英语专业跨文化交际期末知识点整理summary.doc

U1:
1. views on intercultural communication
Two different views on intercultural communication: “people are people” VS. “contact is not equal to communication”
2. 3 major socio-cultural elements influencing perception and communication
Cultural value, world view , social organizations.
3. What is globalization?
Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations。 a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. This process has effects on the environment, on culture, on political systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical well-being in societies around the world.
4. What are the stumbling blocks in intercultural communication?
(1) assumption of similiarities: people expect that simply being human and having common requirements of food,shelter,security and so on makes everyone alike.
(2) Language differences.: “yes”and “no” cause trouble.
(3) Nonverbal misinterpretatons: misinterpretation of observable sians and symbols—gesture ,postures, body movenment.
(4) Preconceptions and stereotypes: Arabs are “inflammable” may cause U.S.students to keep their distance .
(5) Tendence to evaluate: to approve or disapprove ,to statements and actions of other person or group.
(6) High anxiety/ tension.
U2:
1. What is culture?
Culture is a very extensive concept, it is very difficult to define it strictly and accurately, because culture involves too much. Culture is a complex system of behavior, values, beliefs, traditions and artifacts, which is transmitted through generations.
What are the five basic needs for human beings?
(1) physiological needs (things that make us alive,food water air)
(2) safety needs (physical safe and psychologicallly secure)
(3) belongingness needs (needs tobe accepted by others and to belong to a group )
(4) esteem needs ( recognition, reputation,self respect )
(5) self-actualization needs (actualize onself and to reach one’s full potential)
2. What are values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors? How are they linked?
(1) Values are what people go to war over or conduct bussiness by. Values tell us how to weigh the worth of something, they can indicate a relative hierarchy.
(2) Attitudes are feelings about things .it is a tendency to respond the same way to the same object or situation or idea. Attitudes is learned and can change.
(3) Beliefs are convictions or certainties based on subjective and often personal ideas rather than on proof or fact.
(4) Links: values underlie attitudes and also shape beliefs. Attitudes are based on beliefs as well as values.values enable us to evaluate what matters to us or apply standars to our attitudes and beliefs.value→ belief →attitude. For example , you have an attitude toward eating raw fish,which is positive and is based on the belief that expert prepararion of sushi and sashimi by Japanese chefs results in culinary delicacies ,or you have an attitude that is negative,based on the belief that raw fish can contain parasites that cause unpleasant consequences in the human digestive system. You can even have both attitudes at the same time.if you do ,then probably you value both fine eating experiences and physical health.
3. What are the elements of communication?
① context: physical setting, psychological ,historical,culture ,the communication norms
② participants: senders who form messages and communicate with symbols, receiverswho process and react the massages.
③ Massages: meanings, symbols ,encodings and decodings
④ Channels :a variety of sensory channels
⑤ Noise ;internal external and semantic noise.
⑥ Feedback : the verbal and nonverbal responses
4. What are norms?
Norms are the guildelines that we establish for conducting transactions. Norms tell us what kinds of messages and behavior are proper in a given context or with a particular person or group of people. People acquire communication norms from their experiences in life.
5. What is the difference between encoding and decoding?
Encoding is the process of transforming ideas and feelings into symbols and organizing them. Decoding is the process of tansforminf meeages backe into ideas and feelings.
Transforming and organizing Transforming and intepreting
ideas and feelings--------------------→symbols/massages------------→ideas and feelings
↓ ↓
Encoding decoding
6. What is the difference between external noise, internal noise and semantic noise?
external noise : Sights and sounds and other stimuli in the environment that draw people’s attention away from intended meaning.
internal noise : Thoughts and feelings that interfere with the communication process. Feelings of anger or anxiety ,stereotypeor prejudice in your mind.
semantic noise: the meanings we assign to words depend on our own experience, other people may at times decode a word or phases differently from the way we intend.

7. What is communication?
Communication is a process involving the exchange of messages and the creation of meaning.

U3:
1. What are the five basic questions at the root of any culture’s value system?
(1) what is the character of innate human nature?-----human nature
(2) what is the relation of man to nature?------the relationship of man to nature.
(3) What is the temporal focus of human life?----sense of time /time orientation.
(4) What is the mode of human activity?-------activity orientation.
(5) What is the mode of human relationships?----social relationships

2. What are the key principles of Confucianism?
(1) social order and stability are based on uneqal relationships between people
including leaders and followers ,father and son ,husband and wife , older brother and younger brother,and friends .
(2) family :follow rules for ordering
(3) proper social behavior consists of not treating others as you would not like to be treated youself.,learn to be sensitive to other’s feels(子所不欲勿施于人)
(4) people should be skilled ,educated hardworking,thrifty ,modest, patient and persevering.
3. How do living situations account for value differences between different cultures?
For example,Japanese live in a little of arable land ,even mainly valcanoes.thus,they built their homes together very closely in order to make use of every available land and they can work together in planting and harvesting of rice effectively . In this situation, japanenes’central social valuebecause of living close proximity that gave very little privacy was that an idividual does not matter. However, in the U.S. it is common to see a pattern of a single farmhouse surrounded by firelds.the nearnest neighbor was perhaphs two miles distant.inevitably, the central social values were self-reliance and independence.
4. What are cultural values?
The commonly held standards of what is acceptable or unacceptable, important or unimportant, right or wrong, good or bad, true or false, workable or unworkable, etc., in a community or society.
Values represent a learned organization of rules for making choices and for resolving the conflicts.
5. What are the five dimensions to consider when doing studies of cultural differences(culture value)?
(1) Idividualism versus collectivism (involves people’s relationship sto the larger social groups;social relationship)
Idividualism;key words include independence,privacy,selfand all important I
Collectivism believe in obligations to the group, we consciouceness and an emphasis on belonging.
(2) uncertainty avoidance(how to adapt to changes and cope with uncertainties,)
Greece(plan everything0 versus Singapore (like uncertainty)
(3) power distance(all people in a culture do not have equals levels of status or social power.) Malaysia versus New Zealand
(4) masculinity versus femininity(work harder to get achievement ,wealth versus caring for the others and the quatity of life) Japan versus Thailand
(5) orientation to time (a long-term orientation schedule for work and life versus a short-term orientation toward changing events)

6. What are the differences between a high-context culture and a low-context one?
Low-context interaction emphasizes direct talk, person-oriented focus, self-enhancement mode, and the importance of “talk”: high- context interaction, in contrast stresses indirect talk, status-oriented focus , self- esffacement mode, and the importance of nonverbal signals and even silence.
U4:
1. What is the relationship between language and culture?
Culture and language are interwined and shaped each other. Each time we select words ,form sentence, and send a message ,either oral or written,we also make cultural choices. Cultural literacy(特定领域的能力或知识) is necessary to understand the language being used.
(1)all languages have social questions and information questions.
For exemple: in Ameirca English ,the question “How are you” is a social question,the Americans register the phrase as “hello”. But in Germany and Russia ,the phase is an imformation qustion .the speaker atually wants to get an answer to it.
(2) language reflects the environment in which we live .
For exemple, in the Amazon area snow is not part of the environment. Therefore , people in that region do not have a word for snow . however , most Americans ,who live an environment where Iit snows most months of the year, use terms such as snow , sleet , slush, blizzard and ice.
(3)language reflects cultural values. a way of thinking .
when we translate concepts from a foreign language and cultural with words ,we have to choose the priority words in oder to communicate effectively. Cultural kowledge is impotant as linguistic knowledge.
For example ,Amerians are frustrated with the manana mentality(西班牙语的明天心态) of Spanish-speaking countries : for American tomorrow means midnight to midnight ,a very precise time period , To Mexicans ,manana means in the future,soon.
（4,）Different cutures use identical words that have rather different meanings.
For example, for Amercans ,adminisration in the university context means department chair or dean,for Frenches adminisration means upper level clerical staff . What Americans consider to be an adminstrator, Frenches consider faulty.
（5）language changes overtime.words and prases that are used commonly at one time may be discontinued or their meaning my change overtime.
For example, the word gay means happy lightened. In recent decades ,however the word has taken on the meaning” homosexual”.English speaking countries don’ t use the original meaning anymore..

Communication across cultures and language is difficult and full of hurdles and pitfalls. Even if two people from different countries spesk a common language ,they may misinteptet the cutural signal. If that happens ,in all likelihood , there will be a cutural problem rhather than a language problem.
2. What is the relationship between environment and language?
(2) language reflects the environment in which we live .
For exemple, in the Amazon area snow is not part of the environment. Therefore , people in that region do not have a word for snow . however , most Americans ,who live an environment where Iit snows most months of the year, use terms such as snow , sleet , slush, blizzard and ice.

3. How does language change over time?
language changes overtime.words and prases that are used commonly at one time may be discontinued or their meaning my change overtime.
For example, the word gay means happy lightened. In recent decades ,however the word has taken on the meaning” homosexual”.English speaking countries don’ t use the original meaning anymore..

4. Denotations and connotations
Denotations: denotations of a word or phrase are the meanings that relate it to the objects or concepts referred to the actual or fictional “things”that are symbolized.
For example, the denotation of the English word “bird” is a tow –legged,winged,egg-laying creature.
Connnotations: connnotations refer to the additional meanings that a word or phrase has beyond its central meaning .These meanings show people’s attitudes or feelings toward what the word or phase refers to.

For example: consider the word “dog” in English and 狗in Chinese. They can be said to have the same denotative meaning； however,people from different cutures may have different connotative reactions to these words ,compare “a homeless dog” (流浪狗) with 丧家之犬
5. What are the ways of expressing “no”? Why do people in countries like Japan and China often refuse to say “no” directly?
(1) be vague
(2) be silent or ask a question
(3) change the topic or leave
(4) tell a white lie or refuse to answer the question. Say one cannot answer
(5) put the reaponsibility to the trird party or offering an alternative.
The reason: In Japan and China’s culture ,to refuse an invitation or request with “no”, or a similar phrase, is felt to be impolite. It is thought to be selfish and unfriendly.

6. How does language affect people’s perception and experiences?
The language we use may to some exten determine the way we perceive and experience the world.
(!)in japan language varies substantially in different social situatons like sddressing superior peers and inferiors.
(2) the Thailand language
（3）splanish language reveals male dominance through use of gendered nouns and pronouce. A group of man referred to as ello, agroup of wemen referred to as ellas
7. What are the five intended types of equivalence when doing translation?
(1) lexical equivalence 例子;there is no equivlent to the English color word blue in Russian. Russia only have the according words of light blue and dark blue that an be translated into English.
(2) Idiomatic equivalence : “raining cats and dogs”
(3) Grammatical equivalence ；’in Filipino language ,there is no equivalent of the english verb “to be”.
(4) Experience equivalence
(5) Conceptual equivalence
8. Why do people say language is always ambiguous?
(1) we can never fully control the meanings of the things we say and write in the way of paticipants interpret
(2) language can never fully express our meanings whether in writing or speaking
(3) whether the participants share the same assumptions and knowledge about the world or not.
U5:
1. What is a rich point?
Conversation is a rich point ,a rich point is something in one culture that makes it difficult to be connected with another culture.
2. What basic differences can we still find between the English-speaking people and the Chinese people concerning compliment and response?
In English countrries, the “best way “to respond to a compliment is to accept it. Rejection of compliments is often regarded as a symptom of problem, such as low self-esteem. In contrast to english ,the best way rasponse to compliments in Chinese is traditionally thought to be a rejection or denial. A denia