Assignment: Intercultural Communication
Part 1: Chapter Six
Objective: You will understand prejudice and intolerance and distinguish between aspects of perception as they relate to intolerance. Need Assignment Help?
Case Study: DWB [Driving while black]
Arnell and his friends, Jim and Mike, all African American, were traveling from their apartment on Main Street to play a music gig in a band contest at the university. They were chatting and did not notice the change in speed limit from 40 to 30 MPH. They were promptly pulled over for traveling at 40 in a 30 MPH zone. The officer didn't only check Arnell's license, however, but insisted on seeing all the licenses of all the men in the vehicle. He then wanted to look in the trunk-"just a random check," he said. Arnell knew that people sped by this intersection all the time, but he rarely saw anyone being stopped here. He did not know that there were two low-cost housing units in the neighborhood (housing people of a variety of racial groups), which were a place of frequent drug stops and calls to the police for incidents of violence. As the White officer looked over his license and registration, Arnell tried to remember how many officers of color he had seen in the city police force.
- Is intolerance involved? What should you do?
- How does the case relate to some of the different dimensions of intolerance described in the book?
- Does racism (or other intolerances) exist in your community? At which level(s) do you see it (e.g., individual, societal, institutional)?
Part 2: Chapter Seven
Objective: You will gain an understanding of verbal communication and learn how to reduce cultural misunderstandings.
1. What is Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?
2. Define the following key concepts:
a. Language
b. Speech Acts Theory
c. Semantics
d. Scripts
e. Metaphor
3. List and briefly explain the four phases of social drama.
4. Discuss a recent situation where you may have encountered a cultural misunderstanding. How did you handle it and was the outcome positive or negative? If it was negative, how could you have handled it differently?
Part 3: Chapter Eight
Objective: You will gain an understanding of nonverbal communication in other cultures.
1. What are display rules?
2. Define the following key concepts:
a. Oculesics
b. Backchanneling
c. Prosody
d. Basso's hypothesis
e. Paralinguistics
3. Explain the beginnings and development of the study of non-verbal communication according to the text.
4. List the five functions of nonverbal communication.