Teaching Intracultural and Intercultural Communication

Abstract

Within an increasingly global marketplace, discussions of intercultural communication are important in business and technical communication classrooms. Although many business and technical communication textbooks integrate discussions of intercultural communication, they do not go far enough in engaging the complicated nature of this issue. This article summarizes recent literature about the importance of paying attention to intercultural communication and analyzes the productive approaches in popular business and technical communication textbooks. It presents five challenges for business and technical communication teachers to consider and includes teaching modules that address these challenges. Although the article focuses on classroom practice, such intercultural explorations are also of value to authors of business and technical communication textbooks, who might consider integrating modules such as these into their textbooks.

A Study of Engineering Students' Intercultural Competence and Its Implications for Teaching

“…In particular, teaching methods that engage students in real intercultural experiences and aim to develop students' behavioral skills are not included. For more possibilities, see [5,[44][45][46][47]. Considering the limited time and effort service class teachers can devote to intercultural issues, I tried to offer methods that are, relatively speaking, easy to implement.…”

Intercultural Competence in Technical Communication: A Working Definition and Review of Assessment Methods

“…Responding to this need, scholars in our field have examined verbal and visual usage in intercultural contexts (Andrews, 2000;Bosley, 1999;Spyridakis, Holmback, & Shubert, 1997;St. Amant, 2005a;Thrush, 2001); they have engaged in discussions of intercultural pedagogies (Corbett, 1996;DeVoss, Jasken, & Hayden, 2002;Hunsinger, 2006;Miles, 1997); and they have expanded our instruction to include technical communication translation, outsourcing, and localization (Flammia, 2005;Hoft, 1995;Maylath, 1997;St. Amant, 2005b).…”

“…These profilers can help students see themselves as cultural beings, which is an important and often challenging step in teaching intercultural technical communication (DeVoss, Jasken, & Hayden, 2002). In addition, by understanding themselves, students can gain knowledge on how to interact with people who have different cultural profiles.…”

Using Lost in Translation to Prepare Students for the Physical, Emotional and Spiritual Realities of International Business

“…In scene 11, Harris uses two puns linking the length of his welcome meeting to the height and nature of his Japanese hosts. Research shows that both humor (Aikenhead & Jegede, 1999) and irony (DeVoss, et al, 2002) should be avoided in cross-cultural settings as they are typically not understood and can cause confusion or offense. Even professional interpreters typically do not translate humor because its meaning does not easily translate from culture to culture.…”

“…Research shows that both humor (Aikenhead & Jegede, 1999) and irony (DeVoss, Jaskin, & Hayden, 2002) should be avoided in cross-cultural International business travel is disruptive to family life (Espino, et al, 2002). The type of stress and disruption experienced is dependent upon such factors as the non-traveling spouse's choice of careers (Stephens & Black, 1991), the gender of the non-traveling spouse (Linehan & Walsh, 2001), and the degree of choice given over the international assignment (Suutari & Brewster, 2000).…”