JEREMY R.

TABBAD
Instructor

GEC 4 Purposive Communication 1

 LOCAL AND GLOBAL COMMUNICATION IN MULTICULTURAL
SETTINGS
lesson 1

Isolated cultures stagnate; cultures that communicate with other evolve.

- T. Sowell, Race and Culture 1994

Introduction

Communication can be a challenging activity because of the highly pluralistic

nature of the people participating in the communication process. Each participant may
differ in cultural, social and biological backgrounds, which are all critical factors to
effective and successful intercultural communication. Instances there are that these
differences may lead speakers to misinterpretation or misunderstanding. So, in order to
understand communication within and outside the context of one’s culture, it is
necessary to identify first the challenges that may be encountered, then the form of
intercultural communication, and the ways on how to improve communicative
competence in multicultural settings.

Living in a globalized world, you encounter people with diverse cultural

backgrounds. Such interactions occur in a social, educational, political and commercial
settings. Hence, in today’s era of increased global communication, it is imperative to
understand intercultural communication for us to enhance our intercultural awareness
and competence. Intercultural competence is essential for us to live harmoniously
despite our differences in culture.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

a. cite examples on how to enhance one’s ability to communicate with people from
diverse cultures; and
b. create a three-to four-minute presentation about various cultural modes of
communication of a certain country.

Learning Content

1. CHALLENGES OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

It has become a widespread notion that speakers’ use of different languages

results in intercultural miscommunication and misunderstanding. As Scollon and Scollon
(1995) state:

When we are communication with people who are very different from us, it is
very difficult to know how to draw inferences about what they mean, and so it is

GEC 4 Purposive Communication 2

 impossible to depend on shared knowledge and background for confidence in our
interpretation (p.22).

Indeed, the lack of shared knowledge and beliefs and cultural diversity make it
more complicated to arrive at the correct inference or interpretation of meanings. But it
can also be argued that English is now a global lingua franca. In fact, with the ASEAN
integration, English has been declared the official or working language of ASEAN. So,
with just one language to be spoken or used by many countries including the 10 member
countries of the ASEAN, what else can go wrong?

It is thus important to emphasize that the ownership of English cannot be attributed

to just one country or to those who use it as a native or home language. The varieties of
English spoken by different speech communities have evolved for a reason. They use it
for communal purposes. These varieties have been heavily influenced by the local
culture and its speakers. Recent studies have shown that the problem of
misunderstanding is not overt and can’t be traced to speech perturbations, poorly
managed turn-taking, and non-aligned, “parallel talk” (House 1999, p. 80). Meirkord
(2000, p. 11 as cited by Kaur, 2016) emphasizes that communication in English as a
lingua franca (ELF) is “a form of intercultural communication in English as characterized
by cooperation rather than misunderstanding” (p.135). This she noted in her study of
participants coming from 17 different first language backgrounds which yielded the result
that the participants displayed communicative behavior not generally associated with
their linguacultural backgrounds making the talk cooperative and SUPPORTIVE IN
NATURE WITH FEW MISUNDERSTANDINGS.

2. FORMS OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Communication is like a kaleidoscope. Many units of different sizes,

shapes, and color make up the whole picture. Any action, shift, or
change adjusts the pattern and the relationship of all of the units to each
other, thereby altering the picture.

a. Interracial communication – communicating with people from different races

b. Interethnic communication – interacting with people of different ethnic origin

c. International communication – communicating between representatives from

different nations.

d. Intracultural communication – interacting with members of the same racial or

ethnic group or co-culture

According to Gamble and Gamble (2008), communication style among cultures

differs, it may be high context or low-context communication.

High-context communication is a tradition-linked communication system

which adheres strongly to being indirect. Low-context communication is a system that
works on straightforward communication.

GEC 4 Purposive Communication 3

 High-context cultures (Mediterranean, Slav, Central European, Latin American,
African, Arab, Asian, American-Indian) leave much of the message unspecified, to be
understood through context, nonverbal cues, and between the lines interpretation of
what is actually said. By contrast, low context cultures (most Germanic and English-
speaking countries) expect messages to be explicit and specific.

3. IMPROVING INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE

The following guidelines may help you enhance your ability to communicate
effectively across cultures (Gamble & Gamble, 2008):

1. Recognize the validity and differences of communication styles among people.

2. Learn to eliminate personal biases and prejudices.
3. Strive to acquire communication skills necessary in a multicultural world.

Flexible Teaching Learning Modality (FTLM) adopted

Online (synchronous)
Edmodo, google classroom and schoology
Remote (asynchronous)
Module & individual activity

Assessment Task

In what specific ways can you enhance your ability to communicate with people
from diverse cultures?

1. “Human beings draw close to one another by their common nature, but habits and
customs keep them apart.” (Confucius) Do you agree or disagree? Give concrete
situations to support your stand.
Answer:

2. Identify a country where graduates of your program or field of specialization are in

demand. Research on the various cultural modes of communication that a newly hired
employee in that country should remember. Based on your research, prepare a three-
to-four-minute presentation.
Answer:

References

Krizan, A.C. et al. (2014) Business Communication Theories and Best Practices.
Cenage Learning Asia Pte Ltd

Menoy, J. (2010) Business Communication and Report Writing: A Practical Approach.

Books Atbp. Publishing Corp. Mandaluyong City

GEC 4 Purposive Communication 4