Chapter 2 - What Is Intercultural Communication Flexibility

Understanding Intercultural
Communication Second Edition, 2012

Chapter 2
What is Intercultural Communication

Flexibility?
Stella Ting-Toomey & Leeva C. Chung
Revised by Ron Compton
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

PowerPoint Slides Designed by Alex Flecky and Noorie Baig 1
Overview - What Is Intercultural
Communication Flexibility?
1. Defining Intercultural
Communication: A Process Model
2. Practicing Intercultural
Communication Flexibility
3. Developing Intercultural
4. Deepening Intercultural Process
Thinking
2
Objectives - What Is Intercultural
1. Deepen Your Understanding of a
“Transactional, Process-Centered”
Approach to Intercultural Commun.
2. Define the Specific Characteristics of
Intercultural Communication
3. Identify the Three Facets of Meaning in
an Intercultural Encounter Process
4. Compare & Contrast Flexible and
Inflexible Intercultural Communication
3
Objectives - What Is Intercultural
5. Distinguish the Difference Between an
Ethnocentric Mindset and an
Ethnorelative Mindset
6. Discuss the Components & Criteria of
Intercultural Communication Flexibility
7. Define and Use Examples to Illustrate
the Four Stages of Developing
Intercultural Communication Flexibility
4
Defining Intercultural
 Description:
Intercultural Communication Occurs
When Cultural Group Membership
Factors Affect Communication
Process
5
 Class Activity:
Encoding & Decoding
◦ Close Your Eyes
◦ Take a Sheet of Paper Given to You
◦ Listen to Instructions, Follow Them
◦ Open Your Eyes When Told
◦ Compare the Results
6
“Intercultural Communication is Defined As
the Symbolic Exchange Process Whereby
Individuals from Two (or More) Different
Cultural Communities Attempt to
Negotiate Shared Meanings in an Interactive
Situation Within an Embedded Societal
System.”1
1Understanding Intercultural Communication
Stella Ting-Toomey & Leeva Chung
Oxford University Press, 2012
7
Intercultural Communication Characteristics
1. Symbolic Exchange - Verbal & Nonverbal
2. Process – Transactional, Encoding & Decoding
Irreversible – Different Impressions
3. Cultural Communities - Different Ways Life
4. Negotiate Shared Meanings - Message
Meanings: Content, Relational, Identity
5. Interactive Situation – Contexts:
Relational, Psychological, Physical
6. Embedded Societal System - Contexts
8
Person A’s Person B’s

cultural cultural
frame of frame of
reference reference
9
 Example for Analysis: Decode

Dialogue
◦ Mr. Weisheit – Swiss
Student Volunteer Reads
◦ Mr. Patel – Asian Indian
◦ Class Discussion - Questions 10
 Decoding Analysis Questions
 Do you perceive any communication problems
with the above dialog between Mr. Weisheit and
Mr. Patel?
 What are the specific communication problems?
 Can you infer some cultural assumptions and
expectations that Mr. Weisheit has concerning
communication?
expectations that Mr. Patel has concerning
communication? 11
 Example for Analysis: Decode

Dialogue
◦ Kouadio – Brazilian
◦ Maggie – British
◦ Class Discussion - Questions 12
 Decoding Analysis Questions
 Do you perceive any communication problems
with the above dialog between Kouadio and
Maggie?
 What are the specific communication problems?
expectations that Kouadio has concerning
communication?
expectations that Maggie has concerning
communication? 13
Practicing Intercultural
1. Flexible Intercultural Communication

2. Inflexible Intercultural Communication
3. Ethnocentric Mindset
4. Ethnorelative Mindset
14

Integrate Knowledge, Open-Minded
Attitude, Put into Adaptive Practice
Use Our Own Cultural Values,
Judgments, Routines
15
 Stuck in Own Cultural Worldviews, Using our Own
Cultural Values to Evaluate Others’ Behaviors
 Viewing Our Cultural Way of Living as “Natural,”

Other Cultures as “Unnatural”
 Evaluating the Communication Norms of Our Own

Cultural Group as More “Proper”
 Acting in a Conscious or Unconscious Manner

in Favor of the Ingroup Standard to the Exclusion
of the Outgroup Standard 16
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry,

and narrow-mindedness.
Broad, wholesome, charitable views of
men and things cannot be acquired
by vegetating in one little corner
of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
Mark Twain
17
 Understanding Behavior from the Other

Person’s Cultural Frame of Reference
 Suspending Ethnocentric, Reactive Judgments

and Engaging in a Systematic Cross-
Cultural Comparative Analysis
 Promoting a Respectful, Inclusive Climate via

Competent Communication Skills Practice 18
Discussion – Examples, Our Lives

Do You Remember a Time When You Observed
“Inflexible” IC? An “Ethnocentric” Mindset? 19
Content Components
1. Knowledge
Formal Studying, Informal Learning
2. Attitude
Cognitive – Open-Minded
Affective – Emotional Commitment
3. Skills – Operational Abilities
20
Example of Attitude
Empathetic Heart
“Love In Any Language”
 Sungby Sandi Patti
CD: “Morning Like This”
 Words/Music by Jon Mohr, John Mays
21
22
Criteria for Flexibility

1. Appropriateness
Behaviors Regarded as Proper
2. Effectiveness
Achievement of Shared Meaning
Goal-Related Outcomes
3. Adaptability
Ability to Change Behaviors, Goals
23
Developing Intercultural
24
Staircase Model: Four Stages of Flexible
1. Unconscious Incompetence:
Blissfully Ignorant
2. Conscious Incompetence:
Semi-Awareness
3. Conscious Competence:
Full Mindfulness
4. Unconscious Competence:
Mindlessly Mindful
Pretty Woman – In Which Stage are the Women at the Store on
Rodeo Drive? What Lesson did Julia Roberts Teach Them? 25
Developing
Intercultural
Communication
Flexibility
Film Analysis
Staircase
Model
DVD Chp. 2:
“Welcome To
Bombay”
Chp. 3:
“You Like India?”26
Staircase Model: Four Stages of Flexible
1. Unconscious Incompetence:
Blissfully Ignorant
Discussion –
2. Conscious Incompetence:
Examples,
Semi-Awareness
Our Lives
3. Conscious Competence:
Full Mindfulness
4. Unconscious Competence:
Mindlessly Mindful
Do You Remember a Time on an “Incompetent” Step?
On a “Competent” Step? How Could or Did You Move Up? 27
Mindful Perspective - Flexible Communicators
• Attune to Their Own Internal Assumptions,

Values, and Expectations
• Attend to Alternative Assumptions,Values, and
Expectations of the Cultural Strangers
• Learn to Understand Unfamiliar Behaviors from
Multiple Cultural Angles
• Are Committed to Shift Communication Styles
When Appropriate to the Persons, Goals, and
Cultural Context
28
Deepening Intercultural Process Thinking
ICC Often Involves These Principles
1. Mismatched Expectations from Group Differences
2. Involves Degrees of Biased Intergroup Perceptions,
Overgeneralizations, Stereotypes
3. Simultaneous Decoding and Encoding of
Verbal/Nonverbal Messages
4. Multiple Goal Transactions: Content, Relational,
Identity
5. Calls for Understanding of Diverse
Communication Approaches and Styles
6. Involves Well-Meaning Culture Bumps or Clashes
7. Always Takes Place in Context, Embedded Systems
29
Deepening Intercultural Process Thinking
Mindfulness
Flexibility
30
Parting Thoughts…
A traveler without observation

is like a bird without wings…
~ Author unknown
31

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Understanding Intercultural

Communication Second Edition, 2012

What is Intercultural Communication

Stella Ting-Toomey & Leeva C. Chung

Revised by Ron Compton

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Person A’s Person B’s

 Example for Analysis: Decode

 Example for Analysis: Decode

1. Flexible Intercultural Communication

1. Flexible Intercultural Communication

 Viewing Our Cultural Way of Living as “Natural,”

 Evaluating the Communication Norms of Our Own

 Acting in a Conscious or Unconscious Manner

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry,

 Understanding Behavior from the Other

 Suspending Ethnocentric, Reactive Judgments

 Promoting a Respectful, Inclusive Climate via

Discussion – Examples, Our Lives

Criteria for Flexibility

• Attune to Their Own Internal Assumptions,

A traveler without observation

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