Course Outline
| CHAPTER 1 | THE NECESSITY OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION |
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| The need for intercultural communication. What is human communication and what are the fundamental assumptions about intercultural communication. | |
| CHAPTER 2 | THE CUTURAL CONTEXT |
| Individualism versus collectivism, intercultural conversions between both groups, the pancultural self, high and low context cultures, value orientation, power difference, and uncertainty avoidance. | |
| CHAPTER 3 | THE MICROCULTURAL CONTEXT |
| Microcultural group status, muted microcultural groups, microcultures in the United States – Hispanics and Latinos, African Americans, The Amish, the Hmong, Arab Americans, and LGBT groups. | |
| CHAPTER 4 | THE ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXTS |
| Environments and information load, culture and natural environments, culture and natural disasters, the build environment (Japanese house, American Navajo housing, Marakwet housing), privacy, monochromic versus polychromic time orientations. | |
| CHAPTER 5 | THE PERCEPTUAL CONTEXT |
| Culture and cognition, the model of human information processing, the geography of thought, stereotyping, and ethnocentrism. | |
| CHAPTER 6 | THE SOCIOCULTURAL CONTEXT |
| The dimensions of group variability, role relationships, in-groups and out-groups, reference groups, family groups, sex and gender groups, sex and gender roles across cultures (Morocco, Japan, India, Saudi Arabia, Eghpt, China, and Mexico). | |
| CHAPTER 7 | THE VERBAL CODE – HUMAN LANGUAGE |
| The relationship between language and culture, the structure of human language, sounds and symbols, syntax and universal grammar, generative grammar, elaborated and restricted codes, cross-cultural communication styles, direct and indirect speaking, personal and contextual speaking, language and ethnic identity. | |
| CHAPTER 8 | NONVERBAL CODES |
| Definitions of nonverbal communication, the relationship between verbal and nonverbal codes, channels of nonverbal communication (kinesics, paralanguage, proxemics, haptics, olfactics, uniforms, and chronemics), nonverbal communication and dimensions of cultural variability (individual vs collective, power distance, high and low contexts, and expectancy violation theory. | |
| CHAPTER 9 | DEVELOPING INTERCULTURAL RELATIONSHPS |
| Communication and uncertainty, Anxiety and uncertainty management, empathy and similarity, perceptions of relational intimacy across cultures, marital dissolutions and divorce across cultures | |
| CHAPTER 10 | INTERCULTRUAL CONFLICT |
| Definition of intercultural conflict, a model of intercultural conflict, the concepts of face, facework, and communication conflict styles, dominating and third party conflict styles, a culture-based situational model of conflict, individual and collective approaches to conflict, conflict resolution in high and low context cultures | |
| CHAPTER 11 | INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN ORGANIZATIONS |
| Intercultural management, clashing of cultural concepts on the job, intercultural relations (Japanese management practices, German management practices, Mexican management practices, Chinese management practices, and commerce in the Middle East). | |
| CHAPTER 12 | ACCULTURATION, CULTURE SHOCK, AND INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE |
| Acculturation, acculturative stress, a model of acculturation, acculturation in the United States, culture shock, W-curve models of reentry culture shock, strategies for managing culture shock, intercultural communication competence, a model of intercultural competence, the knowledge component, the affective component, the psychomotor component, situational features, an integrated model of measure of intercultural communication competence. |
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FINAL PAPER DUE APRIL 28 |
15 page paper on any aspect of culture discussed in the textbook or lectures. The paper is single-space, written in formal English (no second person address), collegiate level vocabulary, it must include a title, you name and the course, headings such as Introduction, Conclusion, etc. and it must include a bibliography (MLA, APA, or Chicago Manual of Style). |
FINAL EXAM
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Tuesday, May 1, 5:30PM - 8:00PM |