THE EFFECTS OF CODE USAGE IN INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

(Chapter 9)

Preferences In the Organization of Messages

Organizational Preferences in the Use of U.S. English :

• The structure of a good essay or speech in U.S. English requires the development of a specific theme.

• A thesis statement, which is the central organizing idea of the speech or essay, is the foundation on which speakers or writers develop.

Organizational Preferences in the Use of U.S. English :

• Correct organization in U.S. English means that writers or speakers clearly state their thesis at the beginning and provide the audience with an overview of their main points.

• The organizational pattern preferred in the formal use of U.S. English can best be described as linear. This pattern can be visualized as a series of steps or progressions that move in a straight line toward a particular goal or idea.

Organizational Preferences in Other Languages and Cultures

• In English, which is a speaker-responsible language, the speaker is expected to provide the structure and, therefore, much of the specific meaning of the statements.

• In Japanese, which is a listener-responsible language, speakers need to indicate only indirectly what they are discussing and what they want the listener to know when the conversation is over.

Organizational Preferences in Other Languages and Cultures

• The preferred structure of a Japanese paragraph is often called a "gytr" or a series of "stepping stones" that depend on indirection and implication to connect ideas and provide the main points.

• In Hindi, one does not typically develop just one unified thought or idea; rather, the preferred style contains digressions and includes related material.

• Chinese speech also tends to use single words such as because, as, and so to replace whole clause connectives, such as "in view of the fact that," "to begin with," or "in conclusion," that are commonly used in English.

Cultural Variations in Persuasion

Persuasion in Intercultural Encounters

• Involves culturally heterogeneous individuals.• Communicative situations require knowledge and

skill in using the appropriate means of persuasion.• The effective use of verbal and nonverbal codes to

persuade another varies greatly from culture to culture.

• Persuasion involves an interaction between a speaker and his or her audience, in which the speaker intends to have the audience accept a point of view or a conclusion.

Cultural Differences in What ls Acceptable as Evidence

• Evidence is what a persuader offers to those she or he is trying to persuade.

• People use parables or stories as a form of evidence.• The European American culture prefers physical

evidence and eyewitness testimony.• The U.S. legal system, however, depends on the

testimony of others, , for example witnesses of traffic accidents.

Cultural Differences in Styles of Persuasion

• European Americans are influenced by the rhetoric of Aristotle, who emphasized the separation of logic and reason from emotions.

• Thai, Arab, and Chinese discourse all have rhetorical traditions that emphasize the importance of emotion in assessing the truthfulness of a situation.

• Mexicans are sometimes very emotional and dramatic.

THREE GENERAL STRATEGIES OF PERSUASION

• Quasilogical Style: preferred style for members of many Western cultures use objective statistics and testimony from expert witnesses as evidence.

• The speaker or persuader will connect the evidence to the persuasive conclusion by using such words as thus, hence, and therefore.

• Presentational Style: emphasizes and appeals to the emotional aspects of persuasion.

• The persuader uses language to create an emotional response.

THREE GENERAL STRATEGIES OF PERSUASION

• Analogical Style: seeks to establish an idea (a conclusion) and to persuade the listener by providing an analog¡ a story, or a parable in which there is either an implicit or explicit lesson to be learned.

• Is that the collective experience of groups of people-the culture-is persuasive, rather than the ideas themselves or the characteristics of a dynamic individual.

Cultural Variations ¡n the Structure of Conversations

Value of Talk and Silence

• The importance given to words varies greatly from one culture to the next.

• In informal conversations between friends, individuals often "give my word" to assure the truth of their statement.

• The spoken word is seen as a reflection of a person's inner thoughts.

• People need words to communicate accurately and completely.

Rules for Conversations(Examples)

• How do you know when it is your turn to talk in a conversation?

• When you talk to a person you have never met before, how do you know what topics are acceptable for you to discuss?

• In a conversation, must your comments be directly related to those that come before?

• …

Intercultural Competence in Interpersonal Relationships(Chapter 10)

Cultural Variations in Interpersonal Relationships

Types of Interpersonal Relationships

• Interpersonal connections occur because of blood or marriage.

• Exist because of overlapping or interdependent objectives and goals.

• Complex and involved.• Simple and casual.• Are brief and spontaneous.• Last a lifetime.

Participants

• Strangers : someone whom you do not know and who is therefore unfamiliar to you.

• Acquaintance: someone you know, but only casually. Typically engage in social politeness rituals.

• Friends: someone you know well, someone you like, and someone with whom you feel a close personal bond.

• Romantic Partners: The diversity of cultural norms that govern romantic relationships is an excellent example of the wide range of cultural expectations.

Dimensions of Interpersonal Relationships

• Control: involves status or social dominance. often conveyed by the specific names or titles used to address another person.

• Affiliation: interpret the degree of friendliness, liking, social warmth, or immediacy that is being communicated.

• Activation: refers to the ways people react to the world around them.

Dynamics of Interpersonal Relationships

• Autonomy connection dialectic: Individuals want a sense of separation from others (autonomy) and a feeling of attachment to others (connection).

• Novelty predictability dialectic: desire for change and stability in their interpersonal relationships.

• Openness closedness dialectic: desire to share or withhold personal information.

The Maintenance of Face in Interpersonal Relationships

Types of Face Needs

• Control face: concerned with individual requirements for freedom and personal authority.

• Approval face: concerned with individual requirements for affiliation and social contact.

• Admiration face: concerned with individual needs for displays of respect from others.

Facework and Interpersonal Communication

• Refers to the actions people take to deal with their own and others face needs.

• Everyday actions that impose on another, such as requests, warnings, compliments, criticisms, apologies, and even praise, may jeopardize the face of one or more participants in a communicative act.

Facework and lntercultural Communication

• Competent facework, lessens the potential for specific actions face-threatening.

• Wide variety of communication behaviors: apologies, excessive politeness, the narration of justifications or excuses.

lmproving Intercultural Relationships

• Occur as a result of the knowledge and perceptions people have about one another their motivations to engage in meaningful interactions, and their ability to communicate in ways that are regarded as appropriate and effective.

Learning about People from Other Cultures

• Components of Uncertainty and Anxiety Management:

• Uncertainty refers to the extent to which a person lacks the knowledge, information, and ability to understand and predict the intentions and behaviors of another.

• Anxiety refers to an individual's degree of emotional tension and her or his inability to cope with change, to live with stress, and to contend with vague and imprecise information.

Strategies for Reducing Uncertainty and Anxiety

• Passive strategies involve quiet and surreptitious observation of another person to learn how he or she behaves.

• Active strategies include efforts to obtain information about another person by asking others or structuring the environment to place the person in a situation that provides the needed information.

• Interactive strategies involve actually conversing with the other person in an attempt to gather the needed information. As you might expect, there are large cultural differences in the preferred strategies that are used to reduce uncertainty and manage anxiety in intercultural encounters.

Sharing Oneself with People from Other Cultures

• Self-disclosure.• The breadth of self-disclosing information refers to the

range of topics that are revealed.• The depth of the self-disclosing information refers to

the degree of "personalness" about one self that is revealed.

• Valence refers to whether the self-disclosure is positive or negative, and thus favorable or unfavorable.

• Timing refers to when the self-disclosure occurs in the course of the relationship.

• Target refers to the person to whom self-disclosing information is given.

Handling Differences in Intercultural Relationships

• Is a major nemesis for most people. • Conflict may involve either task or

instrumental issues.• Cultures also shape attitudes toward conflict.• Face is very likely to be threatened, and all

participants are vulnerable to the face-threatening acts that can occur.