KAZAKH ABLAI KHAN UNIVERSITY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND WORLD LANGUAGES
CHAIR OF THEORY OF LINGUISTICS AND COMMUNICATION
TASKS
For
SIW
MODULE 2
Almaty, 2012-2013
Tasks for individual work of students on Basics of Intercultural Communication
Course. 8 semester
A.y.
Module 2
IWS №4 (4 hours)
Theme: Understanding, values, and attitudes
Task 1: Follow the task below and compare with your country’s culture.
In every country, a great deal about the culture is revealed by the media, which includes the following:
Book/Poetry
Newspapers
Magazines
Radio
Television
Movies/Theatre
Songs and music
- Try to find English translations of the most famous works of the best known authors in your country. Compare them and find out the similarities and differences between your culture and others. Then go to the local bookstore and look over the selection. What books are the most popular? Which subjects have the most books devoted to them? What subjects aren’t covered or are barely covered? What are common topics to be discussed?
- Read an English language paper in your country for insight into numerous aspects of the country and culture. What different sections does the newspaper have and who is intended audience for them?
- Read any English language magazines you can find. What topics are discussed and what is said? Study the advertisements and pictures. Which topics or areas of interest have the most magazines devoted to them? What topics are missing?
- Listen to English language radio programs. Which are the most popular programs and why? Who listens to the radio and when they listen?
- Watch television, whether you understand the language or not. What kind of shows are the most common? What kind of stories, people, events are depicted?
- Go to foreign-made-films and notice audience reactions. Ask people why they come to these films. Ask them which films they like better and why.
- Listen to English songs. What kind of music and songs are the most popular?
Form of control: Making an outline of a lecture or seminar
Time to pass: April, 2013
IWS №5 (6 hours)
Theme: Understanding, values, and attitudes
Subtheme # 1: Verbal and non-verbal communication
Task 1: Make a spider map on the main types of verbal communication. Explain each part of your map.
Task 2: Prepare a brochure on the given theme. It should be useful to understand the meaning of verbal communication.
Task 3: Write a short report (about 250-300words) on the theme:
“Verbal communication and understanding other participants of communication”
Task 4: You are a student from Romano-Germanic Faculty. You are having academic writing class next week. Your teacher has asked you to write an article about the verbal communication. Write your article. (about 250-300 words).
Form of control: Making an outline of a lecture or seminar
Time to pass: April, 2013
Subtheme #2: Body Language
People communicate at all times by sending and receiving messages without speaking a single word. We communicate through “body language,” with facial expressions, posture, gestures, and eye contact. We communicate by our tone of voice, rhythm of speech, linguistic stress over a certain syllable, and even silences.
Task 1: Write an essay on the theme “The best ways to develop nonverbal communication”. (250-300 words)
Task 2: Prepare Power Point Presentation on one of the categories of non-verbal communication. Compare different cultures and their non-verbal behavior.
Task 3: You are going to prepare a short radio news bulletin on the topic: “Non-verbal communication.” Give a brief summary of your text and decide on the order in which they would appear in a radio news report.
Guidelines for writing radio news reports:
Ø Use simple language and keep your sentences short;
Ø Give your report a dynamic introduction to attract your audience and make them want to hear the rest of the story;
Ø Specify what your report is about;
Ø Give examples, compare cultures.
Form of control: Making an outline of a lecture or seminar
Time to pass: May, 2013
SIW №6 (4 hours)
Theme: The danger of stereotypical descriptions
Subtheme #1: Problems of culture shock.
Task 1: Make a Power Point Presentation on the given theme. Compare cultures and explain the main differences.
Task 2: Write an informal letter to your pen friend about culture shock you have experienced.
Before writing your letter, follow this instruction:
Ø Write a plan for the letter;
Ø Think of ways to express the main points and linking words to join the points together;
Ø Use the informal expressions;
Ø Check grammar and spelling and write your letter.
Task 3: Give your own suggestions that you think are the most important for avoiding culture shock.
Task 4. Find out information on the researches in the field of ICC. Make a table that shows the names of Western, Kazakh and Russian linguists or scholars who really concerned with the problems of ICC. In your table include the following criteria:
- the names of linguists who concerned the given theme
- the problem they dealt with
- their suggestions or contributions to the field of ICC
Form of control: Making a table with analysis
Time to pass: May, 2013
IWS №7 (6 hours)
Theme: Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory
Subtheme #1: Identifying cultural world views. What is your culture?
Task 1: You have been asked to prepare and test a questionnaire that will be used among the student of your faculty. There are many students from different countries and each of them has his own cultural world views. Your questionnaire will be used in interview with students to identify their cultural world views and to collect the following information:
· Students attitudes to their own and to other cultures;
· Their knowledge about cultures and cultural world views;
· Peculiarities of each culture and cultural groups;
· Values and beliefs of different cultures and their role in identifying cultural world views.
Your questionnaire should contain a mix of question types:
- A multiple choice question;
- A closed question;
- An open question.
Prepare your questionnaire. (20 questions)
Task 2. Make a presentation on the problems and consequences related to intercultural communication, and then express your attitude to them illustrating with materials or samples. Point out typical characteristics to the problems and consequences in intercultural communication, suggest the possible ways to solve them.
Subtheme #2: Business gifts and their meanings.
Task 1: Write a leaflet about Business Gift Giving Practices of your own country. It would be helpful to foreign business people in order not to have misunderstandings with local businessmen.
Write your leaflet in about 250 words.
Task 2: Compare the practices of gift giving in America and Japan. Prepare a Power Point Presentation on the given them.You may compare other cultures too.
Task 3: Interview one of the foreign businessman or businesswoman who works in a foreign company in your country. Prepare interview questions and conduct it. Do the analysis of the information you have taken from interviewee. Show the result of your interview to the classroom.
