The History of the Study of Intercultural Communication

Tongji University, 2013

Copyright © 2013 Tongji University. All rights reserved

Contents:

2. An Innovative Approach to Culture & Communication

3. Three Approaches to Studying Intercultural Communication

4. Conclusions

1. E. T. Hall & Foreign Service Institute

1. E. T. Hall & Foreign Service Institute

World War II Busines and government expanding and

rebuilding globally Foreign Service Act in 1946 Foreign Service Institute E. T. Hall et al

Develop “predeparture courses“

2. An Innovative Approach to Culture & Communication

Nonverbal communication

Application of Theory

Interdisciplinary Focus

Nonverbal Communication

The Silent Language• Hall introduces the notion of

proxemics, the study of how people use personal space to communicate

The Hidden Dimension• Hall elaborates his study of

proxemics and identifies 4 personal distance zones (Intimate, Personal, Social and Public)

Application of TheoryGovernment workers wanted specific

guidelines for getting along in foreign countries.

They “could tolerate only a few theoretical statements, although they paid attention to concrete details, real occurrences and were able to learn from them by drawing their own generalization.

Hall compiled sets of “microcultural” observations

Hall focused on documenting examples of intercultural interaction

The emphasis on the application of theory has spawned a parallel “discipline” of cross-cultural training.

Interdisciplinary FocusContributions from linguistics, anthropology,

and psychology blended to form an integrated approach that continues to the present day. Linguists: language and its role in

intercultural interaction;Anthropologists: the role that culture plays

in our lives and the importance of nonverbal communication;

Psychologists: notions of stereotyping and how prejudice functions in our lives and in intercultrual interaction.

3. Three Approaches to Studying Intercultural Communication

•The Social Science Approach

•The interpretive Approach

•The Critical Approach

Case 1Walter Disney Corporation opened its

European “Disneyland” near Marne-la-Vallee, just outside of Paris in 1990s. This corporate venture was plagued with problems from the beginning; by 1994, it was deeply in debt.

Euro Disney has fallen far short of the dream. A stunning 19 million people have visited the park since it opened, a fact the company trumpets with devotion. But it isn’t enough. The guests don’t spend enough time or money at the park, and no one will buy the hotels Euro Disney had built and planned to sell. Euro Disney is drowning in debt, and its stock has plunged.

-- by Jolie Solomon, Newsweek

•3.1 The Social Science Approach• Methods • Strengths and Limitations

The French are impatient with conformity because they don’t like to follow the crowd… Procedures are taken less seriously in France than in the United States… Procedures tend to bore the French; they think they inhibit their creativity and impinge on their individuality. They tend to be disrespectful of the law.

E. T. Hall & Mildred Hall

A French Meal is a work of art, a composition not unlike a painting. Everything must fit together to create a perfect arrangement: the different courses of the meal, the cuisine, the wines, the service, the flowers, the setting.

French reporters from the French newspaper Liberation noticed this curious phenomenon of smiling, which, they said quite unsettled homegrown (French) visitors. One of the French staff confided to them, they reported, “the foreigners are used to being smiled at, but the French don’t understand it. They think they are being taken for idiots.”

3.2 The Interpretive ApproachMethods Strengths and Limitations

Serious workplace conflicts between U.S. and non-U.S. corporate culture at Disneyland Paris.

Some of the same findings that a social science research might have.

3.3 The Critical ApproachMethods Strengths and Limitations

In Le Figaro, Jean Cau of the Academie Francaise describes Euro Disney asthis borrow of cardboard, plastic, atrocious colors, solidified chewing gum constructions, and idiotic folk stories that come straight out of cartoon books for fat Americans. It is going to wipe out millions of children…mutilate their imagination.

4. A Dialectical Approach to Understanding Culture and Communication

We see that cultural reality is both objective and subjective. Culture influences and is influenced by communication. It is also an arena where power struggles are played out. Communication is individual and it is also social.

Our understanding of intercultural communication has been enriched by all the approaches. Combining the three, as our Disneyland Paris example shows provides us with a rich and extensive understanding of the problems and challenges of this and other intercultural ventures. And research findings can actually make a difference in the everyday world.

From the social science perspective, we see how specific cultural differences might predict communication conflicts.

From an interpretive investigation, we have the opportunity to confirm what we predict in a hypothetical social science study.

The critical approach on Disneyland Paris raises some questions about the issue of exporting popular culture and challenges us to examine our assumptions about the neutrality of intercultural experiences.

No single angel or snapshot gives us the truth, but taking pictures from different angles gives a more comprehensive view of an objective. The knowledge we gain from any of these approaches is enhanced by the knowledge gained from the other approaches.

Thank you for your attention! Comments and questions?