Business Schools & Intercultural Training Response to Henri de Jongstes Posting Helen Spencer-Oatey

Cultural Awareness Training typically focuses on Cultural Values BUT If the manifestations of culture are truly like an onion (e.g. Hofstede 1991; Trompenaars 1997; Spencer-Oatey 2000), more attention should be paid to other aspects, including systems & institutions, and rituals & behaviour

Cultural Awareness (contd.) Question: Do business schools include training in the different business systems that could affect international business success? In education, intercultural training certainly includes comparative material on educational systems and practices

Communicative Awareness Culture can affect language use across numerous domains Within each of the domains, culture can very significantly affect peoples interpretations and judgements of the other person, according to their use of language.

Domains of Variable Language Use 1. The Illocutionary Domain (how speech acts such as requests, apologies etc. are performed) 2. The Discourse Domain (the topics that are selected and how ideas are structured) 3. The Participation Domain (who talks, for how long, and how turn-taking occurs)

Domains of Variable Language Use (contd.) 4. The Stylistic Domain (preferred degree of formality, level of seriousness, etc.) 5. The Non-Verbal Domain (the use of gestures, eye contact, proxemics, etc.) (Spencer-Oatey, 2000)

Developing Communicative Awareness Trainees need to be made aware that when they are working in different cultures and languages, unexpected communicative behaviour within each of these domains can have potentially negative impacts.

Developing Communicative Awareness: Possible Tools Intercultural project work is not a good starting point, because few people can analyse their own language use in real time Case studies are useful if there is sufficiently detailed material available. There is a definite need for more material of this kind.

Developing Communicative Awareness: Possible Tools contd. Appropriate extracts from authentic interactions can be used to draw attention to the aspects that trainees should pay attention to and why Articles on intercultural pragmatics and intercultural discourse can be rather theoretical, but may contain useful examples

Developing Communicative Awareness: Possible Tools contd. The video What Makes You Say That? Cultural Diversity at Work contains a very large amount of excellent material

Is Communicative Awareness sufficient? Awareness raising is not sufficient Trainees should be helped to use different communication patterns Plenty of practice opportunities should be included Project work might play a role here, after more focused awareness and practice has been completed

I look forward to other peoples comments and responses!

Note: Spencer-Oatey (2000) refers to Spencer-Oatey, H. (2000) Rapport management: a framework for analysis. In: H.Spencer-Oatey (ed.) Culturally Speaking. Managing Rapport through Talk across Cultures. London: Continuum For other articles, see