A.

Analyze in your own words the most important aspects of three research approaches in
order to get an understanding on the relationship between culture and communication.
B. What are the advantages of a dialectical approach to intercultural communication?
Explain shortly in your own words.
C. Choose one mode of presenting culture in class. Explain why would you choose that
mode and how it can help learners to develop a good Intercultural understanding?(You
may be based on one of the modes presented in the lecture, or you may choose any other.)

A. Analyze in your own words the most important aspects of three research approaches in
order to get an understanding on the relationship between culture and communication.

In order to study intercultural communication,three approaches are provided:

 the social science (or functionalist) approach.

 the interpretive approach.
 the critical approach.

The social science approach is mostly based on researches made in the fields of psychology and
sociology. The ones who studied this approach believed that human behavior is predictable and
so we can study or describe human behavior. In the same way reserarches believe that culture
can be measured and in order to do that they gathered different data from questionnaires or
observing subjects. Since culture is one of the most important factors which influence on
communication in this way by studying it we can also discover and describe the connection
between culture and communication.

The interpretive approach also focuses on human behavior but within specific cultural groups
based on some assumptions that human experiences are subjective and human behavior rather
than predictable its creative and also that culture is created and also maintained by the process of
communication

Critical approach is another approach of intercultural communication that uses a lot of

interpretive approach assumptions but rather focusing on small contexts or situations it focuses
on political,social and historical situations,environments or backgrounds.
B. What are the advantages of a dialectical approach to intercultural communication?
Explain shortly in your own words.

Dialectical approach is an important approach to intercultural communication that accepts and

combines all of the three approaches of social science, interpretive, and critical in order to
understand both culture and communication. It is very important because it emphasizes the
processual, relational, and contradictory nature of intercultural communication, which covers
many different kinds of intercultural knowledge.

We know that the same as individual change the same happens with culture and this best
explains the processual nature of intercultural communication. Also, there are different aspects of
intercultural communication related to each other which should not be seen or studied in separate
ways but integrated with each other and this describes the relational nature and last,although
ideas can be so different and contradictive with each other it is important to accept and hold them
because cultural differences might offer us different world views which can really help in
predicting intercultural conflicts.

The dialectical approach it doesn’t only combines the three traditional approaches (social
science, interpretive, and critical) but also suggests four components to consider in understanding
intercultural communication: culture, communication, context, and power.

C. Choose one mode of presenting culture in class. Explain why would you choose that
mode and how it can help learners to develop a good Intercultural understanding?(You
may be based on one of the modes presented in the lecture, or you may choose any other.)

If I would choose between one of the modes to present culture in my class I would choose the
culture capsule which is a brief description of some aspect of the target language culture such as
for example post elementary education of another culture but also topics of different aspects such
as marriage customs, etc followed by, or incorporated with contrasting information from the
students' native language culture. After summarizing, I would tell them to point out the contrasts
or differences of these aspects between their native language culture and the foreign one. All of
that would lead to a very productive discussion about differences between cultures. Maybe I
would also use some visual information, such as handouts or pictures, supporting the lecture.

I believe this is actually a very good and useful mode of presenting culture in class by involving
students in an activity which provides intellectual knowledge about the cultural aspects being
explained and also reflecting about their own culture.

Worked by: Elsa Hasanas