Page 528 - Handbooks of Applied Linguistics Communication Competence Language and Communication Problems Practical Solutions

506 Martina Rost-Roth

– Going international – safely
– Cross-cultural relationships and workshops
Each tape includes critical incidents, interviews with experts, and advice.
Gudykunst, Guzley and Hammer (1996) comment that particularly Bridging the
Cultural Gap, Beyond Culture Shock and Welcome Home Stranger can be put to
good use to illustrate intercultural communication processes. Information on
these programs can be found at http://www.griggs.com/videos/giser.shtml/ (ac-
cessed 12. 02. 2006). This site promotes video products by stating an increasing
need for training due to increasing globalization, and estimating the cost to the
economy (“each year billions of dollars are lost”). The video material is supple-
mented by a users’ guide. The site also recommends using the series Global
Contrasts as an additional resource.
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The series Valuing Diversity is also well known. These films primarily aim
to make viewers aware of the dynamics underlying encounters between individ-
uals with different backgrounds. The series also aims to promote self-reflection.
Another set of training material is Diversophy, developed by George Simons
International, which is available as a card game set or in an online version and as
Tele-diversophy for mobile phones. It is aimed at varied occupational groups,
and is developed for different cultural contexts. Its objective is to create “a low-
risk environment where participants feel free to confront their prejudices and
increase awareness”. 9
Summerfield (1993) provides references to numerous film and video ma-
terial. More recent examples are the video materials produced under the direc-
tion of Trickey and Ewington, which aim “to illustrate cultural diversity in
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multicultural teams” and to specify “competencies required for managing in
an international context” or Jonamay, Myers and Simons (2000) as a CD-
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ROM assisted handbook of training exercises for professionals.
There is also increasing interest in instruments that assess competences and
provide profiles of people who work in intercultural and international settings.
For example, The International Profiler questionnaire, developed by intercultu-
ralists and psychometricians at WorldWork Ltd., London, and available in vari-
ous languages, supplies licensed consultants with a respondent’s profile across
‘a set of of ten competencies (with 22 associated skills, attitudes and areas of
knowledge) that define the special capabilities required to transfer leadership,
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managerial and professional skills to an international context’. The INCA pro-
ject assessment tools, which are also designed to be used by different cultural
groups, are available online in English, German and Czech. For more in-
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formation on assessment and self-assessment of intercultural competence, see
also Prechtl and Davidson Lund in this volume.
For further up-to-date information on this steadily growing field, readers
should consult the relevant journals, which are also represented on the inter-
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net, and the homepage and links of SIETAR. Instructions for the development
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