The course took place in a small university in the United States. My goal was to provide an opportunity for students to learn about intercultural communication and become more flexible intercultural communicators through the process of communicating with classmates from diverse cultures. Therefore, course assignments involved intercultural interaction.

Of the 33 students enrolled in the course, 15 were Caucasian U.S. students; 13 were international students from China, Taiwan, and Japan, including 11 advanced learners from the university’s English Language Institute (ELI) ²; and 5 were American students from multicultural backgrounds, through either birth or marriage. A Caucasian U.S. student described the initial situation in the classroom ³:

At the start of this class, I immediately became aware of the distinct differences between cultures and students in the classroom. The international students would sit at one side of the classroom while the American students would sit at the other, and cultures would not interact within . . . the classroom unless forced to academically.

TECHNIQUES

Simulated Cultural Immersion Activity

To create a cultural immersion experience for students within the context of the class, I had students participate in a simulated cultural immersion activity. Students formed seven homogeneous culture groups, and each group organized an immersion experience for classmates from other cultures. Visitors to each culture experienced being surrounded by another language and different cultural practices. Each group served as cultural “hosts” to the cultural “guests,” each student participating as “host” in one culture and “guest” in another. During the first half of one 75-minute class period, there were three concurrent activities: a Chinese wedding, a Chinese classroom, and a Japanese family. In the second half of the class session, there were four concurrent activities: Mexican “La fiesta y la siesta” and U.S. Fourth of July, Easter egg hunt, and “Catch Phrase” game.

For follow-up, students wrote a paper separately describing their experiences as cultural host and cultural guest. Throughout the paper, they cited intercultural communication concepts that clearly applied to their experiences, referencing course texts Ting-Toomey and Chung (2005) and Elmer (2006).

A Chinese guest at the Mexican fiesta shared how the experience challenged her stereotypes:

I heard that Mexico food tastes bad before. When they invite me to eat some Mexico food, at first I want to refuse but I don’t want to be a special one. I eat the food with other students together. The food surprises me, it is so good. Then I think why do people always like Stereotype (Ting-Toomey & Chung, p. 236) and Prejudice (Ting-Toomey & Chung, p. 244) other different culture? Fortunately, I Open (Elmer, p. 37) myself and Learn (Elmer, p. 89) the Mexico food culture, now I know the really taste of Mexico food and reduce the prejudice. During this experience of being a guest of Mexico culture, the more I see and I heard and I eat, the less confusing to Mexico culture.

A Caucasian U.S. guest who visited the Chinese classroom described how experiencing contrasting norms affected her perspective:

Before this immersion experience, I had never considered how difficult it must be for international students to adjust to an American classroom. I did not know that their norms would be so different from our own. When we asked them about this, they responded that the informality of the American teaching style was very odd for them but that many of them had come to like it very much. It was very eye opening for me to see again how different we are from one another and yet how much we want to share our own traditions and customs with others.

A Chinese classroom host explained the challenges and value of the immersion activity:

During this class I am so nervous to be a strict teacher. But according to this activity I learn a lot. Through this comparison, I know the different teaching style between China and America more and deeper. Especially America friends ask me some questions after the class. The China teaching style is so unbelievable and difficult for them. This is a good way to understand different culture and we will know them better and more directly. I really appreciate this activity.

Group Presentations

Throughout the semester, much of the course content was presented to the class through student presentations, generally one 50-minute presentation per week. The purpose was for students to help each other learn the important concepts of intercultural communication while engaging in intercultural communication. In diverse groups of three, students prepared and delivered multimedia presentations of the main concepts from their assigned chapter in the course textbook (Ting-Toomey & Chung, 2005). Group members worked together to understand, explain, present, and apply concepts creatively and effectively. The groups initially met in class, but most preparation occurred outside of class. Afterward, individual students wrote reflection papers about their intercultural communication experiences in the process of preparing and delivering the presentation.

All 11 group presentations were successful. Students took their responsibility seriously and sought to make their presentations accurate and engaging. As might be expected, groups experienced a range of intercultural communication challenges. One “cultural bump” involved the reaction of a collectivistic student to the individualistic approach of her group (see “Understanding Cultural Sources of Problems” section below). The following assessment by a Caucasian U.S. student ¹ reflects the positive end of the spectrum:

I feel like all of us equally pulled our weight and contributed to the group process…. I went into the experience thinking that it might be difficult to communicate with Z, or that I might have to carry much of the group responsibility. However this was not the case. I also thought that Z might not understand part of the text concepts and that it would make things more difficult for me, but this was very ethnocentric. Z as well as all of the other student in our class have added immense value to the presentations not only covering the material extremely well but adding great personal experience and relevance to class concepts. If I could have done anything differently I would have trusted my group members abilities more. This would have created less stress for me, and my worrying was not necessary.

BENEFITS

Ability to Cope With and Prevent Problems

The greatest benefit resulting from this course was that the international students reported an increased ability to cope with or prevent communication problems on and off campus. The most helpful concepts for them involved direct and indirect communication, high-context and low-context communication, and face and harmony.

For example, a student from Taiwan described how her cultural practices of indirect and high-context communication and her concern for preserving the face of the members of her group resulted in a poorer quality presentation. When she felt there was a weakness in the group’s plan, she asked a question about one of the elements. She expected her group members to realize that her question pointed to a problem area, but they understood the question to be an information question, answered it, and moved on. She did not want to cause them to lose face by stating her opinion directly. As a result, the group went ahead with the problematic element of the plan. The Taiwanese student resolved to adapt her communication style when working with people from more direct cultures, being more direct, more explicit, and more assertive about sharing her opinions and ideas.

A student from China explained that she now understood how her communication style contributed to the failure of her effort to convince her U.S. roommate not to move out. She had expressed in an indirect, high-context communication style her desire for her roommate to stay—by placing a piece of chocolate on the roommate’s desk—rather than telling her directly.

Ability to Understand Cultural Sources of Problems

An additional benefit is that international students reported an understanding of cultural sources of problems. One powerful example relates to the values of collectivism and individualism. One group presentation late in the semester was by three high achievers. Their reflection papers about the group process revealed a significant problem that the Chinese student insightfully attributed to the contrasting values of collectivism and individualism (the Caucasian U.S. students were oblivious to this factor). The individualism of the U.S. students was expressed in the way they organized the group. Although the group knew their chapter and their presentation date at least 10 weeks ahead of time, they got the ball rolling only about 2 weeks in advance. One student sent an e-mail to the others and proposed to divide their chapter into three sections, designating a particular section for each group member. They would meet and put the presentation together on a specific date. At the meeting, the Chinese student was not prepared. The U.S. students believed that the Chinese student wanted them to do her part of the work for her, and they worked with her to get it done. They were kind but expressed to me some resentment that the Chinese student was not carrying her own weight. On the other hand, the Chinese student, one of the most capable ELI students in the class, expressed frustration to me about the whole process. She said that in her collectivistic culture, a group project is done as a group—with members meeting together and working through all the material together, and then dividing up the work. The group’s late start and individualistic approach impeded this student’s effectiveness as a contributing member of the group.

Improved Relationships

Another significant benefit was that international students reported improved relationships with Americans, and American students reported improved relationships with international students. Most students became comfortable interacting with students from other cultures and could analyze possible reasons for communication difficulties.

Regarding relationships, one Chinese student described how, in the previous semester, she had felt isolated from her roommates. Based on insights from the class, she adopted a more direct communication style with them and as a result their relationship became much closer and happier.

A Caucasian U.S. student realized that international students could not understand her sense of humor. She began to work on her intercultural communication skills and interacted with international students in and out of class. She concluded, “Our communication and interactions have become more fluid and natural, and this has significantly enhanced our connection and relationship.”

Teaching Insights

In the future, to help students better monitor and remedy intercultural communication issues that develop while they are preparing their group presentations, I will engage students with these issues early in the process. I will alert them to the fact that even though they may master concepts in the abstract, they may not recognize how these concepts are operating in their own intercultural communication experiences. Having students analyze scenarios similar to experiences reported in this article is one way to draw students’ attention to specific ways that group work may be affected by individualism and collectivism, directness and indirectness, low- and high-context communication styles, and face concerns. Then, students may recognize such factors within their groups and make adjustments to enhance the effectiveness of their intercultural communication. The learning process can sometimes be uncomfortable because it entails a certain amount of self-disclosure and vulnerability as learners take risks and operate outside of their comfort zone, so it is essential to foster a supportive atmosphere characterized by mutual trust and respect.

REFERENCES

Elmer, D. (2006). Cross-cultural servanthood. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press.

Iancu, M. (2002). To motivate and educate, collaborate and integrate: The adjunct model in a bridge program. In J. Crandall & D. Kaufman (Eds.), Content-based instruction in higher education settings (pp. 139-153). Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.

Ting-Toomey, S., & Chung, L.C. (2005). Understanding intercultural communication. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Martha A. Iancu, miancu@georgefox.edu, is associate professor of English as a second language at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon, USA. She teaches intensive English courses in the English Language Institute as well as courses in the TESOL Minor program of the Department of Communication Arts.

^[1] This article is adapted from my TESOL 2010 presentation “Collectivism Meets Individualism: Techniques for a Linked Intercultural Communication Course.”

² Iancu (2002) described how the ELI at George Fox University supports development of students’ academic English skills through concurrent enrollment in one regular content course and linked advanced-level English skills courses.

³ Student quotations are in their original, unedited form.