Nowadays, we need to learn how to communicate all over again, just like when we were children. This requires learning language as well as learning behavioral norms for good communication. However, this will be a bit different since we're adults learning how to communicate in someone else's culture, not our own. Intercultural communication is the verbal and nonverbal interaction between people from different cultural backgrounds. Basically, 'inter-' is a prefix that means 'between' and cultural means… well, from a culture, so intercultural communication is the communication between cultures. Sometimes, this is used to describe a single person trying to interact in a foreign environment but more often, it is a two-way street, where people from both cultures are trying to improve their communication.

1. Boutkhil Guemide
University Mohammed Boudiaf,
M’sila
Algeria

2. Each person is representative of a mixture of
“cultures and experiences”…
“…one of the world’s most significant problems:
intercultural relations…”
Edward T. Hall

3. 1. Understanding communication
2. The Nature of Intercultural Communication
 Definition of intercultural communication
 Foundations of intercultural communication
 Why the Study of Intercultural Communication?
 The History of the Study of Intercultural Communication
3. Culture, Communication, Context, and Power
4. Dominant Cultural Orientations
5. Domains of Cultural Differences
6. Steps Towards Effective Communication
7. Intercultural communication processes
8. Language and Intercultural Communication
9. Nonverbal Codes and Cultural Space
10. The components of intercultural competence
11. Variables in intercultural communication

4. ➡ is linked to communication and a wide
range of human experience including
feelings, identity and sense- making
➡ provides people with different ways of
thinking, seeing, hearing and interpreting
the world;
➡ involves a number of man- made,
collective artifacts and is shared by the
members of a social group;
➡ is something that shapes one‘s behavior
or structures one′s perception of the world

5. “Communication describes the process of sharing
meaning by transmitting messages through media
such as words, behavior, or material artifacts.”
Prentice Hall 2003Chapter 4 5

6. Culture is often
defined in
interrelation to
Communication
Culture is passed on via communication, and communication reflects one′s culture.
“Culture is communication
and communication is culture”

7.  Cross cultural communication
 International communication
 Multicultural communication
 Intercultural communication

8. On a different level it is also useful to be aware of cultural
variables that can affect the communication process by
influencing a person’s perceptions.
Cultural
Variables
Attitude
Social
organizations
Thought
patterns
RolesLge
Non-verbal
communication
Time

9. 1. Attitudes:
Attitudes underlie the way we behave and
communicate and the way we interpret messages
from other people. Ethnocentric attitudes are a
particular source of noise in cross-cultural
communication.
2. Social Organization:
Our perceptions can be influenced by differences in
values, approach, or priorities relative to the kind of
social organizations to which we belong.
Prentice Hall 2003Chapter 4 9

10. 3. Thought Patterns
Every culture has different thought patterns and logics
towards anything vision and traditions are different from
one another. Mostly depend on experience education
and family background.
4. Roles: (manager’s perception)
Manager reflects the culture of its own organization.
How manager perceives is very important, he should
properly understand all the objectives. Wrong
perception result in miscommunication
Prentice Hall 2003Chapter 4 10

11. 5. Language:
Spoken or written language is a frequent cause of
miscommunication. Accurate translation is a bridge to
cover cultural gaps. language also conveys cultural and
social understandings.
6. Time:
Another variable that communicates culture is the way
people regard and use time.
 Mono-chronic time systems
It is related to time commitment .
 Poly-chronic time systems:
Rather than giving importance to time this system gives
priority to persons.
Prentice Hall 2003Chapter 4 11

13.  There is a wide range of application for this term.
 It is generally used to refer to:
 The ability to act effectively within a specific culture,
 The ability to act responsibly towards people from marginalized cultural
backgrounds within a specific cultural environment.
 So, people prefer to use the more specific form: You could say, “I have some
cultural competence in Mexican American culture, my boyfriend grew up in
Mexico.”
 The idea of Minimal Competence is useful because that suggests that
someone knows enough to get around, but not that you are an expert.
 Cultural Proficiency might contrast with Minimal Competence, being
more than just competent.
 Cultural Fluency would designate a comfort and confidence in navigating
another culture.
 Culturally Aware designates a person who knows about something, but
hasn’t spent time actually developing navigational skills.

14. Intercultural communication is:
communication between at least two people
from different cultures.

15.  Intercultural communication: Communication
between people of different cultural backgrounds.
 It has always been and will probably remain an
important precondition of human co- existence on
earth.
 All manifestations of intellectual, linguistic and
economic exchange that are intended to occur
between individuals of different cultures or
between their groups or governments.
 All intellectual, or linguistic, or economic activities
attempt to bridge communication between
cultures.
 Cross- cultural communication encompasses all
these aspects, although political are economic
interest are the most powerful and clear motive in
these attempts.

16.  It is not cultures that communicate, but
people with different cultural backgrounds
that do.
 The act of successfully passing meaning
from a person who locates themselves in
one ethnic/ cultural demographic to
another.
 It is the act of communicating when two
people do not speak the same language
and need to use other methods to deliver
their intended meaning.

17.  Karlfried Knapp: Interculturel
communication refers to inter-personal
interaction between a group of
individuals among themselves, or with
groups belonging to different cultures,
states, and races.
 Fortes: Cross-cultural communication
not only exchanges, or transmits
cultural contents from culture to culture.
However, this type of communication is
conditional on creating and providing
interaction between groups belonging
to different cultures.

18.  Intercultural communication: The effective
communication between people of different
cultural background.

19. Brief History of Intercultural Communication
 Since the beginning of history, man has understood his
need to communicate and be in contact with others,
beginning with language, violence, war, economic
exchange (through barter in both agricultural and civil
societies).
 Throughout history, there had been attempts of human
contact through cultural tools of culture often to achieve
political or economic objectives.
 Embassies and ambassadors: the most important and
oldest form of political and cultural communication, through
which truces were held, wars were waged, or compromises
were reached.
 During these political contacts, the manifestations of
culture permiated the form of products/ crops/ words and
linguistic structures/ traditions. … etc

20.  The clearest manifestation of cultural communication is the
translation movement that arose between the languages of
competing civilizations: The Arab- Islamic civilization translating
the Greek, the Indian, and the Persian heritage.
 Those elements became inherent in the Islamic and Arab
heritage itself.
 A great intellectual wealth was transferred through extensive
translations to later civilizations; such as, Western civilization
during the Renaissance and Enlightnment eras.
 Scientific and geographical explorations: The oldest and most
important forms of cultural communication, whether for expansion
of commerce; such as, the Silk Road and the Spice Route, or for
imperial goals; such as, exploration trips to the New World, or
Orientalism launched by missionaries at the end of the 18th
century to the Islamic Orient.

22.  The 19th century: It has been associated with the increasing role of cultural
and intellectual communication through:
 1) Expansion of translations.
 2) Improvement of the printing press in the world, making knowledge and
information accessible to more people.
 3) The development of transportation and changing the economic map of the
world has made individuals in continuous travel movements.
 4) The growth of European colonial movement: It was accompanied by
cultural contacts at the political level, such as embassies and delegations, as
well as on the intellectual level, such as translations and scientific
publications.

23. Why Intercultural Communication is important?
 Kolen Cherry (2008): Communication is an essential element of
social life, and the participation of individuals in creating meanings
through lge, symbols, and signs, and in all kinds of social relations,
which occur in daily life. So, communication, in this sense, makes
individuals and groups understand each other and making one unity in
the community, society or culture as a whole.
 Intercultural communication, through its consequent mutual influences,
is a rich source for each culture.
 It is an important factor in deepening and broadening the horizons of
the culture. As long as these contacts are carried out naturally, with no
hegemonic tendencies or any other aims, (deliberately distorting the
features of other cultures).
 Intercultural communication: Mutual and interactive communication
between a sender and a recipient (receiver);
 Based on transmission or reception of the contents (ideas, opinions,
knowledge, attitudes, perceptions, values ​​and symbols) through
means or modes and special mechanisms; such as, audio- visual,
video, multimedia, and writing.

24.  Intercultural communication is a dynamic and
continuous process, conducted between two, or more
cultures) through convergence and dialogue; via
individual or collective channels, organized or non-
organized; such as, ambassadors, traders, tourists,
study missions, knowledge, books, communications
and the global network communication ... etc.
 The importance of intercultural communication stems
from the fact that it is the starting point in achieving
communication and interaction between human beings.
 Through intercultural communication, different ideas,
beliefs, attitudes, opinions, and benefits are exchanged
and transmitted.
 It satisfies the various human needs.

25.  George Eliot: ‘peoples of the world recognize each other through
the process of (intercultural) communication, without which the
world would become a group of distant islands. So, much attention
must be given to the process of communication’.
 Intercultural communication: the most important factor in enriching
cultures; it opens up new areas of thought and creativity (these are
often not available to any culture if it remains closed to its own
boundaries and acts in isolation from other cultures).
 Intercultural communication fosters, develops and renews the
growth of culture through the exchange of ideas and the promotion
of creativity,
 It assures the accumulation, or continuation of cultural construction,
and allows for the consolidation of what is new and innovative, in
order to emphasize cultural harmony.
 Through the growth and renewal, culture can resist the factors of
annihilation and disappearance, and growing ability of survival, by
retaining the ability to meet the needs of its people.

26.  It promotes cultural co- operation between individuals
and groups in the community, which contributes to the
strengthening of community cohesion and unity, and the
convergence and coexistence of human societies
 It is an integrated civilizational process, which opens
minds and souls to new horizons and modern
possibilities; thus, it is the effective way to achieve
human aspect of people. It is also a way to understand
and absorb the achievements of others, and to identify
their cognitive wealth and cultural potential.
 It helps to achieve intellectual and cultural convergence,
which leads to the promotion of human thinking and
behavior; it helps to expand the local, or national
specificities, and making them able to interact with
different sociocultural and cultural constituents.

27. STEP TOWARDS EFFECTIVE
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

28.  Develop a sense of cultural awareness
 Do not be ethnocentric
 Listen genuinely when others speak

29.  Do not lapse into your own language while in
the presence of others who do not speak it
 Take responsibility for the communication
(e.g., if miscommunication happens, it is not
always the other person’s fault)
 DO NOT STEREOTYPE

30. Intercultural communication:
 respects people as part of a group AND as
individuals.
 is not about interaction between national
cultures only.