175-108 Cross-Cultural Communication

Formerly available as 175-006. Students who have completed 175-006 are not eligible to enrol in this subject. Strict enrolment deadlines apply to subjects taught during the Summer Semester. Any enrolment in, or withdrawal from, this subject for the Summer Semester must be made in line with HECS census dates, see HECS census date.

This subject involves the main components of communicative events across cultures, the main linguistic approaches to analysing them, how they vary in a range of cultures from around the world, and the difficulties and misunderstandings these differences create in inter-cultural and cross-gender communication. Specific topics include body language, titles and respect, turn-taking and turn maintenance, narrative structuring, intonation, requests, disagreement and criticism, information seeking, politeness, and business negotiation. The subject will be organised around case studies of half-a-dozen speech communities from around the world, such as French, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Anglo-Australian, and Aboriginal Australian.

Written work totalling 3000 words and a 1-hour exam. Students who complete the subject during the Summer Semester will complete the assessment after the teaching has concluded.

A subject reader will be available.