Beyond The Tip Of The Iceberg: A Study In Intercultural Communication And Competence
Shirl Hughes Terrell (ESL)
People always ask me where I’m from. If they’re Chinese, I need to tell them that
I’m from Jiangxi Province. If they’re Americans, they’re not happy enough by
my telling them I’m from Wisconsin. I have to tell them that my parents came
from China. I was born in General Hospital the year after my family arrived in
this country, and I’m the first American citizen in the family.
John Kuo Wei Tchen, Historian
INTRODUCTION
The continuing rapid decrease in cultural homogeneity in today’s cyber-connected and multi-ethnic
societies brings sharply into focus the need for improved intercultural communication and competence.
Globalization challenges our identities and the social organization of groups and communities (Agnew
11). Without an understanding of cultural differences and commonalities in values, expectations, beliefs,
and practices, an inclusive environment cannot be achieved (Hammer 2009). Historian and Pulitzer Prize
winner, Arthur Schlesinger, warned that history reveals an ugly truth about what can happen when people
of diverse cultural, ethnic, religious or linguistic backgrounds converge in one place. Conflicts arise
because one group’s hostility against a different group is among the most instinctive of human drives
(Neuliep 2012). Xenophobia, the fear or contempt of that which is foreign or unknown, especially of
strangers or those perceived to be foreigners, is believed to be an innate biological response to intergroup
competition (Ibid.).
Notwithstanding the human evolutionary tendency toward such conflict, the ability to live with
tolerance and understanding in a world with increasingly nebulous borders remains a fundamental and
universal purpose. Intercultural competence can be enhanced through cultural intelligence: the ability to
be effective across various cultural contexts which include national, ethnic, organizational, generational,
ideological, gender-based, and others (Livermore 2010). Attaining this intelligence requires tenacity,
which is a lifelong process involving regular engagement in reflective practice (Deardorff 2009).
Deardorff, an international education specialist, sees intercultural competence as a developmental
continuum stretching between extremities of denial (ethnocentrism) and adaptation or integration (ethnorelativism) with its acquisition being an ongoing progression (2009). While diversity training has, for the
most part, been relegated to the dustbin, the urgency for intercultural mindfulness remains prevalent.
Often having the misconception that culture consists primarily of a group’s arts, language, music,
dancing, games, cooking, or dress, many people remain unaware of the depth that comprises a culture. In
1976, Edward T. Hall maintained that culture was similar to an iceberg with about ten percent being
obvious and the majority hidden beneath the surface. Similarly stated in the Iceberg Concept of Culture,
(AFS Orientation Handbook, Vol. 4, 1984), the surface culture addresses only a minute aspect of a
group’s culture, whereas the “deep” culture reveals the essence of the group (see attached visual).
Few people can candidly claim that they have not experienced perplexing, even appalling,
emotions when encountering certain situations or behaviors involving cultural norms practiced by the
“other.” Understanding ways in which one’s own cultural lens shapes attitudes and assumptions is crucial
to identifying and critiquing cultural biases, thereby allowing one to better tolerate facets of the deep
culture. Ambiguities inherent to the intercultural experience often defy comprehension by those
unfamiliar with persons or groups different from their own. Author Shirley Geok-Lin Lim cites an
example of the bifurcated identity of the “other”:
…This knowledge of my other origin allows you to deny me entry into your society on your
terms, brands me as an exotic, freezes me in a geographical mythology…Yet, I am proud of my
origin. Should you proceed to treat me as if I were not different, as if historical origin has not
given to me a unique destiny and character, I would also accuse you of provincialism, of inability
to distinguish between cultures. (Cited in Agnew 2005)
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RATIONALE
I am seeking to gain through this Study Grant a greater in-depth knowledge of the nuances of
intercultural differences and similarities needed to promote understanding and prevent formation of
stereotypes, which may proliferate and manifest as discrimination and prejudice. As a professor of
English as a Second Language, I encounter a large number of students from a variety of the world’s
cultures. To be an effective educator, it is incumbent upon me to stay informed regarding the topic
addressed here and to disseminate the knowledge I gain to my students, peers, and the community.
My request is relevant in that our student body, staff, and community consist of diverse
populations. The 2011 U.S. Census Bureau report states that 39 percent of the population of Collin
County belonged to races other than Caucasian, and 31 percent of persons in Collin County households
spoke a language other than English as their primary language at home. In fall 2012, 705 F-1 visaholding international students from 85 different countries were enrolled at Collin College. Also, 694
students attended the English as a Second Language (ESL) program (some F-1 students). Although
enrollment figures in spring 2012 showed that 63 percent of Collin’s students were Caucasian, these
students came from populations that varied widely, thus rendering them “intercultural” communicators.
While working or studying alongside others from varied groups may lead to increased recognition of
cultural beliefs and behaviors, this type of exposure seldom specifically targets awareness and
understanding. Through this study I envision an increase in my understanding, tolerance, and acceptance
of different cultures; additionally, the knowledge I gain and share with others will aid in raising
awareness and increasing intercultural communication and competence. In addition to the readings, I will
design a research study regarding cultural and intercultural attitudes and experiences of Collin students.
After the completion of the Study Grant, I will submit a proposal with the results, both quantitative and
qualitative, to scholarly journals for publication.
While I will not be able to do a complete reading of all the sources listed, I will consult as many
of the resources as possible. Please see the bibliography for additional resources.
SCHEDULE
Weeks 1 – 6: Research academic journals and seminal texts which will include readings, both
historical and current, regarding cultural and intercultural aspects of verbal and non-verbal
communication, customs, beliefs, and behaviors. In these readings I will explore the questions:
a) What are cultures and how are they formed?
b) What role does “place” play in cultural identity?
Agnew, Vijay. Diaspora, Memory, and Identity: A Search for Home. Memories establish a connection
between a collective and individual past, between origins, heritage, and history. Those who have left their
places of birth to make homes elsewhere are familiar with the question, "Where do you come from?" and
respond in innumerable well-rehearsed ways. Diasporas construct racialized, sexualized, gendered, and
oppositional subjectivities that require attentive research.
Bhabha, H.K. The Location of Culture. This text rethinks questions of identity, social agency and
national affiliation and provides a working, if controversial, theory of cultural hybridity.
Bourdieu, Pierre. A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Discusses concepts of ‘habitus’ and cultural
capital to explain the ways in which relationships of social inequality were reproduced through the
education system.
Campbell, Joseph. Hero with a Thousand Faces. One of Campbell’s seminal books on mythologies and
the similarities of beliefs within cultures.
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Habermas, Jurgen. The Theory of Communicative Action. In this important work, the philosopher
develops his approach to society, combining two competing paradigms, "system" and "lifeworld."
Hall, E. T. Beyond Culture. The author opens up new dimensions of understanding and perception of
human experience by helping us rethink our values in constructive ways.
_____. The Dance of Life: The Other Dimension of Time. This book studies how people are tied together
and yet isolated by hidden threads of rhythm and walls of time. Time is treated as a language, organizer,
and message system revealing people's feelings about each other and reflecting differences between
cultures.
_____ . (1959). The Silent Language. This book analyzes the many aspects of non-verbal communication
and considers the concepts of space and time as tools for transmission of messages. essential for
understanding cultural differences.
Hofstede, G. Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. This work as been noted as a
revolutionary study of how the place where we grew up shapes the way we think, feel, and act.
Tuan, Yi Fu. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. Tuan considers the ways in which people
feel and think about space, how they form attachments to home, neighborhood, and nation, and how
feelings about space and place are affected by the sense of time.
Weeks 7 – 12: Research academic journals, seminal texts, and anthologies, which will include readings,
both historical and current, regarding intercultural similarities and differences. In these readings I will
explore the questions:
a) What are some of the challenges found in intercultural communication? How and why do they
occur?
b) What role does language play in intercultural communication?
c) What are ways to achieve intercultural competence?
Hall, E.T. and M. Hall. Understanding Cultural Differences - Germans, French and Americans.
Jackson, J. The Routledge Handbook of Communication and Intercultural Communication. This text
constitutes a comprehensive introduction to the multidisciplinary field of intercultural communication. It
has five sections and covers historical perspectives, core issues and topics, and new debates in the field,
with a particular focus on the language dimension. Among the key themes addressed are: the foundation
of intercultural communication; core themes and issues; putting intercultural communication theory into
practice; new debates and future directions.
Livermore, D. A. Leading with cultural intelligence: the new secret to success. The author shows leaders
how to connect across any cultural divide, including national, ethnic, and organizational cultures.
Neuliep, J. W. Intercultural Communication: A Contextual Approach. The text begins with the broadest
context, the cultural component of the model and progresses through each component of the model. Later
chapters apply the model to the development and maintenance of intercultural relationships, the
management of intercultural conflict, intercultural management, intercultural adaptation, culture shock,
and intercultural competence.
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Molefi Kete Asante and Yoshitaka Miike, Jing Yin. (Eds.) The Global Intercultural Communication
Reader, 2nd Ed. The first anthology to take a distinctly non-Eurocentric approach to the study of culture
and communication.
Pennycook, A. The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language. Covering a wide range of
areas including international politics, colonial history, critical pedagogy, postcolonial literature and
applied linguistics, the text examines ways to understand the cultural and political implications of the
global spread of English as well as exploring how a particular view of English as an international
language has come into being by examining its colonial origins, its connections to linguistics and applied
linguistics, and its relationships to the global spread of teaching practices. It also offers an alternative,
critical understanding through the concept of the 'worldliness' of English. This concept suggests that
English can never be removed from the social, cultural, economic or political contexts in which it is used.
Rogers, E. M., Hart, W. B., & Y. Miike. “Edward T. Hall and the History of Intercultural
Communication: The United States and Japan.” Journal Article.
Said, E. W. Orientalism. New York before Chinatown: Orientalism and the Shaping of American Culture,
1776-1882. Noted critic, Palestinian, and Columbia University professor examines the way in which the
West observes the Arabs.
Saïd, E. Orientalism Reconsidered.
Tsing, A.L Friction: an Ethnography of Global Connection. Provides a portfolio of methods to study
global interconnections, showing how curious and creative cultural differences are in the grip of worldly
encounter, and how much is overlooked in contemporary theories of the global.
Weeks 13 – 16. Prepare compilation of studies. Draft research project and documents. I will write the
questionnaire and plan the implementation of the study.
CONCLUSION
My advanced degrees and 19 years of teaching ESL and Communication Studies serve to enhance my
scholarship in the area of Intercultural Communication/Competence. A wide variety of ethnic, religious,
gender, and generational groups exist within my classes and Collin’s community. It is my goal to gain
more knowledge in this area and to share my findings in venues such as conference and class
presentations, journal articles, and community activities, e.g. MCOR (Multi-cultural Outreach
Roundtable) and similar organizations.
Thank you for your consideration.
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The Iceberg Concept of Culture
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WORKING BIBLIOGRAPHY
Agnew, Vijay. (Ed.) (2005). Diaspora, Memory, and Identity: A Search for Home. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press.
Baldwin, C. (1994). Calling the Circle. NY: Baldwin Bantam Books.
Bhabha, H.K. (1994). The Location of Culture. London and N.Y.: Routledge.
Bourdieu, Pierre. (1984). A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Translated by Richard Nice.
London: Routledge, Kagan, and Paul
Bowe, H. J. (2009).Communication across Cultures: Mutual understanding in a global
world. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Campbell, Joseph. (1949). Hero with a Thousand Faces. NY: Pantheon Books.
Census information. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/48/4858016.html
(accessed 12/05/2012)
Chanda, N. (2007). Bound together: How traders, preaches, adventurers and warriors
shaped globalization. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Cross-cultural communication: how culture affects communication. (2005). Video. New York
N.Y: Distributed by Insight Media.
Deardorff, C. K. (2009). Handbook of Intercultural Competence. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Edmundson, A. (2007). Globalized e-learning cultural challenges. Hershey, PA:
Information Science Pub.
Erlman, V. (2004). Hearing cultures: Essays on sound, listening, and modernity. New York,
NY: Berg Publishers.
Fanon, Frantz. (1963). The Wretched of the Earth. Translated by Richard Philcox, 2004.
Grove Press, N.Y.
Habermas, Jürgen. (1987). The Theory of Communicative Action. Volume 2. Lifeworld and System:
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A Crique of Functionalist Reason. Boston: Beacon Books.
Hall, E. T. (1976). Beyond Culture. NY: Anchor Books.
_____. (1983). The Dance of Life: The Other Dimension of Time. NY: Anchor Books.
_____ . (1959). The Silent Language. NY: Anchor Books.
Hall, E.T. and M. Hall. (1993). Understanding Cultural Differences - Germans, French and
Americans. Boston, MA: Intercultural Press.
Hall, E.T. (1994). West of the Thirties. Discoveries among the Navajo and Hopi. New
York: Doubleday.
Hammer, M.R. (2009). The Intercultural Development Inventory. In M.A. Moodian (ed.),
Contemporary Leadership and Intercultural Competence (203-218). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Hofstede, G. (2010). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Ikas, K.and G.Wagner. (2009). Communicating in the Third Space. New York:
Routledge.
Irwin, R. (2006). For Lust of Knowing: The Orientalists and Their Enemies. London: Allen
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Jackson, J. (Ed.) (2012). The Routledge Handbook of Communication and Intercultural
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Keller, G. (2007). The Emerging Third Stage in Higher Education Planning. Planning for
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Larson, J. P. (2012). Making Friends among the Taliban: A peacemaker’s journey in
Afghanistan. Harrisonburg, VA: Herald Press.
Lean, N. C. (2012) The Islamophobia Industry: How the right manufactures fear of
Muslims. London: Pluto Press.
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Livermore, D. A. (2010). Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The new secret to success. New
York: American Management Association.
Neuliep, J. W. (2012). Intercultural Communication: A Contextual Approach. Thousand
Oaks, CA Sage Publications.
Pennycook, A. (1994). The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language. London:
Longman.
Raines, C. (2006). The Art of Connecting: how to overcome differences, build rapport, and
communicate with anyone. New York: American Management Association.
Rodriguez, R. (1982). Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez: An
Autobiography. NY: Dial Press.
Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. New York before Chinatown: Orientalism and the
Shaping of American Culture, 1776-1882. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP,
1999.
Saïd, E. (1985). Orientalism Reconsidered. Cultural Critique, No. 1, Autumn, 96.
Said, Edward. (2001). Power, Politics, and Culture. NY: Random House.
Schlesinger, Jr. A. M. (1998). The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural
Society. NY: W.W. Norton & Company.
Segev, E., Ahituv, N., & Barzilai-Nahon, K. (2007). Mapping diversities and tracing trends of
cultural homogeneity/heterogeneity in cyberspace. Journal of Computer-Mediated
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Shuter, R.(2008). The centrality of culture. In Asante, Miike, & Jing Yin (eds.), The global
intercultural communication reader (pp. 37-43). New York: Routledge.
Tsing, A.L. (2005). Friction: an ethnography of global connection. Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press.
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Yi-Fu Tuan. (2001). Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. University of Minnesota
Press.
Young, R. (1990). White Mythologies: Writing History and the West, New York & London:
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Zarate, G., D. Levy, and C. Kramsch (Eds.). 2010. Handbook of Multilingualism and
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