Intercultural Communication
| Module title | Intercultural Communication |
|---|---|
| Module code | SML2246 |
| Academic year | 2024/5 |
| Credits | 15 |
| Module staff | Professor Sonia Cunico (Convenor) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 11 |
Module description
The aim of this module is to introduce you to intercultural competence and to the important role it plays in multilingual and multicultural encounters. The module will allow you to explore concepts such as communication, identity, culture, and othering in a wide range of contexts and media, and to apply them to your own personal experience. You will engage with core discipline readings and draw on them to identify, describe, and interpret specific case studies and situations in which communication can break down and intercultural conflicts arise. The module will help you to reflect critically on cultural and linguistic diversity and increase your intercultural communication awareness.
Module aims - intentions of the module
The module aims to:
- Understand and explain the relationship between communication, culture/s, and identity/ies
- Recognise the role cultural practices play in your life and develop an ability to respond appropriately to unfamiliar ones
- Demonstrate a greater sensitivity to cultural and linguistic diversity through engagement with critical concepts such as culture, identity, othering, mis/communication in a range of different contexts and through different media
- Adopt an interdisciplinary approach and help you to develop a familiarity with different analytical tools and approaches
- Develop the ability to engage with and research an individual topic
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Demonstrate understanding of the key theoretical notions and concepts in Intercultural Communication Theory as well as their relevance in multilingual and multicultural contexts
- 2. Demonstrate the development of your Intercultural Competence through the analysis of data which illustrate instances of cultural diversity and/or mis/understanding
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 3. Recognise, describe, and evaluate (under guidance from the module tutor/s) a variety of critical responses to case studies, scenarios, and sources
- 4. Demonstrate the development of intercultural awareness within a structured framework
- 5. Recognise and understand the role of language/s as a key locus of personal and sociocultural identity as well as of intercultural mis/understanding
- 6. Demonstrate familiarity and ability to draw on a range of research literature to support an argument
- 7. Engage with a variety of research approaches, including ethnography of communication, contrastive pragmatics, and discourse analysis
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 8. Develop intercultural awareness and competence based on engagement with a variety of readings and case studies
- 9. Undertake an independent essay, which involves the analysis of some data using appropriate analytical frameworks
Syllabus plan
Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:
-
Diversity and globalisation
-
What is Communication? Models of communication
-
Understanding culture
-
Different value orientations and cultural dimensions
-
Contexts, culture/s and identities–
-
Linguistic and non-linguistic barriers to communication
-
Intercultural transitions: immigration and acculturation
-
Intercultural miscommunication and conflict management
-
Co-construction and resistance of cultural identity and communities
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 15 | 135 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 15 | Lectures and seminars |
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 1 | Available for consultation re project |
| Guided Independent Study | 134 | Private study and seminar preparation |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | 500 words | 1-9 | Written and/or oral |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reflective piece | 40 | 1,000 words | 1-8 | Written and oral |
| Essay | 60 | 1,500 words | 1-9 | Written and oral |
| 0 | ||||
| 0 | ||||
| 0 | ||||
| 0 |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reflective piece | Reflective piece | 1-8 | Referral/Deferral period |
| Essay | Essay | 1-9 | Referral/Deferral period |
Re-assessment notes
Successful referred students will receive the maximum achievable mark of 40 for their reflective piece and essay. Successful deferred students will have their re-assessment treated as a first attempt, thus the full range of marks will be available.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
- Hua, Zhu (2013) Exploring Intercultural Communication: Language in Action (Routledge Introductions to Applied Linguistics). Routledge
- Holliday, A, Hyde, A, and Kullman, J. · (2010) Intercultural Communication: An Advanced Resource Book for Students. Routledge
- Jackson, J. (2014) Introducing Language and Intercultural Communication, London: Routledge. Available online via MyiLibrary
- Liu, S., Volcic, Z., and Gallois, C. (2014) Introducing Intercultural Communication, London: Sage. Available from the University bookshop
- The Routledge Handbook of Language and Intercultural Communication, edited by Jane Jackson, Taylor & Francis Group, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/exeter/detail.action?docID=958214.
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
| Credit value | 15 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 7.5 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 5 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | February 2015 |
| Last revision date | 08/11/2021 |
