Language and Intercultural Communication

P.Y. Tsikata

Smoothing the Path From Foreign Lips to American Ears, New York Times

Language • It is tied to our identities • Related to the groups we belong to

and our social place in society • Communication is much more than

language (invoke the Bakhtins dialogic communication and Bubers I and Thou concepts). Are people being talked at or talked to? Are people reduced to the accent of their sound bites, etc.?

• Problematize the New York piece on language of TAs.

TAs Taking English Lessons

Perspectives

Social Science • Focuses on individual

aspects of language use: components of language, language perception and thought, and the way cultural groups use language

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dABo_DCIdpM

Components of Language • Semantics – how individual

words communicate words we intend

• Syntactics: the structure/grammar

• Pragmatics: how meaning is constructed in relation to receivers (contextual usage)

• Phonetics: sound system of language

Social Science Perspective Con…

Language and Perception • Nominalist: perception is not shaped by

language, language is “outer form of thought.”

• Relativist: language is not simply an instrument for voicing ideas, “it guides the individual’s mental activity.”

• Do we all inhabit the same perceptual world? (examples of “ghost” and seeing snow for the first time as a graduate student in England.”

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmsYJDP8g2U

• Qualified Relativist: Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Research Findings • Language acquisition in children.

Does language precede thought? Do children think? Language and thought are closely related.

• Cross-cultural differences in language: Russians have two words for shades of blue – goluboy and siniy – but English has just blue. Use of counterfactuals in English, but absent in Chinese etc.

• Children who are deaf: children who knew words easily located cards in boxes than those without.

Social Science Perspective

Language and Thought • Words out of their

conventional meaning to express similar concept. (some are universal, others local, underscoring relativism).

• Can you imagine what might results in a hospital environment when communication go awry?

Cultural Variation in Communication Style

• The particular words we use predispose to think in particular ways not in others – formal and nonformal ways of speaking, as in the example of tu by the French, etc.

Interpretive Perspective on Language

Nuances in interpretation • High- versus low-context (nonverbal

and verbal usages respectively). Which of these context is prevalent in the US?

• Direct Versus Indirect Style: speakers are explicit, as in low cultures as opposed to implicit as in high cultures.

• Elaborate Versus Understated: the use of rich expressive language in everyday talk, opposed to succinct, simple assertions and silence.

• With these differences, imagine what happens in international negotiations…

Variations in Contextual Rules • Dialectical approach reminds us style

varies from context to context (Dr. Winsome).

• Family, classroom, and work as context.

• Power dynamics in classroom settings varies from context to context, e.g. Ghana and the US (subject centered, student-centered, and teacher- centered examples).

• The case of John Smith from Portland and Li Wenshu from Beijing

• Normative speakers in the world are increasing faster than native speakers

Critical Perspective on Language

Co-Cultural Communication • Dominant groups – white, men,

heterosexual – formulate a communication system within which minorities must operate.

• Results: assimilation, accommodation, or separation in relation to the dominant group – nonassertive, assertive, and aggressive

• Strategy depends on perceived outcome – cost and benefit analysis

Discourse and Social Structure

• Differences in social positions are central to intercultural communication.

• Power is central to social position: a judge in court and the ordinary man in the street talking about “free speech.”

Critical Perspective con..

Power effects of labels• Male and female, Canadian and

New Englander; indicating sexuality and nationality respectively. One St. Patrick’s day, an Irish American might feel more Irish, etc.

• Labels can invoke hostility or friendliness – “friend,” “partner,” as opposed to “nigger” or “white trash.”

• Social positioning of speaker and listener might mute hostilities or invoke them.

Fluidity of Labels• Identify some labels and

how you adjust your behaviors in accordance with them…..