175-420 Advanced Cross-Cultural Communication

Completion of 175-108 Cross-Cultural Communication and 37.5 points of second/third-year subjects in linguistics and applied linguistics for third-year students, and admission to the postgraduate diploma or honours in linguistics and applied linguistics for fourth-year students.

This subject explores cultural variation in communication patterns and expectations, and examines how communication takes place across cultures. It asks students to use their knowledge of linguistics and their understanding of other cultures to study the relation between cultural values and discourse and to apply this to workplace-based research. The subject will cover paradigms for this study such as sociolinguistic issues in language choice; cultural variation in speech acts; turn-taking rules and formulaic patterns; and cultural variation in the organisation of oral and written discourse (including academic discourse, meetings, letters). On completion of the subject, students should be sensitive to inter-cultural variation in communication patterns and expectations; be able to analyse such patterns and expectations; and know what questions to ask about communication patterns in an unfamiliar culture.

• be open to new ideas and possibilities;

• have developed skills for critical analysis along with a heightened awareness of their own discourse;

• be able to contextualise judgments.

For third-year students: Two class presentations and a 500-word written paper 20% (during the semester), a 3000-word assignment 60% (due at the end of the semester) and class participation 20%.

For fourth-year students: Two class presentations and a 1000-word written paper 40% (during the semester), and a 3000-word assignment 60% (due at the end of the semester).

• Clyne, Inter-cultural communication at work. CUP, 1996.