Intercultural communication
Intercultural communication is sometimes used synonymously with cross-cultural communication. In this sense it seeks to understand how people from different countries and cultures act, communicate and perceive the world around them. As a separate notion, it studies situations where people from different cultural backgrounds interact. Intercultural communication plays a role in anthropology, cultural studies, linguistics, psychology and communication studies.
Theories
The following types of theories can be distinguished in different strands: focus on effective outcomes, on accommodation or adaption, on identity negotiation and management, on communication networks, on acculturation and adjustment.[1]
Theories focusing on effective outcomes
Cultural Convergence
In a relatively closed social system in which communication among members is unrestricted, the system as a whole will tend to converge over time toward a state of greater cultural uniformity. The system will tend to diverge toward diversity when communication is restricted.[2]
This theory focuses on management of uncertainty (e.g., the inability to predict or explain others` attitudes, behavior, or feelings) and anxiety (e.g., feelings of being uneasy, tense, worried, or apprehensive)[3]
This theory is about decision making within groups. Therefore it presents different group constellations and their way of decision making as well as their prospect of success.[4]
Theories focusing on accommodation or adaption
This theory focuses on linguistic strategies to decrease or increase communicative distances.
Intercultural Adaption
This theory is designed to explain how communicators adapt to each other in "purpose-related encounters", at which cultural factors need to be incorporated.[5]
Co-cultural Theory
In its most general form, co-cultural communication refers to interactions among underrepresented and dominant group members.[6] Co-cultures include but are not limited to people of color, women, people with disabilities, gay men and lesbians, and those in the lower social classes. Co-cultural theory, as developed by Mark P. Orbe, looks at the strategic ways in which co-cultural group members communicate with others. In addition, a co-cultural framework provides an explanation for how different persons communicate based on six factors.
Theories focusing on identity negotiation or management
- Identity Management Theory
- Identity Negotiation Theory
- Cultural Identity Theory
Theories focusing on communication networks
- Networks and Outgroup Communication Competence
- Intracultural Versus Intercultural Networks
- Networks and Acculturation
Theories focusing on acculturation and adjustment
Communication Acculturation
The Theory attempts to portray "cross-cultural adaption as a collaborative effort in which a stranger and the receiving environment are engaged in a joint effort."[7]
Anxiety/Uncertainty Management
When strangers communicate with hosts, they experience uncertainty and anxiety. Strangers need to manage their uncertainty as well as their anxiety in order to be able to communicate effectively with hosts and then to try to develop accurate predictions and explanations for hosts' behaviors.
Assimilation, Deviance, and Alienation States
Assimilation and adaption are not permanent outcomes of the adaption process; rather, they are temporary outcomes of the communication process between hosts and immigrants. "Alienation or assimilation, therefore, of a group or an individual, is an outcome of the relationship between deviant behavior and neglectful communication."[8]
Other Theories
- Meaning of Meaning Theory - "A misunderstanding takes place when people assume a word has a direct connection with its referent. A common past reduces misunderstanding. Definition, metaphor, feedforward, and Basic English are partial linguistic remedies for a lack of shared experience." [9]
- Face Negotiation Theory - "Members of collectivistic, high-context cultures have concerns for mutual face and inclusion that lead them to manage conflict with another person by avoiding, obliging, or compromising. Because of concerns for self-face and autonomy, people from individualistic, low-context cultures manage conflict by dominating or through problem solving" [10]
- Standpoint Theory - Is an individual experiences, knowledge, and communication behaviors are shaped in large part by the social groups to which they belong.
- Stranger Theory - At least one of the persons in an intercultural encounter is a stranger. Strangers are a 'hyperaware' of cultural differences and tend to overestimate the effect of cultural identity on the behavior of people in an alien society, while blurring individual distinctions.
- Feminist Genre Theory - Evaluates communication by identifying feminist speakers and reframing their speaking qualities as models for women’s liberation.
- Genderlect Theory - "Male-female conversation is cross-cultural communication. Masculine and feminine styles of discourse are best viewed as two distinct cultural dialects rather than as inferior or superior ways of speaking. Men's report talk focuses on status and independence. Women's support talk seeks human connection." [11]
- Cultural Critical Studies Theory - The theory states that the mass media impose the dominant ideology on the rest of society, and the connotations of words and images are fragments of ideology that perform an unwitting service for the ruling elite.
- Marxist Theory - Marxism is a theory based on Dialectical Materialism, which aims at explaining class struggle and the basis of social relations through economics.
Intercultural Communication Competence
Intercultural Communicative Competence has been said[12] to combine three components:
- knowledge (= information necessary to interact appropriately and effectively)
- motivation (e.g. positive affect toward the other culture, empathy)
- skills (= behavior necessary to interact appropriately and effectively
Notes
- ^ Cf. Gudykunst 2003 for an overview.
- ^ Kincaid,1988. p.289
- ^ Gudykunst, 1988.
- ^ Oetzel, 1995.
- ^ Ellingsworth, 1983.
- ^ Orbe, 1998. p.3
- ^ Kim Y.Y.(1995), p.192
- ^ Mc Guire and McDermott, 1988, p. 103
- ^ Griffin (2000), p. 492
- ^ Griffin (2000), p. 496
- ^ Griffin (2000), p. 497
- ^ Cf. the overview in Wiseman 2003.
References
- Ellingsworth, H.W. (1983). "Adaptive intercultural communication", in: Gudykunst, William B (ed.), Intercultural communication theory, 195-204, Beverly Hills: Sage.
- Griffin, E. (2000). A first look at communication theory (4th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill. n/a
- Gudykunst, William B., & M.R. Hammer.(1988). "Strangers and hosts: An uncertainty reduction based theory of intercultural adaption" in: Kim, Y. & W.B. Gudykunst (eds.), Cross-cultural adaption, 106-139, Newbury Park: Sage.
- Gudykunst, William B. (2003), "Intercultural Communication Theories", in: Gudykunst, William B (ed.), Cross-Cultural and Intercultural Communication, 167-189, Thousand Oaks: Sage.
- Kim Y.Y.(1995), "Cross-Cultural adaption: An integrative theory.", in: R.L. Wiseman (Ed.)Intercultural Communication Theory, 170 - 194, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
- Mc Guire, M. & McDermott, S. (1988), "Communication in assimilation, deviance, and alienation states", in: Y.Y. Kim & W.B. Gudykunst (Eds.), Cross-Cultural Adaption, 90 - 105, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
- Oetzel, John G. (1995), "Intercultural small groups: An effective decision-making theory", in Wiseman, Richard L (ed.), Intercultural communication theory, 247-270, Thousands Oaks: Sage.
- Wiseman, Richard L. (2003), "Intercultural Communication Competence", in: Gudykunst, William B (ed.), Cross-Cultural and Intercultural Communication, 191-208, Thousand Oaks: Sage.