Hawaii Pacific University
COM 3300 Intercultural Communication Section ____
Semester and year, meeting times
Instructor: Name, contact information and other relevant information about the instructor.
Course description: An exploration of how culture influences the way we perceive the world, think,
value, and behave, and therefore how culture both facilitates and impedes communication. Special
emphasis is placed upon cross-cultural communication.
Course prerequisite: ADPR 2000 or COM 1200; COM 2300 and any Communication Skills A Course.
General Education Requirement: This course is classified as a Global Citizenship course which meets
the Upper-Division Citizenship requirement for general education. Be aware that some majors specify a
particular service-learning course or a different Global Citizenship course to meet the citizenship
requirement. Check your degree requirements if you are planning to use this course to meet the
citizenship requirement.
This course addresses issues of global citizenship from three intercultural perspectives: the objective,
the interpretive, and the critical. Student activities and reading assignments focus on anticipating
changing needs and development strategies to foster awareness of increasingly complex and
interrelated problems and finding solutions that are consistent with social, political, economic, and
ethical goals of diverse populations on the planet.
General Education Student Learning Outcomes and the Five Themes: HPU’s general education
curriculum is focused around five themes. This course draws on two of the themes. Under the Values
and Choices Theme, it provides students with opportunities to achieve the following related general
education student learning outcomes.

Students should be able to apply their understanding of ethical systems and models to develop
and demonstrate a conscious value system as individuals, students, professionals and citizens. In
this course, students address issues of values and ethics in the text, in class activities, in weekly
reflection writings, and simulations specifically designed to help students and professionals
manage conflict in intercultural settings, explain verbal and non-verbal misunderstandings, and
make judgments when dealing with other cultures. Issues of power, personal advantage, virtue,
categorical imperative, and utilitarianism, are applied in a variety of contexts to demonstrate
the application and effect of different ethical system and models. Ethical and value systems
covered in the course, including the five golden approaches and Martin Buber’s characteristics
of ethical dialogue, are assessed through weekly reflection writings, quiz and exam questions on
the appropriate material, and the final paper project.

Students should understand a range of meanings for concepts associated with individual and
social ethics such as rights and responsibilities, justice and impartiality, citizenship and social
responsibility. In this course students analyze issues of prejudice, stereotypes, and
ethnocentrism from a personal, community, and global perspective and then apply research and
experience to critically analyze different cultural histories, narratives, and practices. These
concepts provide the foundation for an analysis of rights, responsibilities, and citizenship from
an objective, interpretive, and critical perspective. This outcome is assessed through weekly
reflective writings, quiz and exam questions on the appropriate material, and from participation
and peer evaluation in specific activities, such as, the BaFa cross cultural simulation and the
Leadership Development in Interethnic Relations Curriculum.
The course also addresses the World Cultures Theme by providing students with opportunities to
achieve the following related general education student learning outcomes:

Students will investigate the roles that race, ethnicity, class, power, belief systems and gender
play in past and present cultural systems. In this course students examine the roles that race,
ethnicity, class, gender, and power play in past and present cultural systems. Readings from the
text, cultural autobiographies, mass media artifacts and a variety of readings from intercultural
theorists such as Edward Hall, Trinh Minh-Ha, and bell hooks provide the foundation for
activities and discussion on a variety of intercultural themes including those mentioned above.

Students should develop the ability to use other people’s experiences as a way to reflect
critically on their own ways of understanding the world. In this course students reflect critically
on their own identity and culture through participation in weekly reflection writings, discussion
of their cultural autobiography, participation in the identity interview, and through the process
of sharing cultural insights.
Note: Purple text shows places where specific course information must be filled in. Red text provides
explanatory notes to the instructor which should be deleted before using the syllabus. Blue explanations
above should be rephrased by the individual instructor to reflect the specific approach in that section to
these required outcomes. Course specific outcomes below are an example and should also be rephrased
or modified by the instructor to fit the particular emphasis of his or her course.
Course-Specific Student Learning Outcomes for COM 3300 Intercultural Communication
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
1. Explain theories related to intercultural communication.
2. Describe their own cultural heritage/identities (using concepts learned in the course) and how
these influence their communication.
3. Identify and explain the influence of context—especially history, power, and social/spiritual
value orientations—in intercultural interactions
4. Apply intercultural communication concepts/theories to personal experiences, social
interactions/observations, and media representations of interactions involving members of
different cultures.
5. Identify cross-cultural ethical principles.
6. Apply ethical standards to intercultural communication cases.
7. Assess their own competence and character in relating with culturally different others.
For the rest of these required syllabus items see the details in the faculty handbook. Delete this note
once the syllabus is complete. For online courses there are some additional requirements given at this
link.
Texts List textbooks with ISBN’s and include this language as well
All textbook information (pricing, ISBN #, and e-books) for this course can be found on the HPU
Bookstore website: hpu.edu/bookstore.
If you have any questions regarding textbooks, please contact the HPU Bookstore at:
Phone:
808-544-9347
Or e-mail:
jyokota@hpu.edu
mmiyahira@hpu.edu
Assignments and mode of evaluation
Summary of important dates and deadlines (if the schedule is a separate document and due dates are
not given with the description of the assignments).
Class rules and policies (including regarding attendance, late work and academic dishonesty)
Schedule of events (may be attached separately)