Лихочвор Л.Я., Дешко С.Д.

Львівський національний аграрний університет , Україна

ASPECTS OF CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

 

Cross-cultural communication is a field of study that looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate, in similar and different ways among themselves, and how they endeavor to communicate across cultures. The study of cross-cultural communication was originally found within businesses and the government both seeking to expand globally. Businesses began to offer language training to their employees. Businesses found that their employees were ill equipped for overseas work in the globalizing market. Programs were developed to train employees to understand how to act when abroad. With this also came the development of the Foreign Service Institute , or FSI, through the

Cross -cultural communication, is a combination of many other fields. These fields include anthropology , cultural studies , psychology and communication. The field has also moved both toward the treatment of interethnic relations, and toward the study of communication strategies used by co-cultural populations, i.e., communication strategies used to deal with majority or mainstream populations. The study of languages other than one’s own can not only serve to help us understand what we as human beings have in common, but also assist us in understanding the diversity which underlies not only our languages, but also our ways of constructing and organizing knowledge, and the many different realities in which we all live and interact. Language socialization can be broadly defined as “an investigation of how language both presupposes and creates anew, social relations in cultural context”.

Effective communication with people of different cultures is especially challenging. Cultures provide people with ways of thinking – ways of seeing, hearing, and interpreting the world. Thus the same words can mean different things to people from different cultures, even when they talk the "same" language. When the languages are different, and translation has to be used to communicate, the potential for misunderstandings increases. The study of cross-cultural communication is fast becoming a global research area. As a result, cultural differences in the study of cross-cultural communication can already be found. For example, cross-cultural communication is generally considered to fall within the larger field of communication studies in the US , but it is emerging as a sub-field of applied linguistics in the UK . As the application of cross-cultural communication theory to foreign language education is increasingly appreciated around the world, cross-cultural communication classes can be found within foreign language departments of some universities, while other school are placing cross-cultural communication programs in their departments of education.

With the increasing pressures and opportunities of globalization, the incorporation of international networking alliances has become an “essential mechanism for the internationalization of higher education”. In general, university processes revolve around four major dimensions which include: organizational change, curriculum innovation, staff development, and student mobility. Ellingboe emphasizes these four major dimensions with his own specifications for the internationalization process. Above all, universities need to make sure that they are open and responsive to changes in the outside environment. In order for internationalization to be fully effective, the university (including all staff, students, curriculum, and activities) needs to be current with cultural changes, and willing to adapt to these changes . As stated by Ellingboe , internationalization “is an ongoing, future-oriented, multidimensional, interdisciplinary, leadership-driven vision that involves many stakeholders working to change the internal dynamics of an institution to respond and adapt appropriately to an increasingly diverse, globally focused, ever-changing external environment". The main theories for cross-cultural communication are based on the work done looking at value differences between different cultures, especially the works of Edward T. Hall ,

 

The list of references:

1.       Bartell M. Internationalization of universities: a university culture-based framework / M. Bartell. – L.: Higher Education, 2003. – 150 p.

2.       K?chler H. Cultural Self-comprehension of Nations / H. K?chler . – T?bingen : Erdmann: Final Resolution, 1978. – 142 p.

3.       Rymes J. Language Socialization and the Linguistic Anthropology of Education / J. Rymes . – L.: Encyclopedia of Language and Education. 2008, – 500 p.

4.       Teather D. The networking alliance: a mechanism for the internationalization of higher education? / D. Teather . – Managing Education Matters, 2004. – 200 p.

5.       Building English Skills / [J.A. Christensen, G. Stephen Ham, V. Marilyn, Kemp, and others]. – McDougal, Littell & Company, 1985. – 243 p.