MA Intercultural Communication

This core course unit provides students with a systematic and critical understanding of intercultural communication as a field of study, research, education and practice.  The course unit particularly problematises the default 'large culture' approach whereby culture is equated with nationality or ethnicity in a static fashion, and thus introduces a more complex and critical approach to intercultural communication.   

Understanding of core concepts in intercultural communication, such as culture, language, communication, identity, power, and intercultural competence, is developed through engagement with seminal and cutting-edge research. Key theories examining these concepts and how they relate to intercultural communication are introduced, explored and critically evaluated through a mixture of academic discussion and intercultural training-based activities.   

Engaging with increased international mobility and globalisation, the course unit also considers a range of personal and professional contexts of social interaction and critically examines how researchers have sought to understand and theorise intercultural communication in these different contexts.  Students will be supported to reflect on their own experiences of intercultural communication and relate these to the ideas covered in the course. 

Available on which programme(s)? - MA Intercultural Communication

Available as Free choice (UG) or to other progammes (PG)? - Yes

Available to students on an Erasmus programme? - No

Medium of language - Spoken and written English

This course unit aims to:

provide students with a thorough conceptual foundation for their developing understandings of intercultural communication as a phenomenon, as an area of study, as an area of personal activity, and as an area of training and professional practice;

encourage students to engage critically with the default ‘large culture’ approach to culture, cultural difference and intercultural communication;

enable students to reflect systematically on their own cultural identities, background, and cultural and intercultural experiences;

invite students to consider the implications of intercultural theorising for real world contexts of one sort or another (e.g. professional, academic, national, personal).  

• discuss and understand different models of intercultural communication; 
• demonstrate - through informed and critical discussion - their knowledge and understanding of the key elements of intercultural thinking. 

This course unit provides an introduction to the key conceptual elements related to intercultural communication. It is framed around an exploration of key questions and topics including some of the following: What is culture? What is communication? What is intercultural communication? What is cultural identity? What is languaculture/linguaculture? What is culture shock? Otherisation. Cultural awareness. Intercultural (communicative) competence. Intercultural communication education and training. Large culture and small culture.The first part of the semester focuses on theories and models of intercultural communication, while the second part of the semester focuses on the practical application of theory across selected social and professional contexts (e.g. education, workplaces, family).

Teaching will comprise weekly two-hour classes, supported by resources in the virtual learning environment and peer learning through study group meetings and activities. Classes will involve lectures, discussions, and intercultural training activities, as well as guidance and support on the course unit assessments.

discuss and understand different models of intercultural communication;

demonstrate - through informed and critical discussion - their knowledge and understanding of the key elements of intercultural thinking. 

critically and autonomously engage with intercultural theorising;  

critically and autonomously engage with intercultural practice. 

reflect on their own cultural identities, background and cultural intercultural experiences;

develop, plan and execute their own line of academic discussion.

competently monitor and manage their own intercultural communication;

confidently approach interactions with others in a spirit of cultural plurality rather than ethnocentrism;

present their work in academically appropriate ways;

critically engage with the relevant literature and explore its implications for contexts within and beyond academic study.

Assessment Task:

Assignment 1 (Essay 1) - Summative - 1000 words (excluding appendices and reference section) - 30%

Assignment 2 (Essay 2) - Summative - 2000 words (excluding appendices and reference section) - 70%

Resit Assessment: Student will re-sit Assignment 2 (Essay 2) - 2000 words (excluding appendices and reference section)

Feedback method:

Assignment 1 (Essay 1) - Formal written feedback will be provided following the assessment.  

Assignment 2 (Essay 2) - Formal written feedback will be provided following the assessment. 

Oral feedback during class and consultation hours 

Peer feedback through in-class discussions 
 

Formal written feedback will normally be provided within 15 working days after the final submission deadline or, subject to prior approval by the faculty, within 20 working days after the final submission deadline. 

Byram, Michael. 2020. Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence: Revisited. Multilingual matters. 

Adrian, Holliday. 2018. Understanding intercultural communication: Negotiating a grammar of culture. Routledge. 

Jackson, J. (ed.). 2020. The Routledge Handbook of Language and Intercultural Communication (Second Ed.). Abingdon, Oxon, New York: Routledge.  

Martin, Judith N., Thomas K. Nakayama, and Donal Carbaugh. 2020. "A global look at the history and development of language and intercultural communication studies." The Routledge Handbook of Language and Intercultural Communication.  

Piller, Ingrid. 2011. Intercultural Communication: A Critical Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.  

Spencer-Oatey, Helen, and Peter Franklin. 2020. Intercultural interaction: A multidisciplinary approach to intercultural communication. Springer. 

Zhu Hua. 2014. Exploring intercultural communication: Language in action. Routledge.