Further Testing of a New Model of Intercultural Communication Competence

Recently, a new model of intercultural communication was proposed and later empirically tested (Arasaratnam, 2004 Arasaratnam , L. A. ( 2004 ). Intercultural communication competence: Development and empirical validation of a new model . Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association , New Orleans , LA . [Google Scholar]; Arasaratnam & Doerfel, 2005 Arasaratnam , L. A. & Doerfel , M. L. ( 2005 ). Intercultural communication competence: Identifying key components from multicultural perspectives . International Journal of Intercultural Relations , 29 , 137 – 163 . [CSA] [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The present study was designed to further test the model and address the limitations of the previous test. Survey data were collected from participants (N = 400) and analyzed using regression analyses. The results mostly supported the previous model. These results plus some new findings in the relationship between empathy and intercultural communication competence are discussed.     

Rethinking “Difficult” Conversations in Communication Instruction From an Intercultural Lens: Pedagogical Strategies for “SWAP-ping” the Communication Classroom

Intercultural communication offers both theoretical and pedagogical implications for communication instruction. As such, we interweave theories and concepts of intercultural communication and instructional communication in (re)thinking “difficult,” “sensitive,” or “uncomfortable” classroom conversations that involve privilege, power, and intersecting cultural identities (e.g., racism). In juxtaposing these areas side by side, we first interrogate why intercultural and instructional communication scholars have neglected what the other takes as central: pedagogy and diversity. In particular, we ask: Why are certain conversations deemed “difficult” in the mainstream communication classroom? To whom are they difficult conversations? Why might these conversations feel “uncomfortable or risky”? Second, we crystalize how intercultural communication makes strides toward feeling/thinking/understanding difficult conversations in ways that promote social justice by proposing a pedagogy of “SWAP-ping” the communication classroom.     

“Making a Lion into a Pussycat”: Working with Difficult Group Members

Objectives: The primary objective of this activity is to identify the role of interpersonal communication skills in the small group process. Secondary objectives include engaging students in a brainstorming activity and providing an opportunity for groups to determine ways to work with difficult group members

Courses: Small-Group Communication, Business and Professional Communication, Hybrid Course     

An Exploration of the Relationship Between Intercultural Communication Competence and Bilingualism

Research in intercultural communication competence (ICC) has flourished in the past several decades, arguably due to its relevance in an increasingly multicultural world. In fact the pervasive pragmatic relevance of effective and appropriate engagement with cultural diversity has spurred intercultural or cultural “competence” research in a variety of disciplines. While some scholars question the very concept of ICC as a Western formulation, researchers’ interest in studying the phenomenon of authentic, positive connection between individuals from different cultures is indisputable.     

论“风险社会”危机的跨文化传播

世界已经进入“风险社会,”风险并非自然的风险,乃是“人造风险”。风险具有全球性、知识依赖性和“不确定性”等特征,对危机的跨文化传播研究显得尤为必要和紧迫。传媒具有风险认知和沟通功能,预测、凸现隐形的风险并对现实危机进行“定义”、“冠名,”以提高不同文化背景下的人们对同一危机的“在场感”以及经验、认知的相互交流。大众传媒要尽量减少传播的悖论和破除话语中心论,同时,对危机的跨文化传播研究应该从研究“误传”、“误读”转向研究如何协调合作与建构意义。     

Introduction: Intercultural Studies within Central States

The study of intercultural communication (IC) has a long history in the Central States Communication Association (CSCA). Some of the earliest work in IC has come from universities in the CSCA region, such as Indiana University (William Starosta) and University of Minnesota (Vernon Jensen and Rosita Albert). Since the inception of the Intercultural Communication Interest Group within CSCA in the early 1990s, IC scholars have contributed immensely to the discipline by studying different aspects of the relationship between communication and culture. Several active IC scholars present their recollections of the development of IC research in this issue.     

Media criticism group speech

Objective: To integrate speaking practice with rhetorical theory Type of speech: Persuasive Point value: 100 points (i.e., 30 points based on peer evaluations, 30 points based on individual performance, 40 points based on the group presentation), which is 25% of course grade Requirements: (a) References: 7–10; (b) Length: 20–30 minutes; (c) Visual aid: Yes; (d) Outline: Yes; (e) Prerequisite reading: The appropriate chapter (e.g., generic, feminist, metaphoric, fantasy theme, pentadic criticism, neo-Aristotelian) in Foss (1996); (f) Additional requirements: Each group member should be given an equal amount of time to speak and an equal amount of work in preparing the final presentation This assignment gives students a chance to engage in the study of popular culture as public address, giving them insight into their own worlds and the ways popular culture may help shape/instruct that world. This assignment also allows students to engage in critical analysis, which not only means that students can learn about rhetorical theory, but they also get to engage in the types of analysis used by their instructor during the course.     

Intercultural Communication Scholarship in the U.S. Heartland

This essay works to debunk the myth that the Central States region is a less-than-ideal location for intercultural communication scholarship. The essay also explores how co-cultural theorizing scholarship—a product of living/teaching/learning in the Midwest—reflects a significant contribution to intercultural communication scholarship.     

Crossing Paths: Intercultural Collaborations

There are unusual elements in this essay. It is a coconstructed intercultural narrative about spaces, places, people, and ideas, about their influence on us and our academic journeys, separately and together. Each narrative considers the intercultural footpaths and bridges that have connected us to one another and to others in the Central States Communication Association (CSCA) and the Intercultural Communication (IC) interest group.     

紧急状态下跨文化传播的焦虑及其消解

跨文化传播的焦虑常常表现为文化身份焦虑,其原因可从“自我不一致”理论、归因理论以及认知失调理论中得到解释。要摆脱焦虑,必须回到文化的主体间性上来建构文化身份,使之处于动态的过程之中。     

Identity Gaps of Contemporary U.S. Immigrants: Acknowledging Divergent Communicative Experiences

Through the lens of the communication theory of identity (e.g., Hecht, Collier, &; Ribeau, 1993 Hecht , M. L. , Collier , M. J. , &; Ribeau , S. A. ( 1993 ). African American communication: Ethnic identity and cultural interpretation . Newbury Park , CA : Sage . [Google Scholar]), this study examines how immigrants living in the United States negotiate multiple dimensions of their identities. A thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with 17 immigrants from 16 countries explores what identity gaps exist for immigrants in the contemporary United States. Findings suggest that several identity gaps permeate immigrants' lived experience, including personal-enacted, personal-relational, enacted-relational, communal-relational, personal-communal, and enacted-communal gaps. Specific attention is paid to how these gaps are expressed differently by different immigrants.     

Interiority as Epistemology: Situating Myself in the Central States Communication Association

I describe my approach to writing this essay as one of interiority, of exploring my deep inner thoughts and reflections on why I did what I did in CSCA over the years. Beyond saying that my CSCA activities were my attempt to be a good citizen of the academy through what is normalized as professional participation, I, through deeper reflection, now aim to write an African American female scholar’s interiority as discursive content.     

The relationship of judgments of desirability and likelihood

This study attempts a new approach to the problem of “meaning.” The authors are concerned primarily with meanings as they are encountered by decoders rather than as they are devised by encoders, and they focus almost exclusively on cognitive rather than on emotional aspects of meaning. A scheme comprising three dimensions—concreteness, iconicity, and conventionality—is proposed as a model for relating symbols to their concepts and their users. Emphasis is on ease or difficulty of decoding symbols in the cognitive realm. Experimentation is recommended for testing the hypotheses advanced in this approach.     

An investigation in measuring and improving listening ability of college freshmen 1

Previous research indicates that data yielded by the method of ordered alternatives are not suitable for univariate parametric analysis. As an alternative to the measurement of latitudes of rejection, acceptance, and noncommitment by frequencies of rejected, accepted, and unchecked stands on social issues, a scalar distance index is proposed. Under the scalar distance model, a ratio‐scaled map of the alternative stands is derived from multidimensional scale analysis. Latitude of rejection is defined as the absolute difference of the distance from the subject's own position to the rejected stand. A FORTRAN IV program, LATSCAL, is available to compute scalar distance measures of the three latitudes.     

“I thought I’d have more trouble with white people!”: Exploring racial microaggressions between West African immigrants and African Americans

Racial tensions continue in 21st-century United States through the communication of racial microaggressions. We are interested in the communication of racial microaggressions directed towards West African immigrants by people with whom they expected to be allied, African Americans. Sixteen people who identified as West African immigrants were interviewed about communication struggles with African Americans in this qualitative, interpretive analysis. Owen’s thematic analysis was employed to analyze interview data. Results suggest the communicative impact of racial microaggressions on recipients is far-reaching and consequential. Narratives illustrate microaggressive communication occurs daily through invalidating, dismissive lines of questioning as well as targeted name calling and pejorative dialogue.     

Between the Structural and the Personal: Situated Sense-Makings of “Race” This research was supported by a grant from the MOSAIC Multicultural Center at San Jose State University.

Using a critical intercultural communication perspective and cultural studies interviewing method, this study traces individuals’ subjective sense-makings of diversity through the trope of “race.” Such sense-makings represent the key (and taken-for-granted) locus of the structural and personal where social actors live out the constructions of diversity and race in deeply felt ways. Our study reveals how individuals articulate and understand race via raceless diversity encodings (whereby race is seemingly stripped of its power inequalities, and all racial/ethnic groups are made equal) and racial pivoting (whereby participants both discursively pull away from and move toward race to suit their individual experiences).     

The Island of Love/The Island of Conflict: Hospitality and Hostility of Turkish Cypriot Identity and Citizenship in North Cyprus

This paper deals with the hospitality and hostility of Turkish Cypriot identity in North Cyprus in its various configurations today. It contends that we become who we are by extending hospitality to different and differing representations of who we are like a name or a land, all the while being unable to reduce this differential relationship to a self-identical ipseity. This differential relationship is the origin of identity and not a singularly self-sufficient subjectivity inherited from a past history and culture. Using the alibi of an inheritance cannot hide our complicity in the production of that history and culture anew in the present. This shift in perspective opens “Turkish Cypriot identity” to its future becoming, hopefully to a future beyond ethnocentrism, towards a form of solidarity different from the border politics of a paternal hospitality like that of nation states.     

When in Rome,Do as the Romans Do: A Comparative Analysis of Chinese and American New Teachers' Compliance-Gaining Strategies

The exchange of information and of member preferences are two different avenues for social influence during group discussion with potentially differing implications. The goal of the study was to evaluate the impact of three factors proposed to influence the relative proportion of preference and reason statements during group problem-solving discussion. As hypothesized, groups beginning in consensus discussed relatively more preferences than groups beginning in disagreement. Contrary to expectation, judgmental and intellective tasks did not differ in proportions of preference and reason statements. Opposite of prediction, the opportunity to form a pre-discussion preference resulted in a smaller proportion of preference statements than the absence of this opportunity.     

Negotiating Understanding in “Intercultural Moments” in Immigrant Family Interactions

This article aims to advance an interactionally sensitive, emic view of intercultural communication by exploring the organization of “intercultural moments” in conversation—moments during which cultural and linguistic differences between people become exposed. Field video recordings of ordinary face-to-face interactions in Russian–American immigrant families are analyzed using the methodology of conversation analysis. The article focuses on sequences in which participants deal with actual or anticipated understanding problems and examines how participants' assumptions about their asymmetric cultural and linguistic expertise are revealed in their actions. Some interactional payoffs in adopting the role of a cultural expert vis-à-vis a novice are described to show how an ostensible non-understanding is both a participants' problem to be solved and a resource for social action.