Challenges of Intercultural Communication
Communicating with people who are very different from us, it is very difficult to know how to draw
inferences about what they mean, and so it is impossible to depend on shared knowledge and
background for confidence in our interpretations. Scollon (1995)
Lack of shared knowledge and beliefs and cultural diversity make it more complicated to
arrive at the correct inference or interpretation of meanings
English is now global lingua franca. In fact, with the ASEAN integration, English has been
declared the official or working language of ASEAN.
It is important to empathize that the ownership of English cannot be attributed to just one
country or to those who use it as a native or home language.
Varieties of English spoken by different speech communities have evolved for a reason
o They use it for communal purposes.
o Heavily influenced by the local culture and its speakers.
The problem of misunderstanding is not overt. and can be traced to speech perturbations, poorly,
management turn-taking, and non-aligned.
Communication in English as lingua franca (LEF) is “a form of intercultural communication characterized
by cooperation rather than misunderstanding.
Participants coming from 7 different first language backgrounds which yielded the result
the that the participants displayed communicative behavior not generally associated with
their linguacultural background
misunderstanding in intercultural communication may not always be caused by verbal
utterances
May also occur due to wrong interpretation of the non-verbal code.
Handshake which is commonly done by people introduced to each other by a third party should be done
and interpreted correctly as the type of handshake varies from culture to culture.
Country or Region Types of Handshake
United States Firm handshake
France Soft handshake
Germany Firm handshake, for men, traditionally accompanied by a slight
bow
Japan Handshake with arm firmly extended, accompanied by a bow
Handshake and free hand placed on the forearm of the other
Middle East person
Greetings
Greeting rituals also vary from culture to culture. Japanese women bow differently from
Japanese men
German bow which is termed as diener means a bow to and in recognition of an authority
Sources of Misunderstanding (Kaur, 2016)
Ambiguity
o lack of explicitness on the part of the speaker in the form of problematic
reference
o utterance is open to different interpretations.
Performance-related misunderstanding
o slips of the tongue and mishearing
o due to utterances spoken quickly and unclearly.
Language-related misunderstanding
o ungrammaticality of language
Gaps in world knowledge
o gaps in content rather language
Local context
o turns within sequences produced by the participants themselves
o orientation of the participants as well as the repair moves that follow the
displayed understanding.
Why is there a need to understand intercultural communication?
Some people take it for granted to read about and study first a country’s culture before
they go and travel to the place.
a need to be aware or conscious of other cultures especially those that you will visit so
you can avoid offending people.
become aware of cultural identities and background as it will broaden your horizon.
need to understand that no culture is superior or inferior to another.
through awareness that you get to compare other cultures with your own and appreciate
cultural diversities and learn to live with them.
Three approaches as explained by Martin and Nakayama (2010)
Social Science of
Interpretative Critical
Functionalist
Discipline on which Psychology Anthropology, sociolinguistics Various
approach is founded
Research Goal Describe and predict Describe behavior Change behavior
behavior
Assumption of External and describable Subjective Subjective and
reality material
Assumptions of Predictable Creative and voluntary Changeable
human behavior
Method of study Survey, observation Participant observation, field Textual analysis of
study media
Relationship of Communication influenced Culture created and maintained Culture as a site of
culture and by culture through communication power struggle
communication
Contribution of the identifies cultural Emphasizes that communication Recognizes the
approach variations; recognizes and culture and cultural economic and
cultural differences in differences should be studied in political forces in
many aspects of context culture and
communication but often communication;
does not consider context. asserts that all
intercultural
interactions are
characterized by
power.
