Intercultural Communication

Self-reflexivity

A process of learning to understand oneself and one's position in society.

Diasporic Groups

Ethnic and/or national groups that are geographically dispersed throughout the world.

Textual Analysis

Examination of cultural texts such as media - television, movies, journalistic essays, and so on.

Nativistic

Extremely patriotic to the point of being anti-immigrant.

Facial Expressions

Facial gestures that convey emotions and attitudes.

Embodied Ethnocentrism

Feeling comfortable and familiar in the spaces, behaviours, and actions of others in our own cultural surroundings.

Sexual Identity

One's identification with various categories of sexuality.

Global Nomads (third-culture kids)

People who grow up in many different cultural contexts because their parents relocated.

Ethics

Principles of conduct that help govern behaviours of individuals and groups.

Demographics

The characteristics of a population, especially as classified by race, ethnicity, age, sex, and income.

Interpellation

The communication process by which one is pulled into the social forces that place people into a specific identity.

Chronemics

The concept of time and the rules that govern its use.

Identity

The concept of who we are. Characteristics of identity may be understood differently depending on the perspectives that people take - for example, social science, interpretive, or critical perspectives.

Core Symbols

The fundamental beliefs that are shared by the members of a cultural group. Labels, a category of core symbols, are names or markers used to classify individual, social, or cultural groups.

Conceptual Equivalence

The similarity of linguistic terms and meanings across cultures.

Vocalizations

The sounds that we utter that do not have the structure of language.

Proxemics

The study of how people use personal space.

Paralinguistics

The study of vocal behaviours include voice qualities and vocalization.

Individualistic

The tendency to emphasize individual identities, beliefs, needs, goals, and views rather than those of the group.

Collectivistic

The tendency to focus on the goals, needs, and views of in the ingroup rather than individuals' own goals, needs, and views.

Diversity Training

The training meant to facilitate intercultural communication among various gender, ethnic, and racial groups in the United States.

Diffusion of Innovations Theory

The view that communication and relationships play important roles in how new ideas are adopted (or not) by individuals and groups.

Conversational Constraints Theory

The view that cultural groups vary in their fundamental concerns regarding how conversational messages should be constructed.

Communication Accommodation Theory

The view that individuals adjust their verbal communication to facilitate understanding.

Nominalist Position

The view that perception is not shaped bu the particular language one speaks.

Relativist Position

The view that the particular language individuals speak, especially the structure of the language, shapes their perception of reality and cultural patterns.

Qualified Relativist Position

The view that the particular language we speak influences our perception but does not completely determine our perception.

Anxiety Uncertainty Management Theory

The view that the reduction of anxiety and uncertainty plays an important role in successful intercultural communications, particularly when experiencing new cultures.

Expectancy Violations Theory

The view that when someone's nonverbal behaviour violates our expectations, these violations will be perceived positively or negatively depending on the specific context and behaviour.

Identity Management

The way individuals make sense of their multiple images concerning the sense of self in different social contexts.

Impression Management Theory

The ways by which individuals attempt to control the impressions others have of them.

Cultural Values

The worldview of a cultural group and its set of deeply held beliefs.

Paradigm: Social Scientific

This research style emphasizes statistical measures. Understanding quantitative approaches is critical to analyzing data and statistics. These are skills important in any walk of life.

Folk Culture

Traditional and non-mainstream cultural activities that are not financially driven.

Cross-cultural Training

Training people to become familiar with other cultural norms and to improve their interactions with people of different domestic and international cultures.

Worldview

Underlying assumptions about the nature of reality and human behaviour.

Anglocentrism

Using Anglo or white cultural standards as the criteria for interpretations and judgments of behaviors and attitudes.

Dialectic

1. A method of logic based on the principle that an idea generates its opposite, leading to a reconciliation of the opposites; 2. the complex and paradoxical relationship between two opposite qualities or entities, each of which may also be referred to as a dialectic.

Ethnic Identity

1. A set of ideas about one's own ethnic group membership, 2. a sense of belonging to a particular group and knowing something about the shared experience of the group.

Colonialism

1. The system by which groups with diverse languages, cultures, religions, and identities were united to form on state, usually by a European power; 2. The system by which a country maintains power over other countries or groups of people to exploit them economically, politically, and culturally.

Identity Tourism

A concept that refers to people taking on the identities of other races, genders, classes, or sexual orientations for recreational purposes.

Variable

A concept that varies by existing in different types or different amounts and that can be operationalized and measured.

Masculinity-femininity Value

A cultural variability dimension that concerns the degree of being feminine - valuing fluid gender roles, quality of life, service, relationships, and interdependence - and the degree of being masculine - emphasizing distinctive gender roles, ambition, materialism, and independence.

Power Distance

A cultural variability dimension that concerns the extent to which people accept an unequal distribution of power.

Uncertainty Avoidance

A cultural variability dimension that concerns the extent to which uncertainty, ambiguity, and deviant ideas and behaviours are avoided.

Long-Term versus Short-Term Orientation

A cultural variability dimension that reflects a cultural-group orientation towards virtue or truth. The long-term orientation emphasizes virtue, whereas the short-term orientation emphasizes truth.

Ethnography

A discipline that examines the patterned interactions and significant symbols of specific cultural groups to identify the cultural norms that guide their behaviours, usually based on field studies.

Paradigm

A framework that serves as the worldview of researchers. Different paradigms assume different interpretations of reality, human behaviour, culture, and communication.

Melting Pot

A metaphor that assumes that immigrants and cultural minorities will be assimilated in the U.S. majority culture, losing their original cultures.

Critical Approach

A metatheoretical approach that includes many assumptions of the interpretive approach but focuses more on macrocontexts, such as the political and social structures that influence communication.

Popular Culture

A new name for "low" culture, referring to those cultural products that most people share and know about, including television, music, videos and popular magazines.

Eye Contact

A nonverbal code, eye gaze, that communicates meanings about respect and status and often regulates turn taking during interactions.

Participant Observation

A research method where investigators interact extensively with the cultural group being studied.

Rhetorical Approach

A research method, dating back to ancient Greece, in which scholars try to interpret the meanings or persuasion used in texts or oral discourses in the contexts in which they occur.

Majority Identity

A sense of belonging to a dominant group.

Class Identity

A sense of belonging to a group that shares similar economic, occupational, or social status.

Minority Identity

A sense of belonging to a nondominant group.

Religious Identity

A sense of belonging to a religious group.

Ethnography of Communication

A specialized area of study within communication. Taking an interpretive perspective, scholars analyze verbal and non-verbal activities that have symbolic significance for the members of cultural groups to understand the rules and patterns followed by the groups.

Model Minority

A stereotype that characterizes all Asians and Asian Americans as hardworking and serious and so a "good" minority.

Functionalist Approach

A study of intercultural communication, all call the social science approach, based on the assumptions that 1. there is a describable, external reality, 2. human behaviours are predictable, and 3. culture is a variable that can be measured. This approach aims to identify and explain cultural variations in communication and to predict future communication.

High-context Communication

A style of communication in which much of the information is contained in the contexts and nonverbal cues rather than expressed explicitly in words.

Low-context Communication

A style of communication in which much of the information is conveyed in words rather than in nonverbal cues and contexts.

Communication

A symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired, and transformed.

Ethnocentrism

A tendency to think that our own culture is superior to other cultures.

Global Village

A term coined by Marshall McLuhan in the 1960s that refers to a world in which communication technology unites people in remote parts of the world.

Emic

A term stemming from phonemic. The emic way of inquiry focuses on understanding communication patterns from inside a particular cultural community or context.

Etic

A term stemming from phonemic. The emic way of inquiry focuses on understanding communication patterns from inside a particular cultural community or context.

Identity Negotiation Theory

A theory that emphasizes the process of communicating one's own desired identities while reinforcing or resisting others' identities as the core of intercultural communication.

Interpretive Approach

An approach to intercultural communication that aims to understand and describe human behaviour within specific cultural groups based on the assumptions that 1. human experience is subjective, 2. human behaviour is creative rather than determined or easily predicted, and 3. culture is created and maintained through communication.

Dialectical Approach

An approach to intercultural communication that integrates three approaches - functionalist (or social science), interpretive, and critical - in understanding culture and communication. It recognizes and accepts that the three approaches are interconnected and sometimes contradictory.

Prejudice

An attitude (usually negative) toward a cultural group based on little or no evidence.

Hybrid Identity

An identity that is consciously a mixture of different cultural identities and cultural traditions.

Postcolonialism

An intellectual, political, and cultural movement that calls for the independence of colonialized states and also liberation from colonialist ways of thinking.

Monochronic

An orientation to time that assumes it is linear and is a commodity that can be lost or gained.

Afrocentricity

An orientation toward African or African American cultural standards, including beliefs and values, as the criteria for interpreting behaviours and attitudes.

Maquiladoras

Assembly plants or factories (mainly of U.S. companies) established on the U.S.-Mexican border and using mainly Mexican labor.

Multinational Corporations

Companies that have operations in two or more nations.

Paradigm: Critical

Critical methodologies analyze the large power structures that guide everyday life. Understanding this approach helps students to grasp the invisible forces that alter our lives.

Noncontact Cultures

Cultural groups in which people tend to maintain more space and touch less often than people do in contact cultures. For instance, Great Britain and Japan tend to have noncontact cultures.

Contact Cultures

Cultural groups in which people tend to stand close together and touch frequently when they interact - for example, cultural groups in South America, the Middle East, and Southern Europe.

Dialogical Approach

Focuses on the importance of dialogue in developing and maintaining relationships between individuals and communities.

Transgender

Identification with a gender that does not match one's biological gender.

Regional Identity

Identification with a specific geographic region of a nation.

Spiritual Identity

Identification with feelings of connectedness to others and higher meanings in life.

Racial Identity

Identifying with a particular racial group. Although in the past racial groups were classified on the basis of biological characteristics, most scientists now recognize that race is constructed in fluid social and historical contexts.

Familial Identity

The sense of self as always connected to family and others.

Culture Brokers

Individuals who act as bridges between cultures, facilitating cross-cultural interaction and conflict.

Interdisciplinary

Integrating knowledge from different disciplines in conducting research and constructing theory.

Individualized Identity

The sense of self as independent and self-reliant.

Paradigm: Interpretive

Interpretive approaches emphasize using language to describe human behaviour. Understanding interpretive approaches is important to understanding how news is reported, how information is transferred, and how most people make decisions.

Minority Identity: Stage 1: Unexamined Identity

Lack of exploration of identity. Individuals at this stage may simply lack interest in the identity issue. Or minority group members may initially accept values and attitudes of the majority culture, expressing positive attitudes toward the dominant group and negative views of their own group.

Minority Identity: Stage 1: Unexamined Identity

Lack of exploration of identity. Individuals may lack interest in the identity issue. Or minority group members may initially accept values and attitudes of the majority culture, expressing positive attitudes toward the dominant group and negative views of their own group.

Culture

Learned pattern of behaviour and attitudes shared by a group of people.

Minority Identity: Stage 3: Resistance and Separatism

Many kinds of events can trigger the move to the third stage, including negative ones such as encountering discrimination or name-calling. A period of dissonance, or a growing awareness that not all dominant group values are beneficial to minorities, may also precede this stage. Sometimes the move to this phase happens because individuals who have been denying their identity meet someone from that group who exhibits a strong identity. This encounter may result in a concern to clarify their own identity. This stage may be characterized by a blanket endorsement of one's group and all the values and attitudes attributed to the group. At the same time, the person may reject the values and norms associated with the dominant group.

Relational Messages

Messages (verbal and nonverbal) that communicate how we feel about others.

National Identity

National citizenship.

Co-cultural Groups

Nondominant cultural groups that exist in a national culture, such as African American, or Chinese American.

Processual

Refers to how interaction happens rather than to the outcome.

Qualitative Methods

Research methods that attempt to capture people's own meanings for their everyday behaviour in specific contexts. These methods use participant observation and field studies.

Quantitative Methods

Research methods that use numerical indicators to capture and ascertain the relationships among variables. These methods use survey and observation.

Face Negotiation Theory

Th view that cultural groups vary in preferences for conflict styles and face-saving strategies.

Voice Qualities

The "music" of the human voice, including speed, pitch, rhythm, vocal range, and articulation.

Intercultural Competence

The ability to behave effectively and appropriately in interacting across cultures.

Deception

The act of making someone believe what is not true.

Distance Zones

The area, defined by physical space, within which people interact, according to Edward Hall's theory of proxemics. The four distance zones for individuals are intimate, personal, social, and public.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

The assumption that language shapes our ideas and guides our view of social reality. This hypothesis was proposed by Edward Sapir, a linguist, and his student, Benjamin Whorf, and represents the relativist view of language and perception.

Minority Identity: Stage 4: Integration

The ideal outcome of the identity development process is the final stage - an achieved identity. Individuals who have reached this stage have a strong sense of their own group identity and an appreciation of other cultural groups. They come to realize that racism and other forms of of oppression occur, but they try to redirect any anger from the previous stage in more positive ways. The end result is individuals with a confident and secure identity characterized by a desire to eliminate all forms of injustice, and not merely oppression aimed at their own group.

Age Identity

The identification with the cultural conventions of how we should act, look, and behave according to our age.

Gender Identity

The identification with the cultural notions of masculinity and femininity and what it means to be a man or a woman.

Symbolic Significance

The importance or meaning that most members of a cultural group attach to a communication activity.

Minority Identity: Stage 2: Conformity

The internalization of the values and norms of the dominant group and a strong desire to assimilate into the dominant culture. Individuals in this phase may have negative, self-deprecating attitudes towards both themselves and their group. Individuals who criticize members of their own ethnic or racial group may be given negative labels such as "Uncle Tom" or "oreo" for African Americans, "banana" for Asian Americans, "apple" for Native Americans, and "Tio Taco" for Chicanos. Such labels condemn attitudes and behaviours that support the dominant white culture. This stage often continues until they encounter a situation that causes them to question prodominant culture attitudes, which initiates the movement to the next stage.

Translation Equivalence

The linguistic sameness that is gained after translating and back-translating research materials several times using different translators.

Meta-message

The meaning of a message that tells others how they should respond to the content of our communication based on our relationship to them.

Communication Style

The meta-message that contextualizes how listeners are expected to accept and interpret verbal messages.

Cultural Space

The particular configuration of the communication that constructs meanings of various places.

Macrocontexts

The political, social, and historical situations, backgrounds, and environments that influence communication.

Avowal

The process by which an individual portrays himself or herself.

Perception

The process by which individuals select, organize, and interpret external and internal stimuli to create their view of the world.

Ascription

The process by which others attribute identities to an individual.

Language Acquisition

The process of learning language.

Social Reproduction

The process of perpetuating cultural patterns.

Status

The relative position an individual holds in social or organizational settings.

Personal Identity

Who we think we are and who others think we are.

Stereotypes

Widely held beliefs about a group of people.