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Communication Education
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ERIC report: Communication across

cultures
William Work

Director, Speech Communication Module , ERIC/RCS ,

Published online: 18 May 2009.

To cite this article: William Work (1981) ERIC report: Communication across cultures,
Communication Education, 30:2, 184-191, DOI: 10.1080/03634528109378468
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03634528109378468

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WILLIAM

WORK,
DIRECTOR

ERIC
REPORT
ERIC/RCS

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COMMUNICATION ACROSS
CULTURES
In one sense, all communication (except, perhaps, "intrapersonal communication") is crosscultural communication.
Each human being is a unique culture of
one; each takes his or her cultural
biases into transactions with others.
The Random House Dictionary defines culture as "the sum total of ways
of living built up by a group of human
beings and transmitted from one generation to the next." We often identify
cultures with national boundaries and
with the predominant language of the
people. In North America there is the
Spanish-language culture of Mexico, the
English-language culture of the United
States, and the French-speaking and
English-speaking cultures of Canada.
To suggest that there is a single culture in the United States is, of course,
a gross oversimplification. America
has many subcultures: Native American, Afro-American, Hispanic-American,
Italian-American, and so on. Cultures
are not defined only by national origin
or ethnicity. In our country, there are
cultures of poverty and affluence and
there is a so-called middle-class culture;
there are rural and urban cultures; New
England and Southern cultures; male
and female cultures; teen-age and seniorcitizen cultures; gay and straight cultures; Democrat and Republican
cultures; and so on.
It is an axiom in crosscultural communication situations that the greater
the cultural differences between communicators the more difficult it is to

SPEECH
COMMUNICATION
ASSOCIATION MODULE

achieve a meeting of minds. Thus, two

Caucasian seventeen-year-old males who
live in the same neighborhood, attend
the same school, and come from similar
family backgrounds should have relatively little difficulty in communicating with
one another. On the other hand, an
eighty-year-old Chinese farmer and a
fifteen-year-old inner-city American girl
would have considerably more difficulty
in communicating (even if they had the
benefit of an interpreter) because of the
wide gaps in their cultural heritages.
(There are, happily, certain universal
nonverbal codessuch as the smilethat
the elderly farmer and the teen-ager
could use in communicating with one
another.)
Problems related to crosscultural communication are continually brought to
our consciousness: leaders in the United
States and in revolutionary Iran have
experienced repeated impasses in their
efforts to resolve differences through
diplomatic channels; liberal Americans
and representatives of the "Moral Majority" have difficulty in sustaining a
rational dialogue; mistrust, suspicion,
and prejudice still separate many black
and white Americans; law enforcement
officers and the "drug culture" often find
it difficult to empathize with one another; and so on. A shrinking world in
which diverse cultures are frequently
brought into close contact has revealed
problems and opportunities that can be
addressed through a better understanding of crosscultural communication. In
a world that is increasingly overpopulated and whose diverse peoples
are increasingly interdependent, effective

COMMUNICATION EDUCATION, Volume 30, April 1981

Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 17:57 23 January 2015

ERIC REPORT-185

crosscultural communication has become

a survival skill.
Although crosscultural communication
has been an everyday reality since humankind's beginning, only within the
past few decades has it become an
established area for research and instruction. The purpose of this ERIC Report
is to provide a very limited sampling
of recent documents that have been
entered into the ERIC system. Only
documents indexed in the monthly
ERIC publication, Resources in Education (RIE), during 1978, 1979, 1980,
have been included. The major descriptors used in identifying articles were:
Cross-cultural Studies, Cross-cultural
Training, Cultural Differences, and
Cultural Interrelationships. No citations
from ERIC's other monthly periodical,
Current Index to Journals in Education
(CIJE), have been included. Since most
of the abstracts to follow have been
shortened, the full content of the
documents may not be revealed. The
documents have been classified, sometimes rather arbitrarily, under the following headings: Theory, Research, Instruction, and Application.
Unless otherwise noted, copies of the
documents cited can be secured in either
microfiche or photocopy from the
ERIC Document Reproduction Service
(EDRS). Ordering information and
prices appear in each issue of Resources
in Education, which is available in many
libraries. For additional information or
help in securing documents, write or
call: Speech Communication Module,
ERIC/RCS/SCA, 5105 Backlick Rd.,
Annandale, VA 22003 (703) 750-0533.

cultural Communication, 1979, 2Ip. (ED 180

003)

Because of the varied interests of the

people involved in intercultural communication, there is little argreement
over the definition of that concept. For
this reason, no theories of intercultural
communication exist; rather, the focus
of recent writings in the field has been
on a number of "sensitizing concepts"
that provide a framework for initial
understanding of communication between people from different cultures.
The major problem with the utilization
of such concepts is that they are often
discussed in isolation and are seldom
related directly to the process of communication. If the study of intercultural
communication is to develop further,
scholars in the field need to begin constructing theories.
FORMALITY AND INFORMALITY IN
SPEECH EVENTS, WORKING PAPERS
IN SOCIOLINGUISTICS, No. 52
Irvine, Judith T., Southwest Educational Development Lab., 1978, 24p. (ED 165 492)

This paper considers a distinction frequently used in sociolinguistics and

ethnography of speaking to describe
speech events: their formality or informality. Three principal meanings of
"formality" found in the literature
concern whether the formality relates to
properties of a communicative code,
properties of the social setting in which
a code is used, or properties of the
analyst's description. Four aspects of
formality that apply crossculturally are:
(1) increased structuring of speech; (2)
consistency in terms of the social sigTHEORY
nificance of variants chosen at different
CONSTRUCTING A THEORY OF
levels of communicative expression; (3)
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION:
invoking of positional identities of
THE PROMISE AND PARADOX
Gudykunst, William B., and Tsukasa Nishida, participants; and (4) emergence of a
Paper presented at the Speech Communication focus in speech interactions.
Association

Summer

Conference

on

Inter-

186-COMMUNICATION EDUCATION
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND
THE CONCEPT OF MARGINALITY

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Howell, Gladys David, Paper presented at the

Speech Communication Association Summer
Conference on Intercultural Communication,
1978, 25p. (ED 161 093)

This paper discusses the conditions

under which characteristics of raters may
influence the decoding of nonverbal
messages and describes strategies for
overcoming these problems.

The complex mosaic of cultural and INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

racial heterogeneity in America through- C O M P E T E N C E : A TRANSCULTURAL
out the twentieth century has promoted M O D E L
various sociological perspectives to Owen, William F., Paper presented at the
interpret the evolving interaction pat- Annual International Meeting of the CommuniAssociation of the Pacific, 1979, 26p.
terns and to give clues to the direction cation
(ED 177 620)
that policy decisions should take. The
major theoretical frames of reference This paper presents a critique of current
have been assimilation and cultural conceptualizations of interpersonal compluralism. The former usually has im- petence, reveals their underlying culplied Anglo conformity, with the desired tural prescriptions, and proposes a
goal of integration of minorities into transcultural model of interpersonal
communication competence designed to
the mainstream. The latter has stressed
guide the teaching of interpersonal comthe desirability of somewhat separatist
munication as well as research in that
social institutions and the retention of
area.
cultural identity by minority groups,
usually with continued use o the native RESEARCH AND THEORY IN
language (except for blacks), at least INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
within the context of primary group
Smith, Alfred G., Paper presented at the Society
interaction. Either of these processes for Intercultural Education, Training, and Recan lead a minority-group member search, 1977, 13p. (ED 143 041)
to a sociopsychological state termed This survey of the state-of-the-art of
marginality.
research and theory in the study of
intercultural communication considers
THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER:
the following areas: history of the field,
METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS
clients, basic assumptions, derivations of
WHEN OBSERVERS ASSESS NONVERBAL
the ideas in the field, research methodolCOMMUNICATION
ogy, available resources, and predictions
Woolfolk, Anita E., Paper presented at the for the future.
Annual Meeting of the American Educational
Research Association, 1979, 17p. (ED 170 374)

RESEARCH
Findings from several recent studies
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION: A
suggest that the gender, cultural backBIBLIOGRAPHY OF ERIC DOCUMENTS
ground, and age of observers may influence their perception and evaluation Erickson, Randall D., 1978, 116p. (ED 167 170)
of nonverbal communication. There is This bibliography consists of documents
ample evidence to warrant using raters in the ERIC system which deal, in total
of only one sex (preferably female) and or in part, with the topics of interonly one cultural background when the cultural communication, which is derating task involves decoding nonverbal fined as the communication of two
communication. An alternate strategy people or a group of people across culwould be to include rater gender or tural barriers either within one nation
ethnicity as an independent variable. or between members of two nations.

ERIC REPORT-187

The documents address theoretical or

practical aspects.
INTERCULTURAL VARIATION IN THE
AFFECTIVE IMPACT OF SCREEN MEDIA

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Whiting, Gordon C., Paper presented at the

Annual Meeting of the Speech Communication
Association, 1977, 31p. (ED 147 898)

This paper discusses problems and approaches in assessing intercultural variation in the affective impact of visual
aspects of screen media (film and filmstrips). As a first step in approaching the
problem, a semantic differential was
used to compare responses of Spanishspeaking and English-speaking samples.
Each group saw two films and one filmstrip, completing specially developed
semantic differential scales after each
viewing.

tionships such as marriage, close friendship, and long-term work relationships.

Because intercultural relations produce
greater instability than relationships between individuals of the same culture, it
is hypothesized that partners involved
in intercultural relationships have developed workable solutions to their
problems and/or are receiving benefits
that offset the greater costs.
NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
IN PUERTO RICO
Curt, Carmen Judith Nine, National Assessment
and Dissemination Center for Bilingual Education, 1976, 79p. (ED 159 251)

Differences between American (Anglo)

and Latin American cultures, particularly the culture of Puerto Rico, in the
area of nonverbal communication (NVC)
are examined in this work. Specific conTIME: A SIGNIFICANT VARIABLE OF.
trasts in language and kinesic patterns
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
between the two cultures are illusRESEARCH
trated in descriptions of communicative
Frye, Jerry K., Paper presented at the Annual gestures employed by Puerto Ricans in
Meeting of the Communication Association of
the following: smiling; staring and eye
the Pacific, 1979, 19p. (ED 180 048)
contact; silence versus noise; clothes;
This paper deals with the way in which
money matters; laughter and play;
human beings use time, the confrankness versus reticence; and in greetceptualization of which is a significant
ings, farewells, and interruptions.
part of the interaction of all human
beings and the study of which is par- COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION OF
ticularly significant in the analysis of JAPANESE AND AMERICANS IN THREE
intercultural communication. The cul- SPEAKING SITUATIONS
tural values of the division of time into
Satoshi, and others, Paper presented at
seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, Ishii,
the Annual Meeting of the International Commonths, years, and groups of years and munication Association, 1978, 13p. (ED 153 301)
the particular cultural orientation of The research reported in this document
behavior modified by conceptualizations was designed to discover whether the
of past, present, and future are the focal Japanese consider themselves apprehenpoints of this paper.
sive in communication situations. Seven
hundred Japanese college students and
PROBLEMS AND BENEFITS OF CLOSE
seven hundred United States students
INTERCULTURAL RELATIONSHIPS
took the Personal Report of CommuniFontaine, Gary, and Edwina Dorch, Paper pre- cation Apprehension (PRCA) test, which
sented at the Society for Intercultural Education, Training, and Research Conference, 1978, focuses on feelings about communicating
14p. (ED 171 630)
with others on a one-to-one basis, in
The research focuses on positive and small groups, and before audiences. Renegative aspects of intercultural rela- sults showed that the Japanese students

188-COMMUNICATION EDUCATION

were more apprehensive than the

United States students in all three types
of speaking situations.
"FIGHTING WORDS": BLACK AND WHITE

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Kochman, Thomas, Paper presented at the

Annual Meeting o the International Communication Association, 1979, 75p. (ED 170 803)

After describing scenes that reveal a

pattern in which whites regard the
speech behavior of blacks as threatening,
aggressive, or hostile, and in which
blacks disagree with their interpretation,
this paper explores differences between
black and white cultural assumptions,
values, and conventions of aggressive behavior to account for the different
interpretations.
CROSS-CULTURAL BROADCASTING

Contreras, Edwardo, and others, United Nations

Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, 1976, 47p. (ED 144 552)

New broadcasting technologies have increased the possibility of distributing

radio and television programs over extensive areas encompassing different
countries and peoples of different cultures and languages. This development
raises problems of program content and
format as well as legal and political
questions relating to transnational information flow. This research review
attempts to discover existing empirical
findings concerning four effects of
crosscultural broadcasting: cultural, linguistic, psychological, and political.
T H E ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ON
CROSS-CULTURAL PROBLEMS IN
EDUCATION. VOLUME II

Grove, Cornelius Lee, NY ERIC Clearinghouse

on the Urban Disadvantaged, 1979, 74p. (ED
169 191)

This bibliography reveals a wide range

of educational literature dealing with
those problems in human interaction
that stem from differences in cultural
background, and, in particular, focuses
on the literature relating crosscultural

differences to the process of education

in formal settings. In this, the second
volume, literature published in books
(including pamphlet-like items) is cited
and annotated.
INSTRUCTION
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION:
TEACHING STRATEGIES, RESOURCES,
AND MATERIALS

Asuncion-Lande, Nobleza C, Paper presented at

the Annual Meeting of the Speech Communication Association, 1977, 25p. (ED 153 273)
Education about intercultural communication can greatly increase understanding between cultures, whether they be
minority groups within the United
States or peoples of separate nations.
This document is intended as a reference
guide for designing and teaching a basic
intercultural communication course.
T H E U.S. INFORMATION AGENCY'S
TENTH ANNUAL INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATION COURSE SYLLABUS

Prosser, Michael H., 1977, 18p. (ED 144 155)

This syllabus outlines the daily schedule
for a six-week course in intercultural
communication, describes topics covered
in class, and lists required reading selections. Course topics, presented by the
instructor and by guest lectures, include
basic concepts and models of intercultural communication, public diplomacy, design and conduct of field
research, culture and communication,
Eastern and Western value systems, the
importance of public opinion in the
conduct of foreign policy, and the mass
media.
GETTING THE MESSAGE ACROSS:
NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
IN THE CLASSROOM

Levy, Jack, 1979, 24p. (ED 173 477)

This handbook presents selected theories, activities, and resources which can
be utilized by educators in the area of

ERIC REPORT-I89

nonverbal communication. Particular

attention is given to the use of nonverbal
communication in a crosscultural context. Categories of nonverbal communication such as proxemics, haptics,
kinesics, smiling, sound, clothing, and
laughter/play are outlined.

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COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR

ELEMENTARY TEACHERS-STAFF: A
PROGRAM MODEL FOR MULTICULTURAL
EMPHASIS AND CASE PRESENTATION
Curtis, Willie M. J., and Clifford T. Bennett,
1979, 15. (ED 175 964)

The communication problems that can

occur in teaching and learning are
magnified and made more complicated
in the case of a multiethnic classroom.
This paper identifies the purely crosscultural and linguistic factors that affect
communication in this teaching-learning
situation and illustrates them with
specific examples from school settings
containing large percentages of Chinese,
Filipino, and Hispanic populations.
HAWAIIAN NONVERBAL
COMMUNICATION: TWO CLASSROOM
APPLICATIONS

This paper reports on a workshop which

was designed to (1) help participants Anthony, Alberta Pualani, Paper presented at
the National Association of Asian American and
learn and/or enhance specific skills re- Pacific
Education Conference, 1979, 10p. (ED
lated to effective interpersonal communi- 179 621)
cation; (2) provide opportunities for Although there are only about two thouparticipants to examine their personal sand active speakers of the Hawaiian lanstyles of interacting/teaching, give and guage, there exists a coherent system of
receive feedback, identify areas in need nonverbal behavior which can be identiof change, and work toward behavioral fied as Hawaiian and which contrasts
change; and (3) explore issues specific sharply with middle-class-white American
to multicultural communication.
behavior. Teachers of Hawaiian children
should be aware of this in order to avoid
SAME BUT DIFFERENT: AN
potential misunderstandings in the classINTERCULTURAL TRAINING
room.
The major barrier encountered
WORKSHOP MANUAL
by Hawaiian children in their daily
Ching, Judith, and others, 1976, 222p. (ED 146
school lives is the failure of the educa241)
This manual is a product of the Inter- tional establishment to recognize the
cultural Training Program (ICT) Work- validity of those aspects of nonverbal
shops which were originally designed to communication which conflict with
provide experiential training to Hawaii's Western expectations and values.
teachers, students, and administrators. ETHICS AND INTERCULTURAL
The training, however, may be useful COMMUNICATION EDUCATION
to anyone interested in acquiring the
Barna, LaRay M., Paper presented at the
experience and knowledge necessary to Annual
Conference of the Society for Intercommunicate effectively with varied cultural Education, Training, and Research,
cultural groups. The ICT combines the 1979, 14p. (ED 175 788)
characteristics of culture-general and The examination of ethical implications
culture-specific training.
as part of intercultural communication
courses and the responsibility of the
CULTURAL NORMS AND CLASSROOM
instructor of these courses are discussed.
DISCOURSE: COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS
Two questions are considered: Should
IN THE MULTIETHNIC SCHOOL SETTING
ethics as a topic be included in courses
Matluck, Joseph H., Paper presented at a meet- in intercultural communication? What
ing of the American Educational Research Assocommon problems in intercultural comciation, 1978, 16p. (ED 154 609)

190-COMMUNICATION EDUCATION

munication education could be in

violation of ethical principles?
APPLICATION
USIA INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

LITERACY AS INTERETHNIC
COMMUNICATION: AN ATHABASKAN
CASE. WORKING PAPERS IN
SOCIOLINGUISTICS, No- 59

Scollon, Ron, and Suzanne B. K. Scollon, 1979,

30p. (ED 175 276)
Prosser, Michael H., International Communica- English-language essayist literacy shares
tion Agency, 1978, 384p. (ED 163 545)
many features with the discourse
This report contains the proceedings patterns of English-language speakers.
of a six-week course designed to help Where these patterns are different from
Foreign Service information officers and those of another ethnic group, literacy
domestic employees understand and will be experienced as interethnic
follow the principles that are most effec- communication. Athabaskan discourse
tive in communicating across cultural differs from that of English in (1)
presentation of self (an Athabaskan is
barriers and national boundaries.
silent with new acquaintances); (2)
dominance and display (in Athabaskan
ISSUES IN CROSS-CULTURAL TRAINING
Kohls, Robert, Paper presented at the Annual culture, silence is submissive, talk
Speech Communication Association Summer dominant); (3) projection of self-image
Conference on Intercultural Communication, (Athabaskan courtesy prohibits speaking
1978, 21p. (ED 163 524)
well of one's self); and (4) closing
Among the characteristics of training formulas (Athabaskan has none). These
(such as crosscultural training) that dif- differences result in mutual ethnic
ferentiate it from traditional classroom stereotyping. To an Athabaskan, acquireducation are its attention to how adults ing English-essayist literacy is to become
learn, preference for the experiential ap- smug, boastful, talkative, and arrogant.
proach, emphasis on "learning how to
learn," and tailoring to meet individual CROSSCULTURAL ISSUES IN THE
needs.
PROCESS OF SENDING U.S. EMPLOYEES

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COURSE: 1977 PROCEEDINGS

PERSPECTIVES ON EXPERIENTIAL
LEARNING IN INTERCULTURAL
COMMUNICATION

OF MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS FOR

OVERSEAS SERVICE: THEORETICAL
CONSIDERATIONS WITH PRACTICAL
IMPLICATIONS

Asuncion-Lande, Nobleza C., Paper presented

at the Annual International Meeting of the
Communication Association of the Pacific, 1978,
10p. (ED 163 528)

Griffis, Betty Ann, Paper presented at the

Annual Meeting of the Speech Communication
Association, 1979, 54p. (ED 177 655)

Experiential learning techniques, widely

used in the United States in the field
of intercultural communication, can be
modified for use by individuals from
other cultures. The experiential learning approach involves the use of exercises
that parallel real-life situations, involve
all participants, require active participation, provide instant feedback, and
are flexible. The approach works
primarily on the affective level and is
based on enabling individuals to learn
how to learn.

Defining the multinational corporation

as a producing enterprise motivated by
profit and owning or controlling
facilities in more than one country, this
paper analyzes the process employed by
United States multinationals in sending
parent-country nationals abroad for
service in a subsidiary. It examines the
process in its fullest form by citing practical and theoretical viewpoints in
current literature and explores the
actual practices, according to this
process, used by multinationals.

ERIC REPORT-19I

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READING BETWEEN THE LINES:

LANGUAGE INDICATORS PROJECT,
INTERIM RESEARCH SUMMARY

Tyler, V. Lynn, and James S. Taylor, Eyring

Research Institute, 1978, 426p. (ED 175 254)
This progress report describes the ongoing development of a system to help
Americans, especially those who have
dealings abroad, to interpret accurately
the meaning of messages originating in
cultures other than their own. T h e
report concludes with an extensive list
of resources for message processors, including an annotated bibliography.
CULTURES IN CONFLICT: ARAB STUDENTS
IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES

Helms, Anne, Paper presented at Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Anthropological Association, 1978, 12p. (ED 157 851)

Cultural differences between Arabs arid

Americans may cause misunderstandings
when Arab students come to study in
American universities. As part of the
author's plan to write a guidebook for
Arab students who are new to American
university life, this paper presents
preliminary analyses of differences in the
two cultures. The author hopes her research will eliminate miscommunication
and conflict by clarifying the differences
in how the two cultures handle conflict,
make apologies, and express anger and
sympathy.

BEYOND EXPERIENCE: THE

EXPERIENTIAL APPROACH TO
CROSS-CULTURAL EDUCATION

Batchelder, Donald, and Elizabeth G. Warner,

1977, 152p. (ED 150 038)

The book presents teaching techniques

and learning exercises developed by the
Experiment in International Living
(EIL) for use in programs of cultural
awareness and intercultural communications. The EIL, located in Vermont and
involved in international cultural exchange since 1932, has arranged student
exchanges, has trained Peace Corps
volunteers, and has instituted graduate
and foreign-language programs.
Experts disagree on whether the peoples
of the world are gradually coalescing
into a single, "homogenized" culture.
Advances in travel and telecommunications, and the use of English as the
world's common language, have made
such speculations plausible. At the same
time, nationalism and cultural ethnocentrism continue as strong, living forces
within world society. It is conceivable
that the day may come when the need
to understand crosscultural communication has passed, but it is an unlikely
prospect for the foreseeable future.

The voice of the majority

is no proof of justice.

SchlUcr.