Purpose
To explore and understand the ways in which culture influences the way we communicate and form relationships with others. This assignment is also designed to help you improve your ability to communicate competently in cross-cultural interactions.
This assignment is linked to the following Student Learning Outcomes:
- Research and analyze interviewing techniques as they relate to interpersonal skills.
- Analyze perception and relate it to various communication settings.
- Conduct an interview using appropriate language, listening skills, nonverbal skills and response skills.
- Identify and analyze barriers to multicultural understanding.
- Demonstrate and evaluate skills for enhancing multicultural communication.
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Overview
Achieving communication competence in a culturally diverse society is necessary for personal and professional success.One way to enhance our understanding of communication as a relationship-building activity is to talk with people from different cultures. This assignment will give you the opportunity to learn about communication and culture by analyzing and identifying barriers to multicultural understanding and participating in the interview process.
Content
Your interview partner will be one of your classmates (the same person you are working on the Role Play assignment). Your task in the interview is to talk with your interview partner about communication in their culture, and how it is similar and/or different from your own. You will then use the results of the interview to analyze how your own cultural communication practices compare with those of your interview partner.
Some of the interpersonal communication topics that you might ask about in your interview include the following:
- Language and verbal communication
- Nonverbal communication
- Gender roles and gendered communities
- Family communication
- The expression of emotions
- Conflict management
- Friendship communication
- Romantic relationships, including dating, non-marital commitments, and marriage
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You will not be able to include all these topics in your interview questions and reflection paper. You should include at least two topics, but no more than three.Since the content for these main points will come from your interview, it is important that you (1) construct your interview questions carefully, (2) ask your partner to elaborate on various points, and (3) use paraphrasing and effective listening to ensure clarification and understanding. Keep in mind that the quality of your reflection paper will directly depend on the quality of your interview questions, so plan and prepare them carefully.
