Course aims:

Introducing basic theoretical concepts and principles pertaining to the relation between language, communication and cultural context;
Encouraging students to employ their own cultural experiences and intuitions in identifying and analyzing cultural conflicts in concrete communicative situations;
Developing sensitivity to cultural differences manifested in various interpersonal and professional settings.

Course Entry Requirements:

-

Course contents:

Intercultural communication competence; Cultural variations in interpersonal relationships; Gender and communication: interpretative frames; Cultures and learning styles; Cultural variations in persuasion; Nonverbal intercultural communication; Intercultural communication and stereotyping; Negotiating meanings within and across cultures (1): Workplace communication; Negotiating meanings within and across cultures (2): Understanding and telling jokes.

Teaching methods:

Discussion, case studies, collaborative learning

Learning outcomes:

1. Understanding the relationship between language, communication and social contexts, as well as some of the theoretical models for characterizing it. 2. Developing awareness of one’s own cultural attitudes and interpretative frames in intercultural communicative situations. 3. Applying theoretical concepts and principle, as well as employing own’s own cultural experience, to analyzing cultural conflicts and communication breakdowns in concrete communicative situations.

Learning outcomes verification and assessment criteria:

Continuous assessment (student contributions to class discussion, smaller written assignments): 50%; final written assignment with oral defense (50%)

Recommended reading:

Hall, Stuart, “The centrality of culture: notes on the cultural revolutions of our time”, in Thompson, Kenneth (Ed.), Media and Cultural Regulation, Sage Publication & The Open University, London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi, 1997, 207-238.
Lustig, Myron W. & Jolene Koester, Intercultural Competence (international ed. of 7th revised ed.), Pearson Education (US), 2012,
Scollon, Ron and Suzanne Wong Scollon, Intercultural Communication. A Discourse Approach (2nd ed.), Blackwell, Malden, MA & Oxford, UK, 1995/2001,
Utley, Derek, Intercultural Resource Pack, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (UK), New York, 2004,