COMMUNICATION

Process of sharing meaning in any context

A systemic process in which people interact with and through symbols to create and interpret
meanings – Wood, Communication in our Lives (2003)
Transfer of messages from one person to another in an understandable means

ELEMENTS OF COMMUNICATION

CONTEXT

Physical
Social
Historical
Psychological
Cultural

PARTICIPANTS

Sender
Receiver

MESSAGES

Preplanned
Spontaneous

CHANNEL

Both a route traveled by the message and the means of transportation – Verderber
(1999)

For Face-to-Face communication:

Sound (verbal cues)

Light (non-verbal cues)

NOISE

External
Internal
Semantic

FEEDBACK

Response or Reply
TYPES OF COMMUNICATION

VERBAL

Communication involving words which are spoken, written, or signed.

NON-VERBAL

Includes body language, such as gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, and posture.

LEVELS OF COMMUNICATION

INTRAPERSONAL

Self-talk

INTERPERSONAL

Communication towards another participant

GROUP

3 or more participants

PUBLIC

Speaker sends message to an audience

MASS

Sends messages to a larger audience using electronic or print media

FUNCTIONS OF COMMUNICATION

WE COMMUNICATE TO…

meet needs
enhance and maintain our sense of self
fulfill social obligations
develop relationships
exchange information
influence others

PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNICATION

COMMUNICATION IS…

Purposive
Continuous
Encoding messages in various ways
Relational
Ethical
Learned
COMMUNICATION ETHICS

“A speaker who uses language that degrades or injures human personalities by exaggeration,
pseudo truths, twisting of words and name calling is clearly acting unethically.” - Berko, 1995

Speak with sincerity

Does not knowingly expose an audience to falsehood or half-truths that can cause significant
harm
Does not premeditatedly alter the truth
Presents the truth as she or he understands it
Raises the listeners level of expertise by supplying the necessary facts
Employs message that is free from mental as well as physical coercion
Does not invent or fabricate information
Gives credit to the source of information

INTERCULTURAL AND GLOBAL COMMUNICATION

CULTURE

Culture as Geography or Ethnicity

Cross cultural communication – generally compares the communications styles and

patterns of people from very different cultural/social structures.

Intercultural communication – deals with how people from these cultural/social

structures speak to one another and what difficulties or differences they encounter,
over and above the different languages they speak.

Transacting cultures

• You live your life in the context of a communicating set of individuals who transact a
universe of thought and behavior that makes possible certain ways of treating other
people.

• The structure and discipline of society exert their force through communication and
impose beliefs on people through collective values.

• Culture is a meaning system.

ALWAYS REMEMBER!

• Identifying societies and cultures with JUST nations or races, regions, religions, or ethnicity,
unthinking or incautiously, is clearly a MISTAKE.
DIMENSIONS OF CULTURE

Cultures are not synonymous with countries. Cultures don’t respect political boundaries.

Culture according to Jandt (2010)

 A community or population sufficiently large enough to be self-sustaining, which can produce

new generations of members without relying on outside people.

 The totality of that group’s thought, experiences, and patterns of behavior and it’s concepts,
values and assumptions about life that guide behavior and how those evolve with contact with
other cultures.

ELEMENTS OF CULTURE (Hofstede, 1994)

• Symbols – refers to verbal and nonverbal language

• Rituals – socially essential collective activities

• Values – feelings not open for discussion within a culture about what is good or bad, beautiful
or ugly, normal or abnormal, which are present in a majority of the members of a culture.

• Heroes –real or imaginary people who serve as behavior models within a culture.

CROSS-CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS (Duck & Mcmahan, 2009)

CONTEXT
COLLECTIVISM/INDIVIDUALISM

TIME

CONFLICT
Five Styles of Conflict Management
(Rahim, 1993; Ting-Toomey, 2004)

• Dominating Style – forcing one’s will on another to satisfy individual desires regardless of
negative relational consequences

• Integrating Style – necessitate a great deal of open discussion about the conflict at hand to
reach a solution that completely satisfies everyone involved

• Compromising style – often confused with integrating style but everyone must give something
up to reach a solution

• Obliging Style – giving up one’s position to satisfy another’s

• Avoiding Style – failing to acknowledge its existence or by withdrawing from a situation when it
arises

Dimensions of Culture According to Geert Hofstede (1980)

INDIVIDUALISM VERSUS COLLECTIVISM

MASCULINITY VERSUS FEMININITY

POWER DISTANCE

• “The extent to which less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country
expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.” –Hofstede, 1997
UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE

• Refers to the extent to which people in a culture feel threatened by uncertain or unknown
situations

TASK VERSUS SOCIAL ORIENTATION

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION ETHICS AND COMPETENCE

IDENTIFYING YOUR OWN CULTURE

YOU BELONG WITHOUT KNOWING IT

YOU DO IT WITHOUT KNOWING IT

ETHICS ACROSS CULTURES (KALE, 1997)

Ethical communicators address people of other cultures with the same respect that they would
like to receive themselves.

Ethical communicators seek to describe the world as they perceive it as accurately as possible.

Ethical communicators encourage people of other cultures to express themselves in their

uniqueness.

Ethical communicators strive for identification with people of other cultures.

Two areas of addressing people of other cultures with respect are examined in more detail as follows:

The Language and Ethics of Prejudice and Racism

Hate speech – includes threats, physical acts or verbal slurs directed against specific groups

The language of Othering

COMMUNICATION APPROACH TO INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Personal Strength

Main personal traits that affect intercultural communication

Self-concept – refers to the way in which a person views the self.

Self-disclosure – refers to the willingness of individuals to openly and appropriately reveal

information about themselves

Self-monitoring – refers to using social comparison information to control and modify your self-
presentation and expressive behavior

Social relaxation – is the ability to reveal little anxiety in communication

Communication Skills

-Competency in verbal and non-verbal behaviors

Intercultural communication skills requires:

Message Skills – refer to the ability to understand and use the language and feedback

Behavioral Flexibility – is the ability to select an appropriate behavior in diverse context

Interaction Management – emphasizes a person’s other-oriented ability to interaction, such as

attentiveness and responsiveness

Social Skills – are empathy and identity maintenance

Empathy – is the ability to think the same thoughts and feel the same emotions as the
other person

Identity maintenance – is the ability to maintain a counterpart’s identity by

communicating back an accurate understanding of that person’s identity
Psychological Adjustment

Handling the feelings of “culture shock,” such as frustration, stress, and alienation in
ambiguous situations caused by new environments.

Cultural Awareness

Individuals must understand the social customs and the social system of the host culture.

BARRIERS TO INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

ANXIETY

It is only natural to focus on that feeling and not be totally present in the
communication transaction.

ASSUMING SIMILARITIES INSTEAD OF DIFFERENCES

It is better to assume nothing.

ETHNOCENTRISM

Negatively judging aspects of another culture by the standards of one’s own culture

Cultural nearsightedness - less extreme form of ethnocentrism

- Taking one’s own culture for granted and neglecting other cultures

STEREOTYPES AND PREJUDICE

Stereotypes – refers to negative or positive judgments made about individuals based on any
observable or believed group membership

Prejudice – refers to irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular group, race, religion, or sexual
orientation.

Negative Effects of Stereotypes on Communication:

They cause us to assume that a widely-held belief is true when it may not be.

Continued use of the stereotype reinforces the belief.

The stereotype can become a “self-fulfilling prophecy” for the person stereotyped.
CHARACTERISTICS OF INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE

Motivation

The desire to communicate successfully with strangers is an important start.

Tolerance for Ambiguity

Makes it possible to accept, and even embrace, the often equivocal and sometimes
downright incomprehensible messages that characterize intercultural communication

Open-mindedness

One thing to tolerate ambiguity

Knowledge and Skill

Three Strategies to being competent in intercultural communication:

Passive observation – involves noticing what behaviors embers of a different culture use and
applying these insights to communicate in ways that are most effective

Active strategies – include reading, watching films, and asking experts and members of the
other culture how to behave, as well as taking academic courses related to intercultural
communication and diversity

Self-disclosure – volunteering personal information to people from the other culture with
whom you want to communicate

VARIETIES AND REGISTERS OF SPOKEN AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE

Two factors that distinguish spoken language from the written one

The actual situation or context in which the language is used

The purpose of communication

Characteristics of Spoken Language

Varieties of Spoken Language

Interactional – has a social function

- aims to develop relationships between interlocutors

Ex. A: Hi! How are you today?

B: I’m good, You?
A: I’m OK.

Referential – provides the listener some information referring to objects or abstract concepts

Ex.
A: The mobile phone unit has been sent via door-to-
door at 10 o’clock. Please notify our office once you
have received it.

Expressive – shows the speaker’s judgment or feelings about a person, event, or situation.

Ex. It’s truly unbelievable! How could she do such a terrible thing?

Transactional – getting information or making a deal

- driven by needs and wants rather than sociability

Ex.
A: May I know how much this parcel costs?
B: You can give me 100 Php

Phatic – engaging in small, plain talk

- uses minimal amount of language

- poses familiarity of the topic and context between the speaker and the listener

Ex.
A: Coffee?
B: Yes, black.

Characteristics of Written Language

Difference between Spoken and Written

Culturally Responsive, Engaging and Appropriate Language

Political correctness – cultural appropriateness of language conforming to a culture’s acceptable

expressions and standards of behavior and thoughts

HOWEVER, Being POLITICALLY CORRECT is not about being right; it is more of being RESPECTFUL and
CONSIDERATE.
Ways on how to choose appropriate language (Hogan-Garcia, 1999)

Notice and reflect on disrespectful language, thoughts, and actions.

Respect people of different races.

Use language that includes LGBTQIA+ people.

Avoid exclusionary, gender-specific language.

Avoid using explicitly religious terms in mixed religious company.

Avoid expressions that devalue people with physical or mental disabilities.

Refrain from language that groups people into one large category.

Some Politically Correct Words and Expressions