Communicating across Cultures is a language course designed to help you improve your presenting and writing skills in English, and – at the same time – acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes that increase your intercultural competence.
We are going to explore the main contributions to the field of intercultural communication, by delving into the ground-breaking work of several ICC pioneers. The theoretical models, which are the backbone of this course, will come to life through real-life case studies, intertwined with personal sharing sessions. We’ll address issues like differences in values, nonverbal communication, avoiding face-threatening acts, the perils of stereotyping – to name just a few.
You will have the opportunity to practise English in a risk-free environment, fundamentally different from traditional language classes. Instead of dwelling on grammar mistakes and phonology drills, we’ll focus on helping you improve your critical thinking and brush up on your academic communication skills, such as presenting effectively (opening & closing strategies, persuasive techniques) and writing (hedging, politeness strategies, formal & informal registers)
Course structure: 4 main chapters divided into 12 sessions
Teaching approach: experiential and discussion-based (e.g. self-reflection, case study analyses, group talks)
Focus à developing intercultural awareness; enhancing academic communication skills (presenting, writing); encouraging critical thinking
Assessment à reflection & analysis tasks, presentations (oral exam), polite e-mail writing (written exam)
Language of communication: English, CEF level C1
By the end of this course, you should be able to:
1: Understand how culture interrelates with and influences communication processes.
2: Present, share and analyse, verbally and in writing, information related to experience gathered in your own culture, as well as in foreign cultures.
3: Negotiate and resolve misunderstanding in communication through paraphrasing and explaining.
4: Use polite discourse conventions and understand own language practices as well as those of others.
5: Predict possible areas of miscommunication and mediate between different culturally based communicative behaviours.
6: Identify challenges arising from cross-cultural differences and learn ways to address them.
- Dozent/in: Monica Hoogstad