Intercultural Communication

Speech 280

Summer 2012

 

Instructor:   Dr. Alan E. Yabui

Phone:         425-564-3083

Email: ayabui@bellevuecollege.edu      

Office Hrs.   3:30 PM, Monday thru Thursday, other times TBA

 

Textbook:    Ting-Toomey, S. and Chung, L. (2012) Understanding Intercultural Communication. 2nd Ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

 

          This is a Humanities Distribution course. (May be used as either

Humanities or Social Sciences if transferring to UW.)

 

          This course is designed to be a “hands-on intercultural communication learning class” as there are students enrolled from multiple cultural backgrounds.  For pre-nursing and nursing students, this course is a mandatory course for the BC Nursing Program. 

          In order to competently learn Intercultural Communication, one must (1) complete all assigned journal reports, (2) collaboratively participate in all classroom activities and (3) complete three small group projects. 

          In order to earn an “A,” students must successfully complete three group projects, complete all learning journals and the self-assessment of one’s intercultural communication learning, and actively participate in classroom discussions and exercises.

 

Course Objectives:

 

1.  To learn intercultural communication techniques using the role identity negotiation perspective described by Ting-Toomey and Chung in their book,

 

2.  To learn intercultural communication concepts such as mindfulness, identity negotiation perspective, cultural orientation, cultural patterns, high and low context communication styles, verbal and nonverbal coding, in-group/out-group influences in intercultural communication, intercultural interpersonal communication, and intercultural conflict management.

 

3.  To create a better understanding how cultural variables impact Interpersonal and Intercultural Communication through classroom dialog and collaborative exercises.  

 

4.  To demonstrate intercultural group communication skills by collaboratively working in intercultural groups to organize and present three group oral classroom presentations

 

5.  To demonstrate basic academic oral presentation skills by completing and presenting: (1) an off-campus group activity, (2) an intercultural movie “scenes” analysis, and (3) results of an inductive research project.

 

6 To actively communicate with other members of the class in class activities.

 

8. To work on learning strategies to become a self-directed learner.

 

 

Evaluations:

 

Group Cultural (first) project presentation                              500 points

Group Movie Analysis                                                          500 points

Group Final Research Project                                               500 points

Communication Styles Exercise                                            500 points              
Final Exam                                                                          500 points

Email Self –Assessment                                                       500 Points

Class participation                                                                         1000 points

Total                                                                                   4000 points

         

Course Grading:

 

          A                  100-93 Percent (minimum points 3600)

          B                    85.6-79 Percent (minimum points=3200)

          C                    78.9-70 Percent (minimum points=2800)

          D                    69-60 Percent (minimum points=2400)

          F                    Less that 60 Percent (less than 2399 points)

 

 

Cultural activities visitation project:  This is the first of three intercultural group projects for this course.  This project’s purpose is for students to participate in visiting an intercultural activity to enhance the student’s ability to communication in a context different from the BCC academic environment establishes the learning attitude for the rest of the course. The students will visit the cultural activity as a group and do a 15 minute PowerPoint presentation on their group’s activities.  Presentations will be presented on July 3.  The presentation should have a title slide, a major theme slide, content slides, and a group lessons learned slide.    A paper copy of the Power Point presentation will be submitted on the day of the group’s presentation.  Groups will be culturally diverse.  500 Points

 

Movie analysis:  Presentations will on July 25 and 26.  The movie must have an intercultural/interpersonal theme.  Use concepts from the books for this class and analyze the intercultural/interpersonal relationship and communication styles of two major characters in the move.  The oral presentations will be 15-minutes.  The last section of the analysis should be a summary of the "lessons learned from this exercise.”  Groups must be cultural diverse and different from group assignment 1.  (Use only two movie scenarios for this project.)  A written outline of the movie scenarios and Intercultural communication concepts used to analyze the movie will be turned in at the time of presentation.  500 points

 

Final Group Interview Presentation Project.  Presentations will be from August 8 and 9.  The oral presentation will be on PowerPoint.  Maximum group size is five students.  Select one or more major concept(s) covered in the textbook, do your research and prepare a 15-minute digital media presentation.  Include in your presentation, five references from the Internet sources, journals, etc., digital images, videos (optional) and an analysis of the cumulative personal interviews (interviews are mandatory). The format of the presentation is as follows:  Title page, Questions asked in the Project, References, Findings, and Lessons learned. Grading will be focused on group’s interpretation and presentation of the interview data and not the descriptive statistics of the interview sample group. 

 

Outline of presentation

 

          Slide 1:  Group project title and group member names.

          Slide 2:  Research question(s).

          Slide 3:  Five references (Use recommended citation format)

          Slide 4:  Findings   (May be presented using multiple slides)

          Slide 5:   Group and members lessons learned

 

NOTE: A written document of all references and interviewees and a copy of the group’s Power point presentation must be turned in at time of the group’s oral presentation.  This document will be used to grade the group’s final presentation.  The presentation will be graded on the quality of the content and the depth of the research.  (500 points)

 

Final exam is worth 500 points.

 

Class Participation:  There are several unannounced classroom exercises built into the curriculum of this course, therefore, attendance at all lectures is highly recommended.  Days when student presentations are scheduled, attendance is mandatory.  There are no-make-ups for class participation points. Points: the Instructor subjectively awards  (1000 points)

 

 

 

 

 

Schedule:

 

Jun 25-28     Chapters 1-3.  Form project groups.

 

Jul 2, 3, 5               Jul 2 project day, July 3 Project 1 presentation

 

Jul 4                       Holiday

 

. 

 

July 9--12               Chapter 4—6, Quiz on Chapter 6 July 11 and 12

 

Jul 16-19                Chapters 7, 8, Form project 2 groups                     

 

Jul 23-26                 Chapters 9, 10, Project 2 presentations Jul 25, 26.

 

Jul 30—Aug 2        Chapters 11, 12, Project 3 group formation and forming of group’s (project 3) research question                                        

 

Aug 6--9                 Project 3 group presentations Aug 7, 8; Final exam Aug 9.