[Banda] 1

Noel B. Banda

MAELT

MELT 205 (Cross Cultural Communication)

May 09, 2021

INTERCULTURAL (COMMUNICATION) COMPETENCE

A Written Report

Introduction:

This written report material draws its content from the different reputable

sources essential in relation to intercultural communication contexts. This covers

areas on the definition of Intercultural Communication and or Competence,

Disciplines for Intercultural Competence, and Intercultural Competence

Assessment’ (INCA). All these aims to develop intercultural competence, which is

defined as the ability to interact effectively across cultures. The development of

this skill plays a vital role in getting learners to be sensitive to and to understand

others, showing right and relevant practices and discourses as they interact

people of different cultures. Furthermore, this will provide meaningful

understanding and benefits on breaking down cross-cultural barriers on the

pursuit of promoting intercultural understanding and sensitivity.

Intercultural Communication/Competence

Intercultural communication is a necessary part of today’s world, whether

in business, school, or everyday life. It is essential as being a part of the growing

global community and knowing how to communicate cross-culturally is a skill an

individual must have to succeed. As defined, Intercultural communication is the

 [Banda] 2

ability to interact and function effectively across cultures, and with those from

other cultures. It happens when individuals interact, negotiate, and create

meanings while bringing in their varied cultural backgrounds (Ting-Toomey,

1999). For some scholars, intercultural communication pertains to

communication among people from different nationalities (Gudykunst, 2003). It

also yields beyond the typical types of communication such as verbal and

nonverbal. It delves on the broader exchange of ideas, beliefs, values, and

views. Furthermore, others look at intercultural communication as

communication that is influenced by different ethnicities, religions, and sexual

orientations.

Both interpretations show that intercultural communication takes place

when people draw from their cultural identity to understand values, prejudices,

language, attitudes, and relationships (Gudykunst& Kim, 2003). ‘Learners cannot

simply shake off their own cultural baggage, for their culture is a part of

themselves, has formed them and created them as social beings’ (Byram and

Morgan, 1994). Moreover, this facet of communication can also be seen as a

bargained understanding of human experiences across diverse societies. Simply

put, intercultural communication is the sending and receiving of messages across

languages and cultures. Sometimes, intercultural communication can flow

smoothly and become very interesting for a cross-cultural group. However, things

may not go as planned when communication is disrupted by intercultural

collisions. When you speak, your speech is continuously accompanied by

gestures, facial expressions, and other body movements that add to what you
 [Banda] 3

are saying in different ways. For example, nodding means “yes” in the Indian

subcontinent, Iran, most of Europe, Latin America, and North America. However,

in Greece, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Albania,

nodding indicates disagreement. Moreover, in the case of Japanese culture,

silence as a form of communication is more integrated in their customs than in

Western languages. It is therefore important for you to acknowledge and

understand the many communication patterns present in other cultures. These

cultural patterns impact how people speak, write, and act in all essential aspects

of communication and that being aware of one’s own cultural biases, and others’

biases goes a long way in being able to effectively communicate with anyone.

Applying and Managing Intercultural Communication.

Intercultural communication skills must be applied when you are in an

intercultural exchange. Hence, it is a pre-requisite element to educate oneself on

some common faux-pax of that specific culture as every culture has their own

gestures and ways of speaking. For example, a hi-gesture may not be the

appropriate way of greeting in every culture. Similarly, Spanish speakers find that

specific words can have either neutral or negative meanings depending on the

country they are in. Additionally, when entering in an intercultural communication

exchange, there may be an expectation on both sides for the other party to adapt

to the others’ cultures that sometimes triggers miscommunication or

misunderstanding.

A way to mend this interference is by listening carefully and checking your

understanding regularly before and throughout the conversation. In instances,

 [Banda] 4

that the receiver of the message isn’t able to articulate back on the middle of

discourse, asking for clarifications is better to plainly stitch misunderstandings.

Accordingly, consistent reflection on the previous intercultural exchanges

of one’s own experiences or the one’s you simply observed would help in

adjusting future communication respectively, thereby helping to foster

intercultural understanding and competence.

The Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS)

The Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) offers a

structure that explores how people experience cultural differences. Bennett and

Bennett (2004), identified its six stages namely:

Figure 1: Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS )

 [Banda] 5

Disciplines for Intercultural Competence

Communication across cultures can be a challenge, especially if

the speaker is not accustomed to working with people from other cultures. First,

in order to effectively communicate with people of other cultures, there is a

fundamental aspect one must be aware of which is understanding differences.

Different cultures have different standards, expectations, and norms. It is realized

that those differences shape individuals in some ways but they are not bound by

those ways. By default, they automatically feel something different when they

interact with someone from an unfamiliar culture, or one that is starkly different

than our own.

Subsequently, this concept is crippled by the idea that as you begin to

recognize and understand cultural differences and the more you interact with

people of other cultures, the more competent you become and the more complex
 [Banda] 6

your ideas of culture become as well. Therefore, the more sensitive you will be

each time you communicate interculturally.

Furthermore, below is a table pointing on the Disciplines for Intercultural

Competence pointing on the necessary approaches to the different intercultural

statements and or competencies.

Table 1: Disciplines for Intercultural Competence

STATEMENT SUMMARY
1. Respond to people according

to how you find them rather

than according to what you

have heard about them. Seek a deeper understanding of

2. Avoid easy answers about how individual people’s identity by:

people are. Bracket – put aside a. Avoiding preconceptions

simplistic notions about what is

‘real or unreal’ in your

perception of another culture.

3. Appreciate that every society is

as complex and culturally b. Appreciating complexity

varied as your own.

4. Learn to build up thick

descriptions of what happens

c. Not overgeneralizing from
between you and others – to
individual sentences.
work out how to communicate

as you go along.
5. While respecting whatever d. Achieve this by employing
 [Banda] 7

people say about their own

culture, take what they say as

evidence of what they wish to

protect rather than as bracketing to put aside your

information about where they preconceptions, thick

come from. description to enable you to

6. Take what people say about see complexity, and an

their own culture, as a personal appreciation of emergent data

observation which should not to signal the unexpected.

be generalized to other people

who come from the same

background.
7. Understand how people are

creating and indeed negotiating

their cultural identity in the very

process of communicating with

us.
8. Appreciate that you are

creating and negotiating your

own cultural identity in the

process of communicating with

others.
9. Appreciate that the creation

and negotiation of cultural and

personal identity are the same

 [Banda] 8

thing.

The INCA Project

A way to foster intercultural communication and competence, ‘Intercultural

Competence Assessment’ (INCA) has been founded to arose out of the need to

provide a suitable framework to assess the cultural skills. It stipulates the

desirable qualities needed to interact effectively when working to people of

different cultural backgrounds.

The six characteristics of intercultural competence required for leaders are

simplified by linking them with three strands of competence: openness includes

respect for otherness and tolerance of ambiguity; knowledge includes behavioral

flexibility and communicative awareness; adaptability includes empathy towards

other cultures and knowledge discovery.

The desirable qualities are as follows:

 tolerance of ambiguity: coping positively with the unexpected and

the unfamiliar;

 behavioral flexibility: the ability to adapt the way you work with

others in order to avoid procedural conflicts;

 communicative awareness: the ways in which misunderstandings

may occur due to cultural differences in speech and body language:

 knowledge discovery: a willingness to research and learn from

intercultural encounters;

 respect for otherness: regard for values, customs and practices of

other cultures;
 [Banda] 9

 empathy towards other cultures: the ability to understand other

people’s thoughts and feelings; to see and feel a situation through

their eyes.

REFERENCES:

Bennett, M. J. (2004). Becoming interculturally competent. In Wurzel, J. (Ed.),

Toward multiculturalism: A reader in multicultural education (2nd ed., pp.

62-77). Newton, MA: Intercultural Resource Corporation.

Byram, M., & Morgan, C. (1994). Teaching and learning language and culture.

Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Gudykunst, W. B. (2003). Cross-Cultural Communication. Thousand Oaks,

California 91320: Sage Publications, Inc.

Holliday, A., Hyde, M., & Kullman, J. (2004). Inter-Cultural Communication, An

Advance Resource Book. Taylor & Francis e-Library.

Hurn, B. J., & Tomalin Barry. (2013). Cross-Cultural Communication. New York,

NY 10010.: PALGRAVE MACMILLAN.

Ting‐Toomey, S. (1999). Ethnic identity and close friendship among Chinese‐

American students. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 5: 383–

406.
 [Banda] 10

INTERCULTURAL (COMMUNICATION) COMPETENCE

A Lesson Guide

BIASES AND PREJUDICES IN EVERYDAY LIFE

Lesson
(MELC-Based Lesson)
Time 2-hour session
Level Grade 9
Cross-cultural Concept Intercultural (Communication) Competence
 [Banda] 11

Integrated
 They will learn dynamically the different issues

in the society and its colorful and

contextualized examples, particularly the

Assumed Background distinct differences between biases and

Knowledge prejudices in everyday life.

 They will unravel the relativity of prejudices and

biases across other countries with different

cultures thereby instilling cultural sensitivity.

a) Identify the unifying ideas of biases and

prejudices.
Intended Learning
b) Differentiate biases from prejudices.
Outcomes
c) Express ways in avoiding the tendencies of

biases and prejudices in everyday life.

rd
3 Quarter Learning Activity Sheets
Learning Resources
(LAS) in Grade 9
Lesson Presentation I. PRELIMINARY ACTIVITIES

 Prayer

 Energizer

 Checking of Attendance

 House Rules

 Review of the Previous Lesson

 Reading of the Lesson Objectives

 Motivation

- The teacher will present different words

 [Banda] 12

of greetings to the students. Ask them

what comes into their mind after

reading.

Hola Shalom

Marhaba Ciao

- The teacher will process the ideas of the

students and connect it to the next activity.

II. PROCEDURE

A. Activity

- The student will read a short story and

analyze its content to get the lesson. (the

story is on page 16.)

B. Analysis

- What is the bias in the story?

- What lines or parts of the story that made

you think it is bias?

- Do you have the same judgement of the

mother in the story? Why do you say so?

- Now that you have talked about the

concepts of bias and prejudice, would you

perceive any of the people differently?

 [Banda] 13

- What do you think are the conflicts that we

might encounter in the given situation?

- Why is it that people in different countries

behave in different manner?

- Do you think that culture and language are

being connected when we communicate?

Why?

- How are we going to have effective

communication or avoid such bias or

prejudice considering we have different

cultural perspective?

C. Abstraction

- What is prejudice?

- What does it mean by being biased?

- When can we say that an individual is

prejudiced?

- When can we say that a person is biased?

- How can we possibly avoid both?

D. Application

- Below is a situation that may trigger the act

to prejudiced and or being biased to people.

The students will write their solution on each

scene that will demonstrate effective way of

 [Banda] 14

communication. They will write their

answers on a 1 sheet of paper.

 Scene 1: You are a Christian who

grew up in America, then, you are

going to meet your friend who is a

Muslim in Marawi.

 Scene 2: In Marawi, you discover

that they do not eat and serve your

favorite food.

 Scene 3: You have met other people

who do not know how to speak your

language.

 Scene 4: You wanted to go to

church, but they have different

church and belief.

 Scene 5: You wanted to go back

home because you find it difficult

living in their place.

- Their outputs will be rated according to this

rubric:

 Ideas/Content - 15 pts.

 Sentence fluency/Grammar – 15 pts.

 Organization - 10 pts.
 [Banda] 15

 Presentation – 10 pts.

TOTAL – 50 POINTS

III. VALUE INTEGRATION

 What is the importance of avoiding

prejudice and bias?

 Why is “releasing the right

responses” more important than

“sending the right message”

communication?
Assessment IV. Directions: Tell whether the statement is

bias or prejudice. Write your answers on

the answer sheet. Each correct answer will

be given 2 points.

1. Denying someone a promotion

because of his sexual orientation.

2. Firing a woman from her job upon

learning of her pregnancy.

3. Offering higher pay to a newly hired

Christian physician over a mainstay

Hindu doctor.

4. Putting up a greater number of

washrooms in airports for females than

males.

5. Being not invited over a classy

 [Banda] 16

neighborhood party because of their

ethnicity and origin.

The Short Story:

Photo credit: BBoomerin Denial from morguefile.com

(Note: Image does not illustrate or has any resemblance with characters depicted in the story)
A Prejudiced Mind

The oppressing heat entered from every pore of my body, the stench of

sweat mixing with the heady perfume of Chamoli garland worn by the

women, the occasional draft of wind reminding of the fish that lay in the

baskets at the entrance of the coach. The coach was packed with daily

commuters, the early morning rush, the brushing bodies making space –

some forcefully while some apologetically.

I clutched the hands of my five-year-old; afraid that the deluge of human

bodies would wash her away from me, my eyes wary and the mind ever

burdened with the fear of the fatal that only a mother can concoct. The raspy

voice of the nankeen vendor pierced through my thoughts and I looked up

into a pair of bright eyes set in a frail body that was barely covered in rags.
“No” came my curt reply as I gestured him to move ahead only to be cut in

the middle by an insistent tugging on my sari.

“Please Maa”, Rimi said.

“Please Maa” echoed the man.

I glared at the man with all the hatred that I could muster onto my face, my

nose flaring up in distaste at being juxtaposed into such close proximity with
 [Banda] 17

the likes of these dirty bodies. “Go away” I said rudely, pulling my daughter

closer towards myself, the latter also being at the receiving end of my foul

mood. Lips quivering, Rimi gave a tiny wave as he departed, implanting a smile

in his hollowed cheek as he reciprocated her wave. The remainder of the

journey she spent in mournful sadness and refused to engage in any form of

communication whatsoever with me, preferring to sulk and stare out of the

window.

She regained her vivaciousness when she found him sitting prostrate in

front of the toilet door as we stood in the queue of people waiting to disembark

the train. Her eyes lit up at the sight of him.

“Mummy can we give him some money? He looks hungry…” she said

looking at me with her round eyes that were filled to the brim with hope.

But I didn’t want to entertain any such thoughts; my mind having reached the

peak of anger at being forced to make an uncomfortable journey in the train,

forsaking the comfort of an AC car, and now desperate to escape this labyrinth

of human bodies, smell and display of abject life.

“Ignore him, these are not good people. They take little girls away in their

bags” was my final advice to my daughter, the man and the incident to be

dismissed and forgotten at the earliest.

Or so I thought.

We had hardly gone a few paces on the platform when I heard a voice

screaming in my direction. I turned to see the nankeen vendor, flagging his

arms in the air and shouting –

 [Banda] 18

“O Madam ji…”

The impudence of the man! It fueled my anger further at his audacity to

follow us. I pulled my daughter behind me and increased my pace, ignoring the

shouts from behind. Half running and half walking I headed out of the station,

turning back to see that the man still followed, limping and balancing his bag by

shifting it from one shoulder to the other. At the exit I hailed for a taxi, praying

that it would arrive before the man did and we could escape this nightmare

before any untoward incident occurred.

I didn’t wait for the taxi to come to a complete halt before I opened the door

and pushed Rimi inside. Quickly I got into the cab and had just closed the door

when there was an incessant banging on the windows. I told the driver of the

cab to step on the accelerator, but he hesitated. The banging on the window

increased, and I could hear the vendor scream

“Madam wait….”

Something bright and shiny caught my eye. My eyes widened as I

recognized it. The man held a gold bracelet in his hand – it was Rimi’s!

I rolled the window down, and he instantly thrust it towards me – I was too

shocked to speak, a paralysis taking hold of my reactions. My mind conjured

up images of what had possibly transpired when I had momentarily turned my

back to my daughter and the vendor.

He pulled out a peanut packet from his pocket “for the child” he mumbled

with a deference that is typical of their creed, giving it to Rimi who jumped on

the seat with excitement, smiled at her innocence, waved and was gone.
 [Banda] 19

Gone before I could thank him – not for the peanuts, and not for returning the

bangle, but to thank him for managing to crack the wall of prejudice that I had

built around myself and changing my world forever…

Source: http://breakingprejudice.org/teaching/group-activities/social-media-activity/