Intercultural Communication Skills ICC for ESL Teaching: PreVerbal, Verbal, and NonVerbal

1
Intercultural Communication Skills (ICC) for ESL
Teaching Pre-Verbal, Verbal, and Non-Verbal

• Kathryn Brillinger
• Conestoga College
• Kitchener, Ontario
• kbrillinger_at_conestogac.on.ca

Diversity The Face of Success March 28, 2009
2
Goals of Successful ICC

• understanding how planning for communication, the
  words used, and non-verbal cues are culturally
  based and that one cultures competence can be
  anothers incompetence
• reducing confusion in intercultural communication
• getting to a place where the communication is
  effective and mutually satisfying

3
O Canada!
O Canada, Drew Brook-Cormack, 1000-pc jigsaw
puzzle
4
Nadia-Alysha-Zahra-Tameera
5

• POWER AND HISTORY Intercultural communication
  takes place within the ever-changing contexts of
  politics, power, wealth, position, popularity,
  and the past.
• DIVERSITY Intercultural communication takes
  place within a context of differences.

6
Intercultural Learning
Cognitive
Affective
Behavioural
7
Cultural Boundary Lines

• We also belong to a culture when we have a shared
  set of values and meanings.
• Cultural boundaries are fluid and our cultures
  can grow and decrease.

8

• Other cultures are mirrors in which we can
  better see ourselves what the anthropologist
  Margaret Mead (1934) called
• the looking-glass self
• Watch Canadian Wade Davis 22 minute lecture
  about the decreasing ethnosphere
• on www.ted.com
• http//www.ted.com/index.php/talks/wade_davis_on_e
  ndangered_cultures.html

9
Continuums NOT Stereotypes
10
Why does this matter?

• A sad story of a woman who went to teach on a
  reservation.
• Is it possible that many
• of us display this
• cultural blindness
• and
• cultural imperialism
• in our ESL classes?

11
Collecting Stories

• Ghada and the coffee.
• What rules are involved?
• What cultural values are displayed?
• Aihua and the bank account.
• What rules are involved?
• What cultural values are displayed?

12
Invisible sets of paralinguistic rules exist
that reflect cultural values

• We operate by rules
• We are unaware of most of them
• We unconsciously reward and punish others for
  following or not following them

13
Pre-Verbal

• Lius (2005) study
• North Americans planning for speaking addresses
  expected opposition and seeks to support a
  pre-decided position. Very Aristotelian. Very
  arrowish.
• Asian planning emphasizes surface to core, a
  global perspective, dialectical materialism,
  analogy and dialectical emphasis is a feature of
  classic Asian writing and thinking. More
  spiraled.

14
Verbal

• Words represent our thinking.
• Objects, metaphors, and experiences are different
  from one culture to another.
• Conceptual Fluency requires re-learning boss,
  manager, colleague, rule, dead-line, suggestion
  etc.

15
The Non-Verbal Trumps the Verbal

• Most non-verbal behaviors are part of a safety
  net but many are not always useful in modern day
  situations.
• The 8-15 second rule
• The one piece of evidence is enough rule

16
From Monochronic to Polychronic (Chronemics)

• Monochronic Concepts
• one thing at a time is best - concentrate on the
  task at hand
• time commitments/deadlines/schedules are serious
• adhere religiously to plans
• try not to disturb others
• follow rules of privacy
• show great respect for ownership/private property
  even within family
• know how to work within short-term relationships

17
Polychronic Concepts

• Do many things at once
• Distractions are acceptable/interruptions are
  acceptable
• Commit to people and relationships not time
• Change plans often and easily
• Be more concerned with associates lives than
  with privacy
• Borrow, lend, share within relationships easily

18
Intonation

• high-rise, low-rise, rise-fall, flat, fall,
  fall-fall

19
Haptics (the study of touching behaviour)

• Seven types of touch positive affect
  (support, appreciation, inclusion)playfulnessc
  ontrol (compliance, attention wanted, response
  needed)ritual (greeting/leave-taking)hybrid
  (mix some of above as in a hug good-bye)task-rel
  atedaccidental Jones and Yarbrough (1985)

20
Proxemics (the study of distance in interaction)

• Public (teacher to class)
• Social (colleagues chatting)
• Personal (friends chatting)
• Intimate (friends in class whispering)

Traditional Forms of Greeting
Elbow Room
21
Oculesics (the study of eye contact)

• attentive focus/challenging stare
• shifty-eyed/respectful looking away
• flirtatious up-look/adultery of the eyes
• lustful glance/complimentary notice
• attempt to control fear/bad presentation skills
• attempt to access vocabulary/lack of
  attentiveness or ability

22
Personal Hygiene/Habits

• Hair washing
• Clothes scent
• Perfumes and colognes
• Nails
• Eyebrows
• Make-up
• Breath
• Ritual washing
• Cleavage

23
Emotional Regulation and Discourse Rules

• Overlapping
• Silence
• Place holders
• Fillers
• Number of items
• Amount of enthusiasm
• Control

24
Gesture

• The triangle
• The wrist
• The hand to heart
• The 3 per utterance

25
Head Movement
the tilt and nod
26
Posture
27
We must expect challenges and we must nurture
empathy

• Communication in a heterogeneous context is
  tiring and can not take place in the same way as
  in a homogeneous context.
• We need to carefully check our reactions to
  others.
• We need to check when we are disturbed.
• Try not to ask Why instead ask What does x
  mean to you?

28
Becoming an Exquisite Intercultural Communicator

• You need only three things to be an absolutely
  exquisite communicator.
• know the outcome that you want
• have flexibility in your behaviour (generate lots
  and lots of different behaviours to find the
  response that you want)
• have sensory awareness to notice when you get the
  responses that you want and when you dont
• Adapted from Frogs Into Princes (1979) by
  Richard Bandler and John Grinder

29
The Space in Between

• Once the realization is accepted that even
  between the closest human beings infinite
  distances continue, a wonderful living side by
  side can grow, if they succeed in loving the
  distance between them which makes it possible for
  each to see the other whole against the sky.
  

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
30

• Questions?
• Comments?
• Suggestions?
• Complaints?
• Feel free to email me!
• kbrillinger_at_conestogac.on.ca
• Thank you!