Different Approaches to Intercultural Communication: A Critical Survey.
Plenary lecture, Lernen und Arbeiten in einer international vernetzten und multikulturellen
Gesellschaft, Expertentagung Universität Bremen, Institut für Projektmanagement und
Witschaftsinformatik (IPMI), 27-28 February. http://www.flwi.ugent.be/cie/CIE/blommaert1.htm
• Gudykunst, W. B. (2000). Methodological issues in conducting theory-based cross-cultural
research. In H. Spencer-Oatey (ed.) Culturally Speaking. Managing Rapport through Talk
across Cultures. London: Continuum, pp. 293-315.
• Kramsch, C. (2001). Intercultural Communication. In R. Carter & D. Nunan (eds) The
Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
• Longman (1991). Longman Dictionary of the English Language. London: Longman.
• Ngugi wa Thiong’o (1986). Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African
Literature. London: James Currey.
•Scollon, R. & Scollon, S. W. (2001). Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach.
Oxford: Blackwell (2nd edition).
• Shannon, C. & Weaver, W. (1949). The Mathematical Theory of Communication. Illinois:
University of Illinois Press.
• Street, B. (1993). Culture is a verb. In D. Graddol, L. Thompson and M. Byram (eds)
Language and Culture. Clevedon: BAAL and Multilingual Matters, pp. 23-43.
• Tylor, E. B. (1871). Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology,
Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art and Custom. New York: Henry Holt.
Peter Sercombe, ECLS,
Newcastle University
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