Page 23 - Handbooks of Applied Linguistics Communication Competence Language and Communication Problems Practical Solutions

Introduction 1

1. Introduction

Helen Spencer-Oatey and Helga Kotthoff

The focus of this series of Handbooks of Applied Linguistics is ‘linguistics as
problem solving’, and this particular volume explores the topic of intercultural
communication. In this introductory chapter we briefly consider a few funda-
mental questions and outline the scope of the volume.

1. What is Intercultural Communication?

Intercultural communication, as the name indicates, is concerned with communi-
cation across cultures. Gudykunst (2000), a communication studies scholar, dis-
tinguishes it from cross-cultural studies of communication as follows:
‘Cross-cultural’ and ‘intercultural’ are often regarded as interchangeable. They are,
nevertheless, different. Cross-cultural research involves comparing behaviour in two
or more cultures (e.g. comparing self-disclosure in Japan, the USA and Iran when
individuals interact with members of their own culture). Intercultural research
involves examining behaviour when members of two or more cultures interact
(e.g. examining self-disclosure when Japanese and Iranians communicate with each
other). … Understanding cross-cultural differences in behaviour is a prerequisite for
understanding intercultural behaviour.
Gudykunst 2000: 314
This is a useful distinction, but it immediately raises a more fundamental issue:
how can cultures be defined and how can intercultural communication thus be
distinguished from intracultural communication? This is a very complex ques-
tion, which requires in-depth theoretical discussion and which some of the
ˇ
authors in this volume address (see, for example, Zegarac).
It is now widely accepted that cultures cannot simply be reduced to national-
ity, nor even to a homogeneous speech community, which ethnographers of
communication assumed until recently (Hymes 1974). Today we can see that
many people live in ephemeral social formations, that they simultaneously
belong to several cultures and that they can change their memberships. We can
assume with less certainty than ever that there are separate local cultures. Vari-
ous international influences reach, for example through the mass media, even
the most remote village communities and influence their feeling, thinking and
acting (see, for example, Hinton in this volume). But this does not necessarily
mean that they will become increasingly globalized. After all, it is precisely in
contact that a need for distinction arises, and ethnicity can be created as a rel-