Page 40 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

The Study of Culture 25

administrators believed, could help prospective volunteers learn
to adapt to unfamiliar situations better than rote learning. So a
combined method was adopted, one that included lectures, dis-
cussion, and experiential learning activities (Dahlen 33–34).
Also during the 1960s, the myth of the “melting pot” boiled
over as the Civil Rights movement demanded social justice and
equal opportunity for all Americans regardless of race or ethnic
background. Rejecting the majority’s belief that people could be
boiled down into a generic American, activists marched peace-
fully or fought violently to garner respect for their own American
identity. These social upheavals rocked the country and brought
about needed change. Designations such as African American,
Latino American, and Asian American began to gain acceptance,
and colleges began to offer courses in ethnic studies. The new
awareness of multiple cultural identities within the United States
led to the demise of the “melting pot” and the birth of more plu-
ralistic national images such as a “salad bowl” or a “mosaic,” where
the distinctive flavors or colors of each element combine to pro-
duce a rich and varied whole.
Despite some setbacks, there is growing acceptance that plu-
ralism is the wave of the future. This has led the intercultural field
to split its orientation into two divergent yet complementary di-
rections. The international focus looks outward to our dealings
with members of the global community, while the domestic focus
is on multiculturalism outside of work and diversity within the
workplace.
Today the field of intercultural communication includes “di-
versity training, cross-cultural counseling, intercultural negotiation,
intercultural communications training, [and] cross-cultural sensi-
tivity training” (Dahlen 9), and it has spawned books, videos, con-
ferences, and national and international organizations as well as
doctoral programs. It is finally widely recognized that the issue of
cultural variation will not disappear and will only become more
relevant to our daily interactions as the world becomes smaller
through access to communications technology and our increas-
ing ability to reach out and touch someone with a different
worldview.*

* Many thanks to L. Robert Kohls for allowing me to review his notes for “Bench-
marks in the Development of the Field of Intercultural Communication in the
United States,” based on an oral presentation.

02 MINDESS PMKR 25 10/18/04, 11:22 AM