跨文化交际期末复习资料知识点总结详细

Intercultural communication in English1. Globalization (what & why)1)Dictionary: to organize or establish worldwide2)Wiki: Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people andeconomic activity.3)Globalization refers to the establishment of a world economy, in which national borders arebecoming less and less important as transnational corporations, existing everywhere and nowhere, do business in a global market.4)Globalization refers to “time-spaces compression”. That is, the way in which the worldappears to be getting smaller. (Reasons: the increasing global mobility of people; the impact of new electronic media on human communications)5)At the same time, people all over the world are faced with the same environmental issuesthat affect all cultures.6)Global instability stems from clashes between cultures as humankind createscatastrophes(灾难) that are far worse than natural disasters.7)Culture interdependence: people from different cultures attempt to get along with eachother and try to decrease conflicts.Driving force: technology, particularly telecommunications, computers2. Culture1)People who are raised or live in a particular place probably speak the same language, holdmany of the same values, and communicate in similar ways.2)the group of people who share the same ancestry3)commodities or products that are internationally exported and imported4) a particular way to satisfy our human needs. Maslow: physiological, safety, belongingness,esteem, self-actualization5)The coherent learned, shared view of a group of people about life’s concerns that rankswhat is important, furnishes attitudes about what things are appropriate and dictates behavior.6)Culture is coherent, learned, the view of a group of people, ranks what is important,furnishes attitudes2.1 elements of communication1)Context: the interrelated conditions of communication(aspects: physical settings, historical,psychological, culture)2)Participants: the participants in communication play the roles of sender and receiver,sometimes of the messages simultaneously.3)Messages: elements: meanings, symbols, encoding and decoding.4)Channels: a channel is both the route traveled by the message and the means oftransportation.5)Noise: noise is any stimulus, external or internal to the participants, that interferes with thesharing of meaning. They include: external noise, internal noise, semantic noise6)Feedback: some kind of verbal or nonverbal response3. Different lands, different friendships1)European: friendship is quite sharply distinguished from other, more casual relations, and isdifferently related to family life.2)American: a friendship may be superficial, casual, situational or deep and enduring.3)French: F is one to one relationship that demands a keen awareness of the other person’sintellect, temperament and particular interests; friends generally are of the same sex;disagreement and argument are the breath of live; compartmentalized (a man play chess with a friend for years without knowing his political opinion)4)Germany: F is much more articulately a matter of feeling; friends are brought to the family;disagreement on any subject that matters to both is a tragedy.5)English: F is based on shared activity, and are formed outside the family circle.4. Comparing and contrasting culturesFrederick:Human nature orientation; man-nature orientation; time orientation; activity orientation; social orientationKluckhohns and Strodtbeck:Human nature; relationship of man to nature; sense of time; activity; social relationships4.1Cultural dimensions (Geert Hofstede)Individualism versus collectivismUncertainty avoidancePower distanceMasculinity versus femininityLong-term versus short-term orientation5. High & low context culturesAdding: from wikipediaLow context culture and the contrasting "high context culture" are terms presented by the anthropologist Edward T. Hall in his book Beyond Culture. Low context culture refers to a culture’s tendency not to cater towards in-groups. An "in-group" is defined by the authors as being a discrete group having similar experiences and expectations, from which, in turn, inferences are drawn. Low context cultures, such as Germany or the United States make much less extensive use of such similar experiences and expectations to communicate. Much more is explained through words or verbalization, instead of the context.High context culture and the contrasting "low context culture" are terms presented by the anthropologist Edward T. Hall in his 1976 book Beyond Culture. It refers to a culture's tendency to use high context messages over low context messages in routine communication. This choice of communication styles translates into a culture that will cater to in-groups, an in-group being a group that has similar experiences and expectations, from which inferences are drawn. In a high context culture, many things are left unsaid, letting the culture explain. Words and word choice become very important in higher context communication, since a few words can communicate a complex message very effectively to an in-group (but less effectively outside that group), while in a lower context culture, the communicator needs to be much more explicit and the value of a single word is less important.6. How is language related to culture?1)Culture and language are intertwined and shape each other.2)Culture influences language by way of symbols and rules for using those symbols, as well asour perceptions of the universe.3)All languages have social questions and information questions. The meaning comes out ofthe context, the cultural usage.4)Language reflects cultural values.5)Sometimes different cultures use identical words that have rather different meanings. Theresults can be humorous, annoying, or costly, depending on the circumstances.6)Even if two people from different cultures can speak a common language, they maymisinterpret the cultural signals.7)To summarize, in the culture itself, language-and-culture is embedded in cultural products,practices, perspectives, communities, and persons. One reflects the other, and they are best seem as joined. Language , as a product of culture, is infused with culture.7. The sapir-whort hypothesis8. Nonverbal communication (what)Nonverbal communication is usually understood as the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless,(mostly visual) messages between people. Messages can be communicated through gestures and touch, by body language or posture, by facial expression and eye contact. Nonverbal messages could also be communicated through material exponential; meaning, objects or artifacts (such as clothing, hairstyles or architecture). Speech contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, including voice quality, rate, pitch, volume, and speaking style, as well prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation, and stress. Likewise, written texts have nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words, or the physical layout of a page. However, much of the study of nonverbal communication has focused on face-to-face interaction, where it can be classified into three principal areas: environmental conditions where communication takes place, physical characteristics of the communicators, and behaviors of communicators during interaction.I.e. voices, handshakes, hand gestures, eyes movement, face expressions (smile, laugh),touching behaviorIt is governed by culture.Functions: repeating, complementing, substituting, regulating, and contradicting.9. Social timethe peculiarities of the Past-Present-Future in social processes, and their unbreakable connection.10. Improving intercultural communication1)To begin with your own culture, regardless of what that culture might be.2)To identify those attitudes, prejudices, and opinions that we all carry around and that biasthe way the world appears to us.3)To learn to recognize your communication style.Advices:1)Both parties involved in intercultural communication should seek a common language andattempt to understand cultural differences in using the language.2)To develop empathy - be able to see things from the point of view of others so that we canbetter know and adjust to the other people.3)To be flexible when deciding on how to present yourself to another person.。