Effective: 2022-05-01

Course Description

The course outline below was developed as part of a statewide standardization process.

General Course Purpose

CST 229 is designed to examine human communication in varying cultures and explore the influence of communication upon culture as well as culture upon communication. The course delves into the theories and strategies of intercultural communication. The content of the course includes exploration into the process of communication and the shaping of messages across cultural contexts. Students examine how culture shapes the communication process as well as the differences in communication behavior across diverse cultural climates.

Course Objectives

• Comprehensive Skills
• Demonstrate effective intercultural communication sensitivity by analyzing current behavior and constructing communication competencies through analysis and self-awareness.
• Communicate ideas with fluency and rhetorical sensitivity.
• Apply nonverbal communication theory in communicating and evaluating messages across cultures.
• Provide an intellectual framework that allows description and understanding of communication among culturally heterogeneous individuals.
• Exhibit understanding of intercultural communication competence by the use of critical thinking to analyze and resolve intercultural conflicts, demonstrate respect for cultural and social diversity.
• Demonstrate awareness of historical, cultural and social traditions which influence communication events.
• Communication
• Use written, verbal and nonverbal communication to express thoughts, philosophies, and strategies for effective intercultural communication
• Explore the listening process and share skills to more effectively listen to intercultural messages
• Send and interpret verbal and nonverbal messages across cultural contexts with accuracy
• Critical Thinking
• Develop the skills necessary to read, evaluate, and use intercultural communication theories and principles in everyday practice
• Analyze the relationship between communication and culture
• Formulate a plan for improved intercultural communication competency
• Construct a plan to use critical thinking to understand and resolve intercultural conflicts
• Foundations of Intercultural Communication: Defining Culture and Communication
• Define communication and communication models
• Define culture and explore differences between nationality and ethnicity
• Identify difference between nationality and ethnicity
• Explain the meanings and connotations of the terms culture, subcultures, co-cultures, subgroups, and microcultures
• Explore the meanings and connotations of the terms culture, subculture, co-culture, subgroup, counterculture, and microculture
• Define ethnocentrism
• Barriers to Intercultural Communication
• List barriers to effective and appropriate intercultural communication
• Give an example of ethnocentrism that demonstrates it as a barrier to intercultural communication
• Distinguish among stereotypes, prejudice, and racism and explain how each is a barrier to intercultural communication
• Explain how assuming similarity instead of difference acts as a barrier in intercultural communication
• Intercultural Communication Competence
• Identify and describe different global and local manifestations of culture, and discern cultural complexities
• Describe examples of how to engage with diverse groups of people while recognizing cultural and individual differences in interaction and communication
• Immigration and Acculturation
• Describe ways that immigration affects nations
• Define culture shock
• Describe how changing demographics and the changing worldwide immigration patterns affect intercultural communication
• Identify the predictors of an immigrant's success in adapting to a new country
• Explain why some immigrant groups have maintained a separate identity
• Explain co-cultural theory and how it relates to cultural identity
• Identify and describe the intercultural communication challenges of immigrant groups who have maintained a separate identity.
• Co-cultures (Cultures Within Cultures) and Contact Among Cultures
• List reasons why indigenous languages and cultures should be protected
• Contrast periods of U.S. immigration assimilation and immigration integration
• Trace the patterns of non-English languages use in the United States
• Characterize intercultural communication in the age of colonialism
• Explain the concept of cultural imperialism
• Develop a model of the spread of innovations from one culture to others
• Give examples of cultural icons
• Describe what characterizes the marketing of cultural icons
• Describe critical factors for today's international marketing communication
• Discuss how the exposure to and use of the internet and social media have impacted intercultural communication

Major Topics to be Included

• Foundations of Intercultural Communication
• Barriers to Intercultural Communication
• Intercultural Communication Competence
• Immigration and Acculturation
• Co-cultures and Contact Among Cultures