Page 531 - Handbooks of Applied Linguistics Communication Competence Language and Communication Problems Practical Solutions

Intercultural Training 509

To conclude, ‘intercultural competence’ is an extremely complex phenom-
enon, and a combination of different training methods seems desirable, because
combining different training approaches makes optimal use of their advantages
while compensating for their shortcomings.

Notes

1 I am greatly indebted to Helen Spencer-Oatey for her editorial advice and Peter
Franklin for helpful comments and hints.
2 http://www.sietar-europa.org/, 12. 02. 2006
3 See also Black and Gregersen (1999) and Black and Mendenhall (1992: 178), who
refer to various studies.
4 On the original idea of ‘culture assimilators’, see Fiedler and Triandis (1971). The
technique of centering discussion on critical incidents originates from Flanagan
(1954). Ideal critical incidents for culture assimilators are seen as fulfilling the follow-
ing criteria (in this case formulated for Americans as the addressees of the training):
a) a common occurrence in which an American and a host national interact, b) a situ-
ation which the American finds conflictful, puzzling, or which he is likely to misin-
terpret and c) a situation which can be interpreted in a fairly unequivocal manner,
given sufficient knowledge about the culture. (Fiedler, Mitchell, Triandis 1971: 97)
5 See for example Slobodin et al. (1992) The Culture Assimilator: For Interaction with
the Economically Disadvantaged or Landis and Miller (1973) The Army Culture
Assimilator: Interacting with Black Soldiers or Müller and Thomas (1991) Interkul-
turelles Orientierungstraining für die USA, or Brüch and Thomas 1995 Beruflich in
Südkorea. Interkulturelles Orientierungstraining für Manager, Fach- und Führungs-
kräfte.
6 See also Knapp/Knapp-Potthoff (1990) for general strategies for enhancing mutual
understanding.
7 For literature on miscommunication and misunderstanding see Coupland, Wiemann
and Giles [sic!] (1991) and Rost-Roth (2006).
8 http://www.griggs.com/videos/vdser.shtml, 12. 02. 2006
9 http://www.diversophy.com, 12. 02. 2006
10 http://www.tco-international.com/team.asp, 12. 02. 2006
11 http://www.tco-international.com/competencies.asp, 12. 02. 2006
12 http://www.worldwork.biz/legacy/www/downloads/Introduction.pdf, 12. 02. 2006
13 http://www.incaproject.org, 12. 02. 2006
14 See for instance the European Journal of Intercultural Studies (http://www.intercul-
tural.at/, 12. 02. 2006), Interculture-Online (http://www.interculture-online.info/
index.php?bereich=backissues&ausg=1&inhalt=1&lang=deu, 12. 02. 06, or ‘Inter-
national Journal of Human Resource Management’ (http://www.tandf.co.uk/journ-
als/titles/09585192.asp, 12. 02. 2006).
15 http://www.sietar.de/SIETARproject/3.0Interculturale-learning.html, 23. 11. 2005
16 Paige (1996) goes into more detail on the required skills for trainers.