Hawaii Pacific University
COM 2300 Communication and Culture Section ____
Semester and year, meeting times
Instructor: Name, contact information and other relevant information about the instructor.
Course description: This course examines the relationship between culture and communication in
order to develop an understanding of the process of communicating across cultures. Communication
patterns and practices enact or produce culture, and cultural patterns and practices produce
communication. This relationship is especially important because, perhaps more than ever, an
appreciation of communication processes is an essential factor in promoting positive intercultural
relations.
Course prerequisite: Any Communication Skills A Course
General Education Requirement: This course is classified under the World Cultures Theme and meets
the requirement for a course in World Cultures B: Engaging with Difference.
General Education Student Learning Outcomes and the Five Themes: HPU’s general education
curriculum is focused around five themes. This course emphasizes the World Cultures Theme and
provides students with opportunities to achieve the following related general education student
learning outcomes.

Students will engage with and interpret the various manifestations of cultures including
verbal and visual texts, institutions, behavior, and performance. The course includes
analysis of intercultural communication in popular culture, everyday life and in specific
contexts such as tourism, health care, business and education. Analysis of the
communication practices manifested by various cultures is addressed most directly in the
Field Observation Reports and Field Reports Assessment. The reports ask students to
observe and report on the communication practices of three different cultures. The
assessment asks students to conduct a comparative analysis on the three cultures.

Students will analyze cultural forces that have influenced customs and choices in
contemporary lifestyles and world views. We will address this outcome with a primary
focus on verbal and nonverbal communication. The group presentation requires students
to conduct comparative analyses of communication practices in different cultures and
suggest ways to improve communication between these cultures. This necessitates
research and analysis of cultural forces that influence and impede communication.

Students will develop skills that will enable students to assess and engage with cultural
difference in a compassionate and systematic fashion. Through course readings and
discussion we will look at intercultural communication from a sensitive perspective that
acknowledges the domination of certain cultural patterns over others and emphasizes the
basis for differences in culture-specific views of ethics, history, and power. Students are
encouraged to be empathetic and flexible in their own communication practices and
interpretations of others.

Students will develop the ability to use other people’s experiences as a way to reflect
critically on their own ways of understanding the world. The course emphasizes the need
for a reflexive view of intercultural communication, one that examines the self in light of
the other and the other in light of the self. Related topics include perception processes,
identity formation, empathetic understanding, and the role of power and domination in
interpretation and behavior. This outcome is assessed through examination questions
and in the Field Reports Assessment which asks students to assess “what you have learned
about intercultural communication from your field experiences and how your perspective
has evolved during the semester.’
Optional: Add additional outcomes as relevant to your specific section of the course. For instance, the
course may address the communication skills outcomes 1 and 3. Group any additional outcomes under
the relevant themes and be sure that you have a brief explanation for each one you include.
Note: Purple text shows places where specific course information must be filled in. Red text contains
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 of the course. Course specific outcomes below are an example and may also be rephrased
or modified by the instructor.
Course-Specific Student Learning Outcomes for COM 2300Communication and Culture
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Describe the peace, economic, technological, demographic, self-awareness, and ethical
imperatives for studying intercultural communication.
2. Explain the nature of and relationships between culture, communication, context, and
power.
3. Discuss ways that ethnocentrism, stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination act as barriers
to intercultural communication.
4. Build communication skills by becoming more conscious of one’s own communication,
increasing awareness of others’ communication, expanding one’s intercultural communication
repertoire, and becoming more flexible in communication.
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)