Group Project #1: A Study of Culture’s Impact on Verbal or Nonverbal Communication
For this assignment, you will be conducting a structured observation of cultural differences in some aspect of nonverbal or
verbal communication. You will plan your research project collaboratively and then conduct your observations
individually. Then, after sharing your individual observations with the other members of your group, you will
collaboratively analyze your findings and write your research report. Here are the steps you should follow to complete this
assignment:
1. Go to Forums and enter the GP1 Discussion Forum to which you have been assigned.
2. As a group, select a culture for your study and a cultural context in which to complete your observation. Feel free
to think creatively in defining the "culture" and “cultural context” you want to observe. Pages 10-12 in your textbook
identify a variety of different cultures and co-cultures you might want to study, and the context (i.e., school, places
of worship, social gathering settings, airports, bus stops, families, etc.) in which you could conduct your observation
is limited only by your imaginations. Just make sure you select a culture and context that each individual in your
research group can access.
3. As a group, select the specific nonverbal or verbal behaviors you wish to observe. If you choose to focus on
nonverbal communication, pages 201-227 in your textbook will help you identify possible nonverbal channels to
study, from attire to touch to eye contact to the way we arrange furniture. If you choose to focus on verbal
communication, see pages 175-183 for some ideas on how to focus your research. Don’t try to observe too many
things; this assignment will work better if you choose one or two variables to focus on in your observations.
4. As a group, agree upon a method for conducting and recording your observations (i.e., a tally sheet, a diary or log
of some sort), and come to an agreement about how many observations each individual is responsible for. In your
group’s GP1 Discussion Forum space, post a description of your research question and proposed method. I will
provide you feedback on your idea, and then you’ll be ready to move on to step 5.
5. After receiving approval from the instructor, individually conduct the observations agreed upon in steps 2-4 and
post the results of your observation in your group’s discussion forum.
6. As a group, analyze your observation results, and write a paper (approximately 4-6 pages) explaining what you did
and what you found. Specifically, your paper should clearly state your research question and provide a rationale
for your choice, describe your observation method, summarize your results, and interpret your findings, using
relevant concepts from the textbook.
7. Select one member of your group who will be responsible for submitting your group’s paper. The paper should be
submitted as an MS Word attachment using the “Assignments” tool.