COM10007 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Stereotype, Intercultural Communication, Nonverbal Communication
Intercultural Communication
Reading key terms:
• Socialisation – The process of learning the norms, beliefs and processes of a culture, or cultures
• Enculturalisation – The long process of knowledge acquisition, cultural practice, expansion of
language and social network development that begins at birth and evolves throughout our lives
• Ethnocentrism – The attitude or beliefs that ones own culture is superior to that of another
person's
• Relativism – An individual culture should be viewed or judges by its own logic, as its impossible
to judge all cultures by a universal standard
• Acculturation – The process of which members of one culture come to adopt and practice the
behaviours, customs and beliefs of another culture
• Low-context culture – Meaning is more explicit to the words and actions, and meaning is more
denotative
• High-context culture – Meaning is more implied and relates to the context of the
communication
Lecture notes
Anxiety Uncertainty Management theory
• "Intercultural encounters are characterised by high levels of uncertainty and anxiety, especially
when cultural variability is high" (Griffin, p.496)
What is culture?
• A learned system of info (meaning and behaviour) that is passed from one generation to the
next
• The collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or
category of people from another.
Culture includes:
• Attitudes
• Expectations
• Family roles
• History
• Language
• Non-verbal communication
• Traditions
•
Socialisation- by way of which we learn, are educated and grow into socially responsible human beings
Enculturalisation – occurs over our lifetime with influences from family, neighbours, peers and work
colleagues
Language and Culture
• Language is the single most important dimension of a speakers culture
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