Republic of the Philippines

Surigao del Sur State University

Graduate Studies
Main Campus, Rosario, Tandag City

Name: QUENNEE R. ESCOBILLO

Program: MAELT
Course Title: ElectMELT 212: Global English and Language Teaching
Instructor: Dr. Lyoid Hunahunan
Date of Submission: April 21, 2022

Activity #5

1. Differentiate cross-cultural and intercultural communication.

In cross-cultural perspectives, cultures are compared at a national level for supposed
similarities and differences in behaviours. So, for example, a set of features may be identified
as typical of Japanese people’s communicative practices and another set of features identified
as British people’s communicative practices. The two sets of communicative practices will then
be compared and similarities and differences identified. In contrast, intercultural
communication perspectives are interested in “the study of distinct cultural or other groups in
interaction with each other” (Scollon & Scollon, 2001: 539). This is a very different approach
to comparing cultures at the national level. By focusing on the interaction, it recognises that
individuals may act differently in intercultural communication to intracultural communication
(communication between people from the same culture) and that cultural categories,
similarities, and differences may be changeable and negotiable.

2. Describe transcultural communication and how it helps in understanding

intercultural communication.

Transcultural communication is particularly focused on how linguistic and cultural boundaries

are transgressed and transcended in intercultural interactions, creating new sociocultural spaces,
practices, and identities. In intercultural communication, this means that the links between the
languages used and the cultural references and meanings cannot be taken for granted. Instead, the
connection is always an empirical question that must be investigated in each instance of
communication (Risager, 2006).
 Republic of the Philippines
Surigao del Sur State University
Graduate Studies
Main Campus, Rosario, Tandag City

3. Explain the link between global Englishes and intercultural communication.

Global Englishes and ELF research especially, have reported similar findings to the critical
approaches to intercultural communication described previously. Intercultural communication is
typically viewed as successful in ELF studies, with researchers interested in how participants
achieve this, rather than the traditional cross-cultural focus on communicative difficulties and
differences (Zhu, 2015). Language, identity, community, and culture are seen as constructed,
variable, and negotiable with issues of power and ideology prevalent. The extensive data on
intercultural communication through ELF provides ample evidence that communication through
ELF is not culturally ‘neutral’, as has been claimed by some scholars (e.g., House, 2014).