Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Communication
Using English
in Multilingual Contexts
By Marilu Rañosa Madrunio
Prepared by:
Isabel Pefianco Martin
Mrs. Via Huiso-Alberto,LPT
Liberal Arts and Education Department
In order to develop skills as communicators, we must gain practical
knowledge of the factors that make communication across cultures succeed or
fail. According to experts in the field,some of those factors or issues include:
1. Cultural identity
2. Racial identity
3. Ethnic identity
4. Gender roles
5. Individual personalities
6. Social class
7. Age identity
8. Role identity
1. Cultural Identity
Culture can be defined as
the values, attitudes, and ways of
doing things that a person brings
with him from the particular place
where he was brought up as a
child.
2. Racial Identity
Racial identity refers to how one's membership to a particular race
affects how one interacts with co-workers of different races.
3. Ethnic Identity
Ethnic identity highlights the role ethnicity play in how two co-workers
from different cultures interact with one another.
So, what is the difference between race and ethnicity? According to
some experts “While race and ethnicity share an ideology of common
ancestry, they differ in several ways. First of all, race is primarily unitary. You
can only have one race, while you can claim multiple ethnic affiliations. You
can identify ethnically as Irish and Polish, but you have to be essentially
either black or white.”
4. Gender Roles
This means that communication between members of different cultures
is affected by how different societies view the roles of men and women.
For example, Women in the Philippines are graceful, lovely, and tolerant.
They want some rights as men possessed.
5. Individual Identity
This means that how a person communicates with others from other
cultures depends on his own unique personality traits and how he esteem
himself.
6. Social Class
The social identity factor refers to the level of society that a person was
born into or references when determining who she wants to be and how she
will act accordingly.
7. Age Identity
The age identity factor refers to how members of different age groups
interact with one another. This might be thought of in terms of the “generation
gap”.
8. The Roles Identity
The roles identity factor refers to the different roles a person plays in
his or her life including their roles as a husband or wife, father, mother or
child, employer or employee, and so forth. How two members from a
workforce from two different cultures view these various roles influences how
they will interact with their colleague or counterpart. (Source: Internet)
Catherine Skrzypinski (2012) enumerates and discusses global issues that may
affect communication.
1. The Issue of Face to face Communication
2. The Issue on Social Network
3. The Issue on Culturally Competent Workers
Communication as well as technology have impacts on society. People use
technology to communicate with each other.
Electronic media like radios, televisions, internet, social media have
improved the way we exchange ideas which can develop our societies.
Technologies have improved education and learning process. Many schools
have started integrating eductional technologies in their schools with great
aim of improving the way students learn.
Technologies like smart whiteboards, computers, mobile phones, iPad,
projectors and internet are being used in classrooms to boost students moral
to learn.
Visual education is becoming more popular and it has proved to be the best
method of learning in many subjects like mathematics, physics, biology,
geography, econmics and much more.
The business community has invested money in various educational
technologies which can be used by both teachers and their students. For
example, on iTunes, you will find many educational applications which can
allow students and teachers exchange academic information at any time, this
has made learning mobile.
Programs like long distance learning or open university system have opened
boundaries to so many scholars around the world.
Communication is now possible with the help of wireless technology. In
fact, wireless technology is the fastest and best form of technology that we
could have ever asked for.
The wireless communication and technology have changed the world in the
following ways:
1. Impact on Healthcare
2. Impact on Aids of Catastrophic Events
3. Impact on Environmental Protection
4. Impact on News Reporting
The diversity of people and culture impacts
communication. Communicating with
people coming from unfamiliar cultures
poses challenges.
The success of intercultural communication
does not depend on language skills alone,
but on openess and sensitivity to cultural
diversity, as well as on a genuine desire to
understand and be understood.
How then do we approach intercultural
communication?
Before reading the text, below are the meanings of the following words and
phrases that are used in the selection.
Take for granted
-to accept without question or objection; assume:
Cultural biases
-the tendency for people to judge the outside world through a narrow view
based on their own culture.
Domestic workforce
-the people engaged in or available for work, either in a country or area or in a
particular company or industry relating to the running of a home or to family
relations.
(1) Communicating across cultures is challenging. Each culture has set rules
that its members take for granted. Few of us are aware of our own cultural
biases because cultural imprinting is begun at a very early age. And while some
of a culture's knowledge, rules, beliefs, values, phobias, and anxieties are taught
explicitly, most of the information is absorbed subconsciously.
(2) The challenge for multinational communication has never been greater.
Worldwide business organizations have discovered that intercultural
communication is a subject of importance—not just because of increased
globalization, but also because their domestic workforce is growing more and
more diverse, ethnically and culturally.
(3) We are all individuals, and no two people belonging
to the same culture are guaranteed to respond in exactly
the same way. However, generalizations are valid to the
extent that they provide clues on what you will most
likely encounter when dealing with members of a
particular culture.