Text B The Importance of Training Intercultural Communication Awareness
Modern society has made intercultural communication a necessity. With the development of science and technology, the world seems to be shrinking. Modern transportation and communication, electronic media and international organizations have brought near the people in the other hemisphere as if they were our next door neighbors. The mobility of people and the contact between countries have greatly increased intercultural communication. In today's world, intercultural awareness has become a prerequisite for successful intercultural communication.
English, as an international language, has called for Chinese learners' intercultural awareness. People used to assume that learning the rules of English grammar and a large amount of vocabulary was sufficient in learning English. The more grammar and words a learner had learnt, the higher his level of proficiency was. Experience has shown, however, that many learners, while knowing a lot about the target language, were, in fact, unable to communicate effectively in it. Intercultural awareness is required if the learner is to achieve the communicative competence, which is now considered as the goal of language learning universally.
Intercultural awareness becomes especially important when a learner reaches the advanced stage and reads authentic English texts. Very often, familiarity with the dictionary definitions of lexical items and the mastery of sentence structures do not seem to be enough for the learner to understand the information. Lack of cultural knowledge affects his comprehension.
Moreover, intercultural awareness cannot grow naturally. It has to be trained. For example, when a child from the Anglo-American world learns the word“dog”, he will normally learn the cultural meaning of the word: the dog is“man's best friend”. A child brought up in the Chinese culture would be taught that the dog is a dirty and dangerous animal. People, who have thus been initiated into the culture associated with their mother tongue, are naturally inclined to interpret things with their own cultural references. This natural inclination is called“intuitive competence”. When people from different cultures communicate, their respective“intuitive competence”may cause miscommunication. “Intuitive competence”is something native speakers possess, but foreign learners have to be trained in. Therefore, it becomes necessary for Chinese students to increase the intercultural awareness in the English language learning.
After You Read
Knowledge Focus
1. Pair Work: Discuss the following questions with your partner.
1) What does intercultural communication mean to you?
2) Give examples to illustrate different types of intercultural communication.
3) What features does intercultural communication have?
4) Why does intercultural awareness play a crucial role in the process of intercultural communication?
5) What is intuitive competence? How does it affect intercultural communication?
2. Solo Work: Tell whether the following statements are true or false according to the knowledge you learned and explain why.
1) The terms“intercultural”and“international”can be used interchangeably. ( )
2) International communication takes place between groups like African Americans and Latin Americans. ( )
3) As a phenomenon, intercultural communication has existed for thousands of years. ( ) 4) All people of the same nationality will have the same culture. ( )
5) Intercultural communication happens only when we meet face-to-face with foreigners. ( )
6) Due to the improvements in transportation and communication technology, intercultural communication has increased rapidly. ( )
7) Cultural mistakes are more serious than linguistic mistakes. ( )
8) Language competence is not enough for successful intercultural communication. ( )
9) One's actions are totally independent of his/her culture. ( )
10) In intercultural communication, one's intuitive competence may lead to miscommunication. ( )
Language Focus
1. Fill in the blanks with the following words or expressions you have learned in Text A and Text B.
1) Lengthy negotiation must___before any agreement can be reached.
2) It is difficult to___cause and effect in this case.
3) A lot of researches have proved that mother and baby___in a very complex way.
4) How could we___ourselves in school life?
5) He___in the crowd and lost in sight immediately.
6) I think he himself admirably, considering the difficult circumstances.
7) —“You know what? I've been promoted! ”—“This___a celebration! ”
8) In the first Spanish class, the professor___students into the principles of grammar.
9) We do not want to___him because he always brings humiliation to our team.
10) Having known him for a long time, I am___to believe him innocent.
2. Fill in the blanks with the proper form of the words in the brackets.
1) You need to take fuel___(consume) into consideration when buying a car.
2) The growing up of children has become___(ritual) in many cultures.
3) Television plays a___(dominate) role in molding public opinion.
4) Globalization of the world economy is crucial to the rapid increase of ___(culture) communication.
5) Dance inspires him ___(continue) to strive higher and higher toward the shining pinnacle of perfection.
6) A private car gives a much greater degree of comfort and ___(mobile).
7) The government is working on improving ecological ___(aware) of the citizens.
8) Are women more ___(intuition) than men?
3. Find the appropriate prepositions or adverbs that collocate with the words in bold letters.
1) Matters consist ___molecules, and molecules ___atoms.
2) For more information, you have to refer ___the authority.
3) Some training drills should be closely related ___actual badminton playing skills.
4) He was really exhausted ___a result of long-time stress.
5) You would be well advised not to get involved ___their quarrel.
6) If we mingle ___the crowd we shall not be noticed.
7) I did not want to be engaged ___boxing last year.
8) I cannot play the piano like I used to — my fingers have gone stiff from lack ___practice.
4. Error Correction: Each of the following sentences has at least one grammatical error. Identify the errors and make corrections.
1) Interracial communication occurs when the source and the receiver exchanging messages are from different race which are related to physical characteristic.
2) Intercultural communication is an universal phenomenon.
3) The communication between cultures have been going on for thousands of years.
4) It became even more necessary when thousand of gold-diggers from Asia and different European countries migrated to North America in search of wealth.
5) There is the example of the famous“Silk Road”in which people of Asia, Africa and Europe interacted and communicated with each other in order to conduct their business transactions.
6) Intercultural communication is common daily occurrence.
7) Today, thousands of Chinese students going abroad to study, millions of foreign travelers come to China, foreign artists come to China to give performances and many joint venture enterprises do business in many cities in China.
8) These are all examples shown how prevalent intercultural communication is today.
9) Modern transportation and communication, electronic media and international organizations have brought near the people in the other hemisphere as if they are our next door neighbors.
10) The mobility of people and the contact between countries has greatly increased intercultural communication.
11) People is used to assume that learning the rules of English grammar and a large amount of vocabulary was sufficient in learning English.
12) The more grammar and words a learner had learnt, the high his level of proficiency was.
13) Experience has shown that many learners, while knows a lot about the target language, were, in fact, unable to communicate effectively in it.
14) A child bringing up in the Chinese culture would be taught that the dog is a dirty and dangerous animal.
15) People, who have thus been initiated into the culture associated with their mother tongue, is naturally inclined to interpret things with their own cultural references.
16)“Intuitive competence”is something which native speakers possess, but foreign learners have to be trained in.
Comprehensive Work
1. Pair Work: Analyze the following cases with your partner .
Case Study 1
The following is a conversation between a Chinese tourist guide Xiao Lin and a British visitor Peter.
Xiao Lin (tourist guide): You must be very tired. You're old. . .
Peter (British visitor): Oh, I'm NOT old, and I'm NOT tired.
Case Study 2
The following is an email written by Chinese students to their Australian professor.
Dear Teacher，
It is our honor to be with you for the whole semester. We have learned a lot from you. We are deeply impressed by your knowledge and kindness. Thank you for your hard work. We will remember you forever.
Your students
2. Group Work
1) Form groups of three or four. First share with your group members whatever you have had in communication events that can be considered as intercultural. Then discuss the following cases of communication and decide to what extent they are intercultural.
2) In groups, discuss the question: Why would intercultural communication be more difficult than communication between people from the same culture? List as many reasons as you can think of, stating each as an answer to the question.
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
3. Writing
As people are becoming more and more mobile, communication in our life tends to be more and more intercultural. Conduct a small-scale survey in everyday life to see what cases of communication can be considered as somewhat intercultural. Write a short essay to report the results of your survey and try to explain to what extent can each case be intercultural and what makes it so.
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