1. Campus Irapuato-Salamanca
Sede Yuriria
UNIDAD DE APRENDIZAJE:
Intercultural Communication:
• Culture, communication and intercultural
communication

2. What intercultural communication is?
• Is the management of messages for the purpose of
creating meaning across cultures.
• Who uses intercultural communication?
• EVERYONE.
• How would you react to living with someone of a different
culture for an entire year?

3. What is culture?
• Is linked to communication and a wide range
of human experience including feelings,
identity and sense-making
• Provides people with different ways of
thinking, seeing, hearing and interpreting the
world;
• Involves a number of man-made, collective
artifacts and is shared by the members of a
social group;
• Is something that shapes one‘s behaviour or
structures one′s perception of the world

4. INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
• ORIGINS
• Intercultural communication stretches back into
antiquity. It all began when people from different
cultures started to meet together and communicate
with each other. First, it was promoted by
missionaries, merchants or diplomats.
• As an academic field of study and research it has
been popular since 1950s. The term ‘intercultural
communication’ was first used when the American
anthropologists Edward T. Hall, Ruth and John Useem
began to explore how people from different cultures
can successfully communicate.

5. • During the past decades the growth
of globalization, immigration and
international tourism has involved
large numbers of people in
intercultural interaction. This has led
to an increased desire and need for
knowledge regarding how people
from different cultures, beliefs and
religions come together to work and
communicate with each other.

6. DEFINITION
• Interactions with people from
different cultural
backgrounds ; a process of
exchanging, negotiating, and
mediating ones cultural
differences through
language, non-verbal
gestures, and space
relationship.

7. Cross-cultural Communication
• Cross-cultural Communication -
implies a comparison of and contrast
between particular aspects of
communication between cultures•
• Intercultural Communication - the
communication between people from
different cultures (it refers to what
happens when these culturally-
different groups come together,
interact and communicate)

8. AGAIN: What is culture?
• is linked to communication and a wide range of human
experience including feelings, identity and sense-making
• provides people with different ways of thinking, seeing,
hearing and interpreting the world;
• involves a number of man-made, collective artefacts and
is shared by the members of a social group;
• is something that shapes one‘s behaviour or structures
one′s perception of the world.

9. Interdisciplinary orientation
• Cultural anthropology•
• Psychology
• Social psychology
• Sociology
• Linguistics and semiotics
• Cultural studies
• Rhetoric

10. Benefits of studying Intercultural
Communication
• According to F.E. Jandt*
• Improving verbal and nonverbal communication;
• Becoming better in recognizing and undertaking communication
behaviours in various contexts;
• Better adaptation to a new environment;
• Learning how to understand, reduce and overcome stress; better
understanding of one’s own culture and finding one’s place in a society;
• Reduced feeling of anxiety in contacts with members of other cultures;
• Learning about customs and habitual behaviours of members of other
cultures.
*Jandt, F. E. (1995) Intercultural Communication. Sage Thousand Oaks.

11. Benefits of Intercultural Communication
• willingness to accept differences
• personal growth through increased
tolerance
• dialogue
• cooperation
• developing a positive attitude
towards otherness

12. Importance of the InterCultural
Communication theories
• The importance of IC. The theories developed by the researchers and academics can
and has been applied to many fields such as education, business, management,
marketing, advertising and website design.
• As education becomes more and more globalized, many teachers need to know how
best communicate with students. Intercultural communication gives the man insight into
the areas they need to address or understand. Intercultural communication theories are
now also used within the education, business, health care and other public services
due to growing multicultural populations.

13. Cross-cultural communication
• As our world becomes increasingly interconnected,
people increasingly encounter problems when
communicating with people from other cultures. This
can lead to problems ranging from communicative
frustration, employee frustration and decreased
efficiency.

14. Cross-cultural communication in the
teaching context.
• CLASS DISCUSSION
• Lack in communication can be a problem in the EFL
classrom. Can you mention any case and propose
solutions?
• How much do you know about this kind of intercultural
problems?

15. Discussion
• What does intercultural communication mean to you?
• What are, in your opinion, the benefits of developing
intercultural awareness?
• Can intercultural communication be dangerous in any
way?

16. END OF PRESENTATION