LING10002 Lecture Notes - Intercultural Communication, Linguistic Competence, Language Testing
23 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Linguistics: Intercultural
Communication
Week 1, Lecture 1
Subject Information
Staff Overview
Lecturer and Subject Coordinator: Dr Dana Chahal, dchahal@unimelb.edu.au
Tutor: Ha Do, ha.do@unimelb.edu.au
There is a 75% minimum attendance requirement
Department of Linguistics & Applied Linguistics
The Department of Linguistics & Applied Linguistics (LAL) does research and teaching in the areas
of:
• General linguistics: language description, syntax, morphology, semantics, phonetics, various
aspects of indigenous languages, including their documentation;
• Applied linguistics: bilingualism, EAP, first & second language learning & teaching, language
testing, language and media, language and technology, sociolinguistics.
LAL offers:
• An undergraduate major in linguistics with various subject combinations
• Honours in linguistics
• Various postgraduate degrees, including Master of Applied Linguistics by coursework & minor
thesis, Master of Linguistics by research, PhD
LAL is located on the 6th floor of the Babel (Building 139) on the Parkville Campus
Lecture Schedule
Lecture 1: 1pm-2pm, Redmond Barry (104), Medley Theatre
Lecture 2: 11am-12pm, Elizabeth Murdoch (G06)
Aims and Objectives
Upon completion of this subject, students will be able to:
• Understand the relationship between language and culture;
• Understand research approaches for investigating intercultural communication;
• Apply various theoretical viewpoints to instances of intercultural (mis)communication;
• Be able to recognise and analyse factors leading to breakdowns in intercultural communication;
• Have developed their ability to observe and attend to detail through the close examination of
communicative situations and linguistic data;
• Have developed greater awareness of potential intercultural issues in particular communicative
situations they may be faced with;
• Have developed their intercultural communicative competence through participation in seminars,
tutorials and working on subject assignments and case studies from class readings.
Assessment
Assignment 1: A 1500-word empirical research project on address terms, due 9am Thursday the
29th of March, worth 40%
Assignment 2: A 2500-word empirical research project conducted with your classmates based on
narrative enquiry (individually assessed), due 9am Monday the 4th of June, worth 60%
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Terminology and Definitions
The Distinction Between Cross/Inter/Transcultural Communication
Intercultural Communication
Exchange of Information Perspectives:
• The exchange of information between individuals who are culturally dissimilar
• The varied language and discourse strategies people from different cultural backgrounds 3use in
direct, face-to-face situations
• Communication not only between individuals of diverse cultural identities but also communication
between diverse groups
Participatory Action Perspectives:
• A participatory set of actions in the world (i.e. dialogical and material exchanges between
members of cultural groupings)
• Interpersonal, dynamic nature of intercultural dialogue and interaction
Critical Perspectives:
• A dynamic view, whereby intercultural communication is more than just ‘culture’ as ‘nation’
• Culture is heterogeneous
Intercultural communication is communication between a small number of individuals or groups
who are:
• Interacting exclusively with one another
• Affiliated with different cultural groups, and/or
• Have been socialised in different cultural (and in most cases, linguistic) environments
Cultural differences include age, class, gender, ethnicity, language, race, nationality, and
physical/mental ability.
In this subject, we will be going beyond the idea of information-sharing and narrow conceptions of
cultural memberships, and look at the idea that intercultural communication is dynamic,
interpersonal, and heterogenous.
The usual focus of intercultural communication is how people from different cultures/sub-cultures
interact, and the nature of the interaction itself.
Situations of intercultural communication might include:
• Two individuals of different speech communities communicating in what is for one of them a first
or dominant language and for the other a second or less proficient language
• A similar situation, but they are communicating in what is for both an additional language or
‘lingua franca’ (e.g. migrant workers in Australia communicating in English in the workplace)
• Two individuals of different speech communities communication via an interpreter
Examples:
• A South Korean university student in Seoul interacting I English with an exchange student from
Sweden
• American businessmen in Oxford conversing over Skype with an Australian friend in Brisbane
• An elderly Buddhist monk in Bangkok conversing with a young Thai student who is Christian
Transcultural Communication
Transcultural communication is also the study of communication between people from different
cultures (and sub-cultures). The prefix ‘trans’ indexes a view of culture and cultural behaviours as
fluid, unstable and changeable over time, and it is often used in studies that place emphasis on the
interaction between the forces of globalisation and transcultural formations. The terms
‘transcultural’ and ‘intercultural’ are relatively interchangeable, but for the purposes of this subject,
the term ‘intercultural’ will generally be used.
Example:
• Communication between different participants in internet-mediated platforms or virtual
environments such as online gaming
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Cross-Cultural Communication
Usually, this is described as the study of communication between people from two or more
cultural/sub-cultural groups, and has a focus on cultural differences and possible sources of cross-
cultural communication.
Examples include:
• Politeness norms/conflict negotiation strategies in Japanese vs Irish management meetings
• Behaviour of business students in case discussions in Riyadh vs Kuala Lumpur
This is problematic, because this view brings about implications of ‘culture’ as unfixed and
unchanging, which contrasts with intercultural communication.
The Relevance Of Studying Intercultural
Communication
• “All of us are affected by the decisions and actions of people whose faces we may never see,
whose languages we may not speak, and whose names we would not recognise – and they, too,
are affected by us. Our well-being, and in some cases our survival, depends on recognising this
truth and taking responsibility as global citizens for it.” (Gerzon in Jackson, 2014, p. 1)
• “The key to community is the acceptance, in fact, the celebration of our individual and cultural
differences. It is also the key to world peace” (Peck in Jackson, 2014, p. 1).
• “…Englishes are used in relation to other languages to perform, invent and (re)fashion identities
across borders … When we talk of Global English use, we are talking of the performance of new
identities…” (Pennycook 2007, p. 138)
• “… once we understand languages from a local perspective, once we see language ideologies
as contextual sets of belief about languages, as cultural and political systems of ideas about
social and linguistic relationships, then the ways in which languages are used and thought about
are never just about language but also about community and society, what it means to be a
person in a particular context.” (Pennycook 2007, p. 138)
Methods of Studying Intercultural Communication
Ethnography of Communication
Interactional Sociolingustics
Conversational Analysis
Narrative Enquiry
Tensions, Management and Ethics
Globalisation
There is an intensification of worldwide relations, and therefore closer connections in trade and
commerce. This leads to profound changes in social, cultural, political snd linguistic dimensions of
our daily lives. Further, the use of English itself as a medium of instruction in educational
institutions around the world leads to mixing English with local languages, which is referred to as
code-mixing. There are also tensions between homogenisation and localism.
Changing Demographics
The intensification of human migration has lead to a significant change in demographics, and
urban societies becoming culturally plural. This migration can be:
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