跨文化交际要点整理

1. Culture: All the material and spiritual things created by man.

2. Communication: Transmission of information/feelings between a sender and a receiver.

3. Intercultural/Cross-cultural communication: Communication between people of any two different cultures between countries or within a country.

4. Intercultural communication: Usually communication between members of the same culture.

5. Intercultural (communicative) competence: Knowledge, attitudes and ability / skills required for intercultural communication.

6. Racial, ethnic, international communication: Communication between races, ethnic groups or nations.

7. Contact, encounter, interaction, exchange, dialog, negotiation, etc.

Culture The total sum of material and spiritual wealth created by the mankind in the process of the social and historical development, especially literature, art, science, technology, architecture, education, traditions and customs, etc.

Characteristics of culture:

(1) Culture is learned:

(2) Culture is dynamic and adaptive:

(3) Culture is pervasive (传遍):

(4) Culture is interrelated: Spring Festival

(5) Culture is largely invisible:

(6) Culture is ethnocentric:种族优越感

Cultural identity:One’s sense of belonging to a particular culture or ethnic group. intercultural identity：One’s sense of belonging to more than one particular culture or ethnic group in an intercultural situation.

Types of intercultural identity /acculturation

(1) Assimilation 融入型: Breaking away from one’s ethnic culture and trying to identify with the dominant culture;

(2) Integration 融合型: Maintaining contact with the dominant culture while retaining the core values of one’s ethnic culture;

(3) Separation 分离型: Adhering to one’s ethnic culture and shunning the dominant culture in the foreign environment;

(4) Marginalization 边缘型: Alienated from and unidentified with either one’s ethnic culture or the dominant culture.

Communication: Transmission of information between a sender and a receiver. Ingredients/process of communication:

Source：The source is the person with an idea he or she desires to communicate. Encoding：Encoding is the process of putting an idea into a symbol.

Message：The term message identifies the encoded thought. Encoding is the process, the verb; the message is the resulting object.

Channel：The term channel is used technically to refer to the means by which the encoded message is transmitted. The channel or medium, then, may be print,

electronic, or the light and sound waves of the face-to-face communication.

Noise：The term noise technically refers to anything that distorts the message the source encodes.

Receiver：The receiver is the person who attends to the message.

Decoding：Decoding is the opposite process of encoding and just as much an active process.

Receiver response：It refers to anything the receiver does after having attended to and decoded the message.

Feedback：Feedback refers to that portion of the receiver response of which the source has knowledge and to which the source attends and assigns meaning.

Context：The final component of communication is context. Generally, context can be defined as the environment in which the communication takes place and which helps define the communication.

Characteristics of communication:

(1) Communication is dynamic: p44

(2) Communication is symbolic:

(3) Communication is irreversible

(4) Communication is transactional:

(5) Communication is self-reflective: Thinking about oneself.

(6) Communication is contextual and systematic:

The necessity and importance of intercultural communication

1) It is a historical trend of the modern world: globalization and glocalization;

2) It improves ties and enhances understanding between different peoples;

3) It reduces the possibilities of conflicts and the dangers of war between nations

4) It increases international trade and stimulates domestic economy

5) It promotes exchanges in various fields including culture, education, technology, et

6) It helps environmental protection on a global scale.

Types and features of intercultural communication:

1) Intercultural communication: Between different cultures;

2) Interethnic communication: Between different ethnic groups;

3) Interracial communication: Between different races;

4) International communication: Between different nations;

5) Inter-class, inter-professional, inter-age, etc. Communication.

Major causes of intercultural misunderstanding

1) Culture shock 文化震撼/文化休克: 2) Ethnocentrism 民族中心主义: 3) Projected similarity误以为相似: 4) Stereotypes刻板印象/固见: 5) Misevaluation错误评判；6) Prejudice偏见；7) Discrimination歧视

Relation between language and culture:

1) Language is part of culture;

2) Culture can be affected by language;

3) Language reflects culture:

Relation between language and (intercultural) communication:

1) Language is the major tool used in (intercultural) communication;

2) Language may pose problems for translation due to its cultural loading;

3) Language may cause misunderstanding because of differences in interpreting speech acts (the real intension / meaning of the speaker):

Conversational principles

1) The Cooperative Principle (CP) (H.P. Grice, 1975, 1989):

The maxim of quantity:

The maxim of quality:

The maxim of relation

The maxim of manner:

2) The Politeness Principle (PP) (G. N. Leech, 1983):

Tact maxim (得体):

Generosity maxim (慷慨):

Approbation maxim (赞誉):

Modesty maxim (谦逊):

Agreement maxim (一致):

Sympathy maxim (同情):

Speech acts：The way in which speech or words are used to cause acts or actions Assertive (阐述):

Directives (指令):

Commissives (承诺):

Expressives (表情):

Declarations (宣告):

Nonverbal communication:All types of communication that take place without words.

Importance of nonverbal communication:

1) It often occurs unconsciously;

2) It can define relationship between people;

3) It tends to be a more reliable demonstration of the interlocutor’s true meaning (because it is less consciously controlled);

4) It can be used to help verbal communication;

5) It may easily be misunderstood and cause problems or trouble, especially in cross-cultural communication.

Function of non-verbal communication:

1) Emphasizing:

2) Repeating:

3) Substituting:

4) Regulating:

5) Contradicting:

Categories of nonverbal communication:

1) Body movement / posture

2) Gestures, facial expressions and eye contact

3) Touching

4) Paralanguage: 副语言

High context culture (强语境文化) :A culture in which much is understood in communication by referring to the (extra-linguistic) context so that people tend to

speak out the least.

Low context culture (弱语境文化) : A culture in which less is understood in communication by referring to the (extra-linguistic) context so that people tend to speak out the most.

China: High-context culture:

English-speaking countries: Low-context culture:。

Cultural dimensions:: Patterns in which the people of a culture/nation normally speak and behave.

Value Orientations (Kluckhohns and Strodtebeck) ：

Human nature Basically evil Mixture of good

and evil

Basically good

Relationship of man to nature Man subjugated by

nature

Man in harmony

with nature

Man the master of

nature

Sense of time Past oriented Present-oriented Future-oriented

Activity Being (stress on

who you are) Growing (stress on

self-development)

Doing (stress on

action)

Social relationships Authoritarian Group-oriented Individualistic Impact of globalization on intercultural communication:

1) Cultures in the world have generally become more open and receptive to other cultures, and more willing to communicate with each other.

2) Smaller or weaker cultures tend to adapt to larger or stronger cultures.

3) Larger or stronger cultures try to respect smaller cultures.

4) Tendency of integration of different cultures into a “common culture” or “world culture” or “the third culture”.

Global business management styles:

1) Ethnocentric style (parent culture’s style 母国文化管理方式)

2) Polycentric style (style of the culture where the subsidiary company is located地方文化管理方式):

3) Geocentric style (global style 全球管理方式):

4) Regiocentric style (regional style 区域管理方式):

Culture shock: It refers to the anxiety and feelings (of surprise, disorientation, uncertainty, confusion, etc.) felt when people have to operate within a different and unknown cultural or social environment, such as a foreign country.

Causes of culture shock: Culture shock grows out of the difficulties in assimilating the new culture, causing difficulty in knowing what is appropriate and what is not. This is often combined with a dislike for or even disgust (moral or aesthetical) with certain aspects of the new or different culture.

Forms of culture shock:

(1) Language shock; 2) Role shock;(3) Transition shock; (4) Culture fatigue; (5) Education shock; (6) Adjustment stress; (7) Culture distance