This course will be highly interactive. Working individually or in small groups, students will engage in discourse, analysis and interpretation of intercultural and interpersonal communication and intercultural conflict management skills. A discussion-based teaching model will be used with the expectation that students will actively prepare for, participate in and extract meaning from in-class activities, case studies, simulations and role plays. Student activities may be videotaped for the purposes of informed self-evaluation.
1. Foundational review of definitions and terminology:
- interpersonal communication
- intercultural communication and cultural values
- interpersonal conflict
- conflict styles
- cultural biases
2. Foundational review of models and taxonomies used in intercultural understanding
- Cultural Iceberg
- Hofstede’s Dimensional Model
- Hall’s High and Low Context Model
- Identity Models (cultural identity awareness)
3. Meaning of intercultural conflict in interpersonal relationships
- intercultural conflict
- causes of intercultural interpersonal conflict
- intercultural conflict styles
4. Theoretical approaches to understanding and managing intercultural conflict in interpersonal relationships
- identity negotiation theory
- matrix of face theory
- anxiety uncertainty management theory
- communication accommodation theory
- coordinated management of meaning theory
5. Decision making across cultures
- factors that influence decision making
- power differential and balancing
- cultural norms and worldview approaches to conflict management
6. Conventions of language specific to intercultural conflict in interpersonal relationships
- language codes
- explicit/implicit communication
- nonverbal/verbal communication
7. Constructive intercultural conflict resolution skill development and culture-sensitive approaches to conflict resolution
- facework
- engaged listening
- mindfulness
- cultural empathy/analytical empathy
- reframing
- code switching
- DIE
- problem solving
Knowledge:
By the end of the course, successful students will be able to:
1. explain the basic concepts of intercultural and interpersonal communication and conflict
2. identify causes of intercultural conflict in interpersonal relationships
3. describe factors influencing intercultural conflict
4. describe theoretical approaches to intercultural conflict
5. articulate various strategies employed to resolve intercultural conflict in interpersonal relationships
Skills:
By the end of the course, successful students will be able to:
1. demonstrate an increased ability to be reflective and aware of their own cultural background and the influence that background has on intercultural conflict
2. use models, theories and concepts to discuss the causes and factors influencing intercultural conflict in interpersonal relationships
3. employ foundational skills for communicating effectively in intercultural conflict in interpersonal relationships
4. adapt appropriate strategies in the context of intercultural conflict in interpersonal relationships
5. apply skills in a variety of settings to manage intercultural conflict in interpersonal relationships
Attitudes:
By the end of the course, successful students will be able to:
1. assess the improvement of their intercultural conflict management functioning
2. justify the benefits of interpersonal conflict management skills
3. discern and articulate the impact of decision making and power in intercultural conflict situations
4. reflect on and explain the role of their cultural conflict style and its effect on others
5. appreciate and explain the importance culture plays in managing intercultural conflict in interpersonal relationships
The following is one example of assessment components and weighting:
Attendance, participation and professional conduct, quizzes 20%
Written and oral assessment, analysis and discussion of improved
intercultural conflict management functioning 30%
Written analysis of a conflict situation 25%
Research discussion and written reflection on intercultural conflict in
different communication settings 10%
Team-based intercultural conflict project 15%
Total 100%
Sample of Textbooks and Materials Appropriate for Communications 2317 to be purchased in Current Edition by Students:
An instructor-designed course pack to be used in place of a textbook based on work by such scholars as Stella Ting-Toomey, Michelle LaBaron, Paul Lederach, David Augsburger, William Gudykunst
None
None
None