PART I
PREPARING TO TEACH
DESCRIPTION OF CHAPTER RESOURCES
Overview
Each chapter overview identifies the central themes addressed in the chapter.
Outline
Each chapter outline traces the major topics discussed within that chapter.
Activities
This chapter resource provides a wide variety of activities aimed at stimulating students’ learning
of intercultural communication in general and each chapter’s primary concepts in particular.
Activities can be particularly engaging for students in an intercultural communication course.
They offer a change from the traditional lecture by allowing students to demonstrate and
experience concepts discussed by the instructor and/or within the course textbook. Additionally,
using activities in the classroom is a powerful way to engage students in the course and in their
own learning. Probably most important in the intercultural communication course is that
activities transcend the classroom with real life situations and challenges. Below are descriptions
of the different types of activities included within this manual, as well as each activity type’s
accompanying benefits.
Role play. Role-playing is a training activity in which two or more participants take on
the characteristics of people other than themselves in order to attain a clearly defined
objective. These “other people”—or roles—are usually fictitious, although they should
be believable in order for the role-play to work. Participants who are not actively
involved in the role-play function as observers and look for certain things related to the
overall objectives as the role-play unfolds. Benefits include:
• Participants get a clear sense of identifiable skills in intercultural situations,
how they work, and the impact of things done effectively and ineffectively.
• Participants have an opportunity to feel what it is like to try out new or
enhanced skills in real situations.
• Participants also get a chance to feel what it is like to be in another role.
(McCaffery, 1995, p. 24)
Simulations. Simulations provide interactive opportunities to practice new behaviors and
experiment with new attitudes and points of view in a nonthreatening, nonjudgmental
environment. They are particularly useful for intercultural training, since simulations can
stimulate cognitive and affective understanding and broaden participants’ perspectives in
a short amount of time (Sisk, 1995, p. 82). Benefits include:
Critical Incidents. Critical incidents are brief descriptions of situations in which there is a
misunderstanding, problem, or conflict arising from cultural differences between
interacting parties or where there is a problem of cross-cultural adaptation. Each incident
gives only enough information to set the stage, describe what happened, and possibly
provide the feelings and reactions of the parties involved. It does not explain the cultural
differences that the parties bring to the situation. These are discovered or revealed as
students engage in the exercise (Wright, 1995, p. 128). Benefits include:
Culture Assimilator/Intercultural Sensitizer. This type of activity is “specifically
constructed to sensitize persons from one cultural group to the assumptions, behaviors,
norms, perceptions, interpretations, attitudes, and values—in short, the subjective culture—
of persons from another cultural group” (Triandis as cited in Albert 1995, p. 165).
Benefits include:
• Imparts knowledge of the target group’s subjective culture.
• Helps participants develop more accurate expectations in intercultural
interactions.
• Helps participants interact more effectively with persons from the target
culture.
• Improves knowledge and application of cross-cultural communication
concepts.
• Increases participants’ intercultural sensitivity. (Triandis as cited in Albert,
1995, p. 165)
Case Studies. Case studies are realistic examples of intercultural situations that include
“sufficient detail to make it possible for the participants in a training program to analyze
the problems involved and to determine possible solutions” (Nadler as cited in Lacey &
Trowbridge, 1995, p. 187). Benefits include:
Field Exercises. Field exercises take the students outside the classroom to examine or
experience the specified intercultural communication topic in real life. Benefits include:
• Increases students’ knowledge and behavior by experiencing the actual event
outside the classroom.
• Allow students to experience members of other cultures.
• Allows students the opportunity to practice the intercultural communication
skills that they have learned in the classroom and from the textbook.
• Helps students interact more effectively with members of other cultures.
Media Searches. Media searches take students through all forms of media (papers, films,
magazines, television, the arts, etc.) in order to find examples of the specific concept.
Accompanying the text is a valuable media research tool, the Infotrac College Edition.
Students can access the Infotrac web page at <http://www.infotrac-college.com>. In
order to register, students will need to type in the password that was included on the free
subscription card with their textbook. After registering, students will automatically enter
the EasyTrac search option and be asked to enter a search term. Alternatively, students
can use the PowerTrac search option to locate articles. Benefits include:
• Students can more fully explore cultural diversity and related course concepts.
• Students can gain more in-depth knowledge about a particular topic.
• Students have a ready research tool that utilizes technology to access credible,
timely, and relevant literature.
Supplemental Films and Videos
Each chapter resource includes brief descriptions of instructional videos and dramatic films
relevant to that chapter’s primary concepts.
Test Items
Each chapter includes a host of multiple choice, true/false, and short answer/essay questions.
The content and question types allow for a variety of testing configurations.
FACILITATING DISCUSSION OF ACTIVITIES
Activities often serve as illustrative catalysts for the more illuminating discussion session that
takes place afterwards. It is during these classroom discussions where students come to grips
with the concepts illustrated in the activity by verbalizing and sorting through their experience.
The post-activity discussion is not merely a quick overview of what happened, with a few
substantive comments made only by the teacher. As Nyquist (1979) has stated, an instructional
discussion is a developmental process in which the “purpose is to move students toward new
understanding and appreciation” (p. 7). Students should be talking to each other with the
instructor acting as question poser, clarifier, and/or summarizer.
When discussing the exercise experience with students, Bloom’s (1956) taxonomy of educational
objectives is helpful for developing different types of questions and bringing students to different
stages of awareness. The example on the following page illustrates how this taxonomy can be
used to lead a class discussion towards greater levels of higher-order thinking after conducting
Activity 2.3: Women and Men in the Workplace, included in Chapter Two. The typology
includes the concepts of knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, and evaluation.
Example
Knowledge How would you describe the relationship between Bill and Helen?
The relationship between Bill and Margaret?
Comprehension How are Helen and Margaret different in their attitudes towards the
treatment of women in the workplace?
Application Have you ever been in a situation when someone treated you a
certain way or had certain expectations based on your gender?
Analysis Why might these kinds of situations be frustrating for all parties?
To what extent do the frustrations reflect changes in women’s
roles, language, and the workplace?
Evaluation In the situation involving Bill and Margaret, do you think anyone
acted or reacted inappropriately? Why do you feel this way? Do
you think anyone acted or reacted appropriately? Why do you feel
this way?
Whatever the preferred method of questioning, all activities should be discussed or debriefed to
one degree or another. A carefully considered list of questions is useful in guiding this
discussion.
SAMPLE COURSE SCHEDULES
The course schedules on the following pages propose three organizational frameworks for using
Communication Between Cultures, Ninth edition, as the primary source of course content for an
intercultural communication class. The sample course schedules are general, and do include
specific dates for examinations and quizzes. The schedules are intended only as guides and not
as complete, ready-to-use course schedules.
The first course schedule is for a 50-minute course that meets three times a week over ten weeks
(quarter system). The second course schedule is for a 75-minute course that meets twice a week
over 15 weeks (semester system). The third course schedule is for a 75-minute course that meets
four to five times a week over five weeks (summer session). Each course schedule lists the class
period’s topic, assigned reading, and a number of relevant class activities that are included in the
chapter resources of this manual. All of the course schedules make full use of each of the
textbook’s ten chapters; clearly, the schedules will need to be revised if instructors plan on using
only particular selections or chapters.
Quarter-based schedule: 10-weeks (3 days per week, 50 minutes per day)
Class period
Topic
Readings
Week 1
Ch. 1
Intercultural Communication:
Interaction in a Multicultural World
Week 2
Ch. 2
Communication and Culture: The Voice and the Echo
Week 3
Ch. 3
The Deep Structure of Culture:Lessons From Family
Week 4
Ch. 4
Cultural History: Our Antecedents
Week 5
Ch. 5
Worldview: Cultural Explanations of Life and Death
Week 6
Ch. 6
Cultural Values: Guidelines for Behavior
Week 7
Ch. 7
Cultura and Identity: Situating the Individual
Week 8
Ch. 8
Verbal Messages:
Exchanging Ideas Through Language
Week 9
Ch. 9, 10
Nonverbal Communication:
The Messages of Action, Space, Time, and Silence;
Cultural Influences on Communication Contexts
Week 10
Ch. 10, 11
Cultural Influences on Communication Contexts
The Challenges of Intercultural Communication: Managing
Differences
Semester-based schedule: 15-weeks (2 days per week, 75 minutes per day)
Class period
Readings
Week 1
Ch. 1
Week 2
Ch. 2
Week 3
Ch. 3
Week 4
Ch. 4
Week 5
Ch.4
Week 6
Ch. 5
Week 7
Ch. 5
Week 8
Ch. 6
Week 9
Ch. 7
Week 10
Ch. 8
Week 11
Ch. 9
Week 12
Ch. 9
Week 13
Ch. 10
Week 14
Ch. 10
Week 15
Ch. 11
Accelerated summer schedule (5 weeks, 4 days per week, 75 minutes per day)
Class period
Readings
Week 1
Ch. 1, 2
Week 2
Ch. 3, 4
Week 3
Ch. 5, 6
Week 4
Ch. 7, 8
Week 5
Ch. 9, 10, 11
SAMPLE LESSON PLAN
Lesson Goal
To increase students’ knowledge and understanding of the cultural influences on
nonverbal communication as discussed in Chapter Nine.
Lesson Objectives
• Understand that culture influences how individuals perceive, use, and respond
tononverbal communication such as gestures, posture, space, time, paralanguage, and
silence.
• Identify some of the specific cultural differences in the perception, use, and response to
nonverbal communication.
• Realize that we often characterize, stereotype, and prejudge individuals according to their
accents.
• Better understand the learned and innate nature of nonverbal communication
Lesson Format
Interactive Lecture (45 min); Activity (15 min); Discussion of activity (15 min).
I. Lecture
A. The importance of nonverbal behaviors in intercultural communication
1. Nonverbal can cause misunderstanding among those who share the same
cultural background
2. The potential for misunderstanding is even greater when interactants do
not have shared cultural knowledge
B. Functions of nonverbal communication
1. Expressing internal states
2. Creating identity
3. Regulating interaction
4. Repeating verbal messages
5. Substituting verbal messages
C. Defining nonverbal communication
1. Simply speaking, “Nonverbal communication are behaviors and
characteristics that convey meaning without words (Floyd, 2011, p.179)
2. Intentionality
3. Distinctions between verbal vs. nonverbal messages
a. Morse code
b. Smoke signals
4. Factors affecting the study of nonverbal communication
a. Ambiguity
b. Multiple factors
c. Cultural universals
D. Nonverbal communication and culture reiterated
E. Types of nonverbal communication.
1. Messages of the body
2. Appearance
a. Judgment of beauty
II. Activity [Activity 9-8: Beauty is in the Biophysical Eye of the Beholder, in Part II:
Chapter Resources, Instructor Resource Manual]
i. Facial averaging (http://www.faceresearch.org)
ii. Geometric profiling (http://www.beautyanalysis.com)
b. Skin color
III. Activity Discussion
A. Do you think facial averaging reflects “true” beauty?
B. Does geometric profiling truly define beauty?
C. What aspects of beauty and attractiveness are learned?
D. What aspects of beauty and attractiveness are innate?
E. How is attractiveness determined? Is beauty truly in the eye of the beholder?
IV. Lecture Continued
c. attire
F. Gestures and body movements (also known as kinesics)
1. Kinesics (defined): “the study of human body movements, including such
phenomena as gesutres, posture, facial expression, eye behavior, and rate
of walk.” (Moore, Hickson, & Stacks, 2010, p. 185)
2. Posture
3. Gesture
a. Idiosyncratic gestures
b. Beckoning gestures
c. Agreement gestures
d. Offensive gestures
d. Frequency and intensity of gestures
4. Facial expressions
a. Ekman & Friesen’s (1975) primary emotion affect displays
i. Sadness
ii. Anger
ii. Disgust
iv. Fear
v. Interest
vi. Surprise
vii. Happiness
b. Smiling
5. Eye contact
a. Direct eye contact
b. Gaze
c. Staring
Note: This sample lesson plan covers one 75-minute class period using a two day per week
semester schedule. Thus, approximately one-half of chapter nine is addressed. Content and time
allocation will need to be adapted to fit other formats.
References and Resources for Sample Lesson Plan
Ekman, P., & Friesen, W.V. (1975). Unmasking the face: A guide to recognizing emotion for
facial cues. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Facial Averaging. http://www.faceresearch.org
Floyd, K. (2011). Interpersonal communication (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.
Geometric profiling. http://www.beautyanalysis.com
Moore, N-J., Hickson, M., & Stacks, D. (2010). Nonverbal communication: Studies and
applicationsm (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
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