Exploring Intercultural Communication Language in Action

Exploring Intercultural Communication investigates the role of language in intercultural communication, paying particular attention to the interplay between cultural diversity and language practice. This second edition increases and updates the coverage on emerging key topics, including symbolic power, communicative turbulence, conversational inequality, stereotypes, racism, Nationality and Ethnicity talk and the impact and role of technology in intercultural communication. Including global examples from a range of genres, this book is an indispensable resource for students taking language and intercultural communication modules within applied linguistics, TESOL, education or communication studies courses.

Contents Acknowledgements Permissions Transcription Conventions Series editors’ introduction Notes on using this book Part I Intercultural communication in everyday life 1 Language Classrooms 1.1 Culture and language learning and teaching (Does learning a language mean learning a culture?) 1.2 Culture of learning (How many times do I need to practise?) 1.3 Multicultural classrooms (Why is she so quiet in the classroom?) 1.4 Chapter summary 2 The workplace 2.1 Meetings (Has anything been decided in the meeting?) 2.2 Small talk (Haven’t seen you for ages!) 2.3 Humour (I didn’t get that!) 2.4 Chapter Summary 3 Business 3.1 Advertising (Buy it, sell it, love it) 3.2 International business negotiation (Why do they talk a lot about nothing really?) 3.3 More language and communication matters (Dear Respected Mr Lin, How are you?) 3.4 Chapter summary 4 Family and Migration 4.1 Migrant families (I’m British on paper, but am I English?) 4.2 Intercultural couples (Can love speak without words?) 4.3 Language choice and learning at home (Good boy! Well done habeebi (my darling)) 4.4 Chapter summary 5 Study abroad and tourism 5.1 Study abroad (Does ‘real’ experience help with my language and intercultural learning?) 5.2 Tourism (Can I take a picture with you?) 5.3 Chapter summary Part II Developing intercultural communicative competence 6 What are culture-specific ways of communication and why? 6.1 High versus low context: relationship and networks 6.2 High involvement: solidarity and connectedness 6.3 Directness or indirectness: face, politeness and rapport 6.4 Turn-taking: universals vs. cultural variations 6.5 Space: the silent language 6.6 Chapter summary 7 What causes turbulence in intercultural communication 7.1 Communicative turbulence 7.2 Symbolic power 7.3 Pragmatic mismatch 7.4 Clash of styles 7.5 Mismatch in schemas and cultural stereotypes 7.6 Mismatch in contextualisation and framing 7.7 Chapter summary 8 What contributes to successful communication? 8.1 Accommodating towards your audience 8.2 Negotiation as the way of engagement 8.3 Interpreting and mediating interaction 8.4 Understanding professional and institutional discourse 8.5 Chapter summary 9 How to develop intercultural communicative competence 9.1 ICC in foreign language teaching and learning 9.2 A multidisciplinary overview of ICC 9.3 Intercultural learning through education and training 9.4 Intercultural learning from a language socialisation perspective 9.5 Chapter summary Part III Understanding intercultural communication critically 10 The relation between language, culture and thought: the classical question 10.1 The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: language controls or influences thought 10.2 Colour terms: language influences, but does not determine perception 10.3 ‘The geography of thought’: culture influences thought independent of language 10.4 Cultural key words: vocabulary as index of a culture 10.5 The language of thought: language as a window into human nature; and thought exists independently of language 10.6 The bilingual mind: thinking and speaking in two languages 10.7 Thinking back: relevance to intercultural communication 11 Theories of culture: a fundamental question 11.1 Compositional approach: culture as a collection of things shared bypeople. 11.2 Interpretive approach: culture as semiotic 11.3 Action approach: culture as a process 11.4 Critical approach: culture as power and ideological struggle 11.5 Overview: complexity of culture 11.6 Thinking back: from what culture is to what intercultural communication is 12 Language, identity and interculturality: a paradigm-shifting question 12.1 ‘Where are you from?’ 12.2 Identity: multiplicity and types 12.3 Cultural identity 12.4 Interculturality: from being to doing cultural identities 12.5 Thinking back and looking forward Task commentaries Glossary of key terms References Index of subjects Index of languages, cultures and geographical areas

Zhu Hua is Professor of Applied Linguistics and Communication at Birkbeck, University of London, UK. She has published extensively on multilingual and intercultural communication and child language. She is forum and reviews editor of Applied Linguisticsandjoint series editor of Routledge Language and Intercultural Communication Series and Cambridge Key Topics in Applied Linguistics Series.