Language and Intercultural Communication

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Key concepts in the relationships between communication, culture and language, for example linguistic relativity, culture as a social semiotic system, culture as discourse, and critical theories of culture and language
• Nonverbal aspects of intercultural communication,
• Intercultural theories, for example third places, liminality, discourse approaches and transcultural flows, and how these relate to globalisation and lingua franca communication,
• Key concepts in culture and language teaching, including intercultural communicative competence, cultural awareness and intercultural awareness and intercultural citizenship education.
• Constructions and negotiations of cultural identities in intercultural communication, including stereotypes of “native” and “other” cultures,

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Make connections between theories of intercultural communication and your own intercultural experiences,
• Define intercultural competency in terms of empathy, cultural adaptability, cultural relativisation, negotiation and mediation,
• Reflect on, describe and clarify the configuration of cultural identities in intercultural communication, including your own,
• Problematise definitions of culture and language in intercultural communication, especially in global lingua franca communication contexts,
• Illustrate, contrast and explain differences in both verbal and nonverbal communication in and across different cultures, as emergent resources in intercultural communication,
• Describe and evaluate the relevance of different pedagogic approaches to intercultural communication and language teaching/training in a variety of contexts.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Work and communicate with deeper understanding with people from different cultural backgrounds in real life situations,
• Develop your own teaching approaches and materials based on an understanding of language and culture in intercultural communication.
• The ability to write academic assignments in an appropriate style and format.
• Apply theories of intercultural communication to your own research and professional experience,

Topics covered will typically include:

1.Theories of culture and language

2.Theories of intercultural and transcultural communication

3.Identity and culture

4.Semiotics and multimodality in intercultural communication

5.Global languages and intercultural communication

6.Digital intercultural communication

7.Intercultural pragmatics

8.Intercultural communication, education, training and language teaching

9.Intercultural communication and ideology in education

10.Intercultural communicative competence and intercultural awareness

Teaching methods include

• Lectures
• Seminars
• Group work

Learning activities include

• Individual and/or team research
• Using on-line resources such as Blackboard
• Individual study

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.