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Ic Competence Slide

The document discusses the components of intercultural competence essential for effective communication across diverse cultures, including knowledge, affective, psychomotor, and situational components. It emphasizes the importance of empathy, understanding cultural differences, and adapting communication styles to bridge gaps and avoid misunderstandings. Strategies for developing intercultural competence are outlined, focusing on seeking commonalities, overcoming stereotypes, and fostering flexibility.

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7 views25 pages

Ic Competence Slide

The document discusses the components of intercultural competence essential for effective communication across diverse cultures, including knowledge, affective, psychomotor, and situational components. It emphasizes the importance of empathy, understanding cultural differences, and adapting communication styles to bridge gaps and avoid misunderstandings. Strategies for developing intercultural competence are outlined, focusing on seeking commonalities, overcoming stereotypes, and fostering flexibility.

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Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Becoming an

effective
intercultural
communicator
Cultural Division – English
Department - Hanoi University
Components of Intercultural
competence
This session
will look Building empathy in
Intercultural communication
into:
Strategies to develop
Intercultural communication
Intercultural communication
• Intercultural communication occurs across differences in many dimensions, such as
interpersonal styles (e.g.: self-confident, risk-taker, humble, cautious, open),
professional expertise or industry (e.g.: CEO, home-maker, social activist, educator),
cultural background (e.g.: Westerner, Easterner), or social identity (e.g.: gender,
religion, race/ ethnicity)

• Each dimension of diversity can serve as a bridge to mutual understanding or


as a barrier that increases the potential for miscommunication

• Effective intercultural communicator needs intercultural competence for


communication across cultures
Intercultural communication competence is
understood as:

• the degree to which you effectively adapt your


What is verbal and nonverbal messages to the
appropriate cultural context
intercultural • the ability to become effective and appropriate

competence? in interacting; or the sensitivity to cultural


diversity

• the ability to effectively and appropriately


execute communication behaviors to elicit a
desired response in a specific environment
What are potential problems in these cases?
• A Muslim student wearing a veil in a German university

• An American whose parents are Vietnamese immigrating from the


US to Vietnam for work

• An CEO working in a multi-cultural team which includes people from


50 nationalities

• An Australian bride got married to a Vietnamese groom. They are


going to live with his Vietnamese extended family including her
husband’s grandparents, parents, a sister and a brother.
Components of Intercultural competence

The The The


The affective
knowledge psychomotor situational
component
component component component
The knowledge component
• The degree of cultural awareness and education one has about someone from a
different culture
• People perceived as being culturally knowledgeable:
Have an understanding of the values, beliefs, norms, rules, and behaviors of the other culture
Are aware of the political system (Individualism/Collectivism), context level (high or low), power
distance level (high or low), and uncertainty avoidance level (high or low) of the culture
Have mental scripts, or plans, in line to guide their encounters
Possess an open cognitive system not limited to stereotypes

(Neuliep, 2006; Spitzberg & Cupach, 1984)


Discussion 1:
• What are some ways to gather information about another culture in
order to increase your Knowledge?
Activity 1:

Self-assessment: Cultural awareness


The affective component

• The degree to which one is motivated and willing to communicate with people from different
cultures

• People perceived as being culturally affective:


Have a tendency to approach (thus less likely to avoid) people from different cultures
Are low in Intercultural Communication Apprehension (ICA)
If given a choice, will be more willing to communicate interculturally

(Neuliep, 2006; Spitzberg & Cupach, 1984)


Activity 2

Self-assessment: Willingness to communicate


Psychomotor component

• This component is the “action” dimension that combines the Knowledge and Affective
components
• Elements:
Verbal Performance (Being familiar with and able to use the language of a culture)
Nonverbal Performance (Understanding the kinesics, paralinguistic, haptic, and proxemic codes of
a culture)
Role Enactment (Knowing how to verbally and nonverbally perform based on one’s role-
professor/student, employee/ supervisor, male/female, etc.)

(Neuliep, 2006; Spitzberg & Cupach, 1984


Situational component

• The real-life context in which the communication with someone from a different
culture occurs

• Situational Competence can be affected by:


The Environment (Each interaction may be different based on the situation)

Previous Contact (The more contact with people from another culture, the more knowledge, comfort, and experience)

Status Differential (Communication tactics may need to be modified based on the low, equal, or high status of the person)

Third-Party Interventions (The entire environment and status may change if another person enters the conversation)

(Neuliep, 2006; Spitzberg & Cupach, 1984)


"Empathy means
Building empathy in understanding others
Intercultural by entering their
competence world or standing
in somebody else’s
shoes"
Distance between understanding and doing
Regarding intercultural communication, one always has to make choice and answer a question:

To what extent do you adapt to the other person’s cultural ideologies


and values, and to what extent do you adhere to your own culture’s
ideologies and values?

OPTION 1: adapt to the other OPTION 2: hold fast to your


person’s cultural values native cultural values

OPTION 3: adjust a dimension of a value that


you hold but perhaps not so closely as some
core value
Scenario 1
You are an American studying abroad at a Japanese
university. During one of your classes, you have a question
about something the professor has said. In the United
States, you would naturally raise your hand and ask. But it’s
the complete opposite in Japan. Japanese teachers expect
students to stay quiet while they teach and write on the
blackboard. What are you going to do? Raise your hand or
just be quiet?
Scenario 2
After having studied in South Korea, an American girl named Vicky has decided to stay there
and look for a job. She has sent her résumé to a number of companies and has an interview
with one of them this afternoon. During the interview, among other questions, Vicky will be
asked these:
• As a woman, do you want to be an executive?
• How many years do you think you’ll be working?
• What will you do with your job if you get married?
• Are you dating anyone?
• What do you think of male–female interactions?
• How long does it take you to do your makeup?
Should Vicky answer these questions? Most, if not all of them, are illegal to ask of an
interviewee in the United States. They are not bona fide occupational qualification questions
(BFOQ). But in South Korea, these are typical to ask of women applicants. What should Vicky
do?
Scenario 3
You are working in Rwanda (an East African country), and
you have made friends with your new neighbors, Sonia and
Patrick. They are married. You’ve observed that they often
argue and that Patrick often hits Sonia. You are stunned by
this and want to report it to the local police. Did you know
that the cultural acceptance of spousal abuse can be so
pervasive that in some countries even large majorities of
women say it’s acceptable? In Rwanda, 96% of women say
the practice can be justified. What are you going to do now?
Discussion 2: Building empathy

Watching a video about How to start an empathy revolution.

1. What did you learn from what Roman Krznaric advocates on empathy in the first half
of the video? Please share the example of empathy you identified.

2. How does Roman Krznaric’s talk on intercultural empathy relate to the real world?
Strategies to develop intercultural competence

1 2 3
Seek commonnalities Overcome Develop flexibility
stereotyping and and openess
prejudice
What are important?
• Ability to acknowledge differences in communication and interaction styles
• Ability to deal with cultural uncertainty.
• Ability to display patience
• Ability to see and understand the world from another’s cultural perspective
• Ability to deal with misunderstandings
• Ability to give and receive constructive feedback
• Tolerance of ambiguity and uncertainty due to cultural differences
• Exhibiting a spirit of inquiry about other cultures, values, beliefs, and communication patterns
• Comfort when communicating with foreign nationals
• Ability to discuss and solve problems
What are important?
• Openness to cultural differences
• Ability to appreciate dissimilar working styles
• Awareness of your own cultural conditioning
• Ability to deal with conflicts
• Ability to display respect for other people
• Willingness to accept change and risk
• Ability to accept different ways of doing things
• Basic knowledge about other country, culture, and language
• Ability to exercise flexibility
• Nonjudgmental stance toward the way things are done in other cultures
Activity 4:

• Using your RADAR hand-out


References

• Ting-Toomey, S., & Chung, L. C. (2012). Understanding intercultural communication.


Oxford: Oxford University Press.

• Neuliep, J. W. (2014). Intercultural communication: A contextual approach. Los Angeles:


SAGE.

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