Page 27 - Handbooks of Applied Linguistics Communication Competence Language and Communication Problems Practical Solutions

Introduction 5

benefit from the thrust of the findings and may want just this ‘thrust’ to be com-
municated.
As Madeleine Brabant, Bernadette Watson and Cindy Gallois argue at the
end of their chapter (chapter 4) in relation to psychology and applied linguistics,
there is great potential for more and deeper interactions between scholars of all
fields who are interested in intercultural communication. This volume aims to
help promote this process.

4. What is the scope of this volume?

In the light of all the above, we have developed the following sections:

Section 1: Multidisciplinary perspectives on intercultural communication
Section 2: Intercultural perspectives on communicative practices and processes
Section 3: Intercultural communication in different sectors of life
Section 4: Issues and debates
Section 5: Assessing and developing intercultural competence

We introduce the foci and component chapters of Sections 1–5 at the beginning
of each of the sections.

Notes:

1. Fredrik Barth has frequently shown in his research (1969) that cultural contact by no
means suffices to minimize differences.

References:

Barth, Fredrik
1969 Ethnic Groups and Boundaries. New York
Bourdieu, Pierre
1984 Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre
1997 “Ortseffekte,” in: Pierre Bourdieu (ed.), Das Elend der Welt. Konstanz,
159–169.
Gudykunst, William B.
2000 Methodological issues in conducting theory-based cross-cultural research.
In: Helen Spencer-Oatey (ed.), Culturally Speaking. Managing Rapport
through Talk across Cultures, 293–315. London: Continuum.