Download Student Workbook - Chapter 5

2ND EDITION
Introduction to
Communication Studies
Student Workbook - Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Intercultural communication
Multiple choice questions
Read the following statements and complete them by choosing the correct
option from those presented.
1. Communication researcher, Albert Mehrabian, claims that nonverbal communication
accounts for over … percent of meaning in any interaction.
a. 60
b. 70
c. 80
d. 90
2. Nonverbal communication refers to messages that are …
a. intentional, unintentional, written and spoken
b. intentional, written but not spoken
c. unintentional, intentional, not written or spoken
d. unintentional, spoken but not written
3. The use of personal space in nonverbal communication is referred to as…
a. haptics
b. kinesics
c. proxemics
d. paralanguage
4. Which of the following voice qualities (paralanguage) are important to convey meaning
in verbal communication? a. pace and projection
b. gaze and intent
c. gestures
d. tone and pitch
5. Which of the following is not a function of nonverbal communication?
a. Nonverbal behaviour regulates the flow of verbal interaction
b. A nonverbal message simplifies a verbal message
c. A nonverbal message complements a verbal message
d. A nonverbal message may replace a verbal message
2
CHAPTER 5: Intercultural communication
6. You enter a lecturer’s office and take a seat before being invited by the lecturer, because
according to your values and social norms, it is polite to sit down when addressing an
adult. The lecturer who subscribes to different values and social norms thinks that you
are over-familiar by sitting down before you are invited to. This is an example of the
influence of ... on the meaning ascribed to nonverbal communication.
a. silence
b. culture
c. mobile technology
d. symbols
7. … are nonverbal gestures that we use to adjust to or settle down into a communication
situation.
a. Regulators
b. Illustrators
c. Emblems
d. Adaptors
8. Which of the following theorists is credited with offering clarification among
communication scholars about the importance of nonverbal communication?
a. Paul Ekman
b. Ray Birdwhistell
c. Albert Mehrabian
d. Edward Hall
9. Verbal and nonverbal signs work together to convey the total meaning of a message.
Whereas verbal communication primarily conveys content information, nonverbal
communication primarily conveys …
a. emotions
b. feelings
c. relational information
d. a, b and c
10.Which of the following emotions is constant across cultures and therefore not easy to
recognise?
a. disgust
b. surprise
c. embarrassment
d. fear
11.Degrees of status can also be communicated through the use of…
a. space
b. time
c. touch
d. a, b, and c
3
Introduction to Communication Studies for Southern African Students
12.The nonverbal way in which I indicate that I want a lift with a taxi resorts under the
following class of body movement…
a. emblems
b. illustrators
c. affect displays
d. regulators
13.Chronemics is the field of study concerned with…
a. space
b. time
c. touch
d. body movement
14.The study of proxemics was pioneered by ...
a. Ray Birdwhistell
b. Albert Mehrabian
c. Edward Hall
d. Paul Ekman
15.People who assign rigid meanings to nonverbal signs are prone to …
a. stereotyping
b. racism
c. ethnicism
d. be highly focused
16.Nonverbal communication is often culture-specific.
a. True
b. False
17.Gender and age play no role in nonverbal behaviour.
a. True
b. False
18.Research studies have shown that facial expressions used to convey emotions such as fear,
surprise, happiness or anger are relatively constant across cultures and are thus fairly easy
to recognise and interpret.
a. True
b. False
19.There is a dictionary for understanding nonverbal behaviour.
a. True
b. False
4
CHAPTER 5: Intercultural communication
20.Kinesics, proxemics, haptics, personal appearance and paralanguage are all categories of
nonverbal communication.
a. True
b. False
21.Nonverbal messages can be viewed as fixed and unchanging.
a. True
b. False
5
Introduction to Communication Studies for Southern African Students
Paralanguage exercise
Paralanguage is not about what people say (verbal meaning), but how they say it
(nonverbal meaning).
‘Finding transport to town is really difficult.’
Read this statement to someone seated next to you aloud in three different ways:
i. In a monotone (using one tone), with no emphasis on any of the words or syllables.
ii. As if finding transport to town is not difficult at all, probably because your institution is
already in town.
iii. As though finding transport to town is very, very difficult, probably because your
institution is in a rural setting and is more than 30 minutes away from town .
1. Does the meaning change without changing the words?
2. Did you do anything to your voice to change the meaning of the sentence? If yes, what
did you do?
3. Were there changes in any other nonverbal behaviour as you were using your voice to
change the meaning of the sentence? If yes, what and why?
4. Did you learn anything about paralanguage from this exercise?
5. How can the use of paralanguage assist you to improve your communication skills?
Digital context exercise
Divide the class into two groups or make smaller groups. Have the groups choose
opposing sides and debate the following: ‘There should be no ethical rules for acceptable
cellular phone usage when people are in a lecture hall, in a social setting, restaurant,
religious setting or walking in public spaces.’
6
CHAPTER 5: Intercultural communication
Questions for discussion
1. Discuss how colour is used among various religious groups that you are
familiar with.
2. How do artefacts influence your perceptions of other people?
3. Explain how nonverbal behaviour reflects how intimate people are by observing:
a. A lecturer interacting with a student.
b. A manager of an organisation or head of department with an employee, for
example a bank manager and a cashier.
c. A friend whom you know very well with their girlfriend or boyfriend.
Test the three situations aginst the following criteria:
3.1How closely do they sit or stand together?
3.2How much eye contact do they make?
3.3Do their postures differ from each other?
4. Does culture influence the meaning of nonverbal behaviour in terms of the above
interaction?
7
Introduction to Communication Studies for Southern African Students
Digital context assignment
Write a two-page assignment on your observations involving people and
technology on campus or in any social setting of your choice. Look at when and
how mobile technologies such as cellular phones cause interruptions in their nonverbal
interpersonal communication. Make field notes and later write an essay describing how the
people whom you were observing broke off regular contact with one another to engage
with their mobile technology. Answer the following questions in the body of your writing:
1. In what way is mobile technology hindering normal nonverbal behaviour?
2. Think about your last encounter with someone whom you were talking to.
a. Did this person break eye contact with you to look at their cellular phone?
b. How did this make you feel?
c. What impact, do you think, did it have on your mutual ability to sustain your
conversation?
3. Do you think it has become an acceptable culture to use your mobile device while in
the company of another person with whom you are sharing a dialogue? If so, or if not,
explain why.
4. Should society provide guidance about when it is acceptable to use a cellular phone or
not? If you think so, make suggestions on how it should be done.
8
CHAPTER 5: Intercultural communication
9
Introduction to Communication Studies for Southern African Students
10
CHAPTER 5: Intercultural communication
Environment assignment
Think about and try to recall the classroom settings that you have experienced
throughout your education: pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary
experience to date. Evaluate these settings according to the emotions that they provoked
within you. Which one felt comfortable and made you want to linger? Which one made you
feel rushed? Did you experience any of these settings as being impersonal?
1. Test each of the following criteria against your experience, and explain how it made you
experience feelings of comfort or discomfort in the environment.
a. How was the furniture arranged?
b. Did you sit in a building or outside under a tree?
c. Did you sit on the floor, on individual chairs or benches?
d. What kind of lighting was used?
e. What colours or art were displayed in the environment?
f. Was there any music played or other sounds (for example from outside)?
11
Introduction to Communication Studies for Southern African Students
2. Based on your observations or on what can you recall, can you generalise about how
environmental features promote an atmosphere that is conducive to a specific purpose?
Explain.
12
CHAPTER 5: Intercultural communication
Body movements case study
First entering Communication Studies student from University X in Gauteng
province in South Africa, Mpho, phoned her former Model C Primary School friend Anneke,
now studying at a nearby university within the same province. She invited her to go to a
mall to watch a movie and later to have lunch at a restaurant for relaxation, before the first
semester examinations began in May. She also wanted to compare notes with her in terms of
what their institutions offered in the subject of Communication Studies. They agreed to meet
at the main entrance of the mall.
Upon exiting her university gate, Mpho saw a taxi and signalled for it to stop by pointing
her index finger upwards. The taxi stopped and she climbed into it. Inside the taxi, an elderly
Xhosa-speaking woman asked her for directions to Game store at the mall, where she was
meeting her grandson. Since Mpho was not fluent in the Xhosa language she used hand
movements to illustrate the directions.
On getting to the mall, Mpho looked with radiant eyes at Anneke who was waiting at the
drop-off point for her and gave her a spontaneous hug. They both decided to eat their lunch
first, since Mpho said that she was very hungry. Once they were seated at their table inside
the restaurant, Anneke nodded her head discreetly towards her left and said to her friend,
‘There is a guy at the next table who is staring at you.’ Mpho lifted her eyebrows on hearing
what Anneke said and then looked to her right. She frowned and then pouted and said that
it was fellow student from the Communication 101 class, whose name is Matimba.
Matimba walked uninvited to their table, sat down and started talking. Mpho and Anneke
both looked at Matimba with puzzled and slightly disgusted looks, then looked at each
other and rolled their eyes, but he kept on with his monologue. He signalled the waiter and
asked him to be served at their table. Anneke started biting her nails and fiddling with her
jewellery, but Matimba did not appear to receive the message.
13
Introduction to Communication Studies for Southern African Students
Questions
1. There are more than 15 different examples of kinesic nonverbal behaviour identifiable in
the case study.
Name and define each of the different types of kinesic nonverbal behaviours
(differentiating between the body movement classes) and explain how they are used.
Refer to the textbook and extract examples from the case study above.
2. The last sentence states that ‘Anneke started biting her nails and fiddling with her
jewellery, but Matimba did not appear to receive the message.’
What message was Anneke conveying through her nonverbal language?
14
CHAPTER 5: Intercultural communication
3. One of the sentences states that ‘On getting to the mall, Mpho looked with radiant eyes
at Anneke who was waiting at the drop-off point for her and gave her a spontaneous
hug.’
Identify the two different categories of nonverbal communication in the sentence above.
If you were Anneke, what meaning would you ascribe to Mpho’s behaviour?
15
Introduction to Communication Studies for Southern African Students
Digital context – Case study
Tawanda and Hazel were reclining on the rich green grass embankment opposite
the campus cafeteria, in the shade of the Msasa tree. Hazel enjoyed the spot
because the shade was so cool in the summer months and she liked the vibrant red and
copper colours that showed when the season turned. Tawanda was happy in the shade,
but more importantly, he had line-of-sight with the university Wi-fi tower which ensured a
strong signal on his cellular phone. Only last week he had changed his conservative cellular
protective casing to one that had a glaringly green colour, decorated with emoticons, for
which he had paid way too much and yet he had not treated Hazel to lunch as he had
promised.
As of late, Hazel had noticed that Tawanda was spending more time online, immersed in
social networking applications like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. When they got up from
the lawn the previous afternoon Hazel had noticed his ex-girlfriend Ndali’s Facebook page
was open on his phone and she had confronted him about it. He was stalking his
ex-girlfriend on Facebook and even exchanging messages with her using WhatsApp,
although Hazel had asked him to ‘unfriend’ Ndali. Ndali was a geeky, techno-crazed girl,
unlike Hazel who was clever, bubbly and joked a lot.
Lately, Hazel felt that Tawanda was more inclined to get his priorities wrong. His sense of
identity and self were changing the more he became obsessed with his phone. It is as though
he was becoming more reserved in interpersonal and group relations that involved real
people. Tawanda and Hazel were sharing less and less eye contact and he was touching her
a lot less. At times she wished she was a cell phone that he would gaze at her as intently and
hold her as comfortingly and with care. Hazel did her best to gain Tawanda’s attention, but
he kept on telling her that he had to respond to his messages ‘now’, resulting in Tawanda’s
sense of the present and Hazel’s sense of the present no longer matching. He preferred to
‘visit’ with his online friends making calls on Viber and Skype.
During lecture time in the classroom he preferred to sit towards the back of the class so that
he could read and type messages on his phone without the lecturer, Professor Hauwanga,
noticing it. His marks were dropping and he no longer wanted to study with Hazel in the
library where there was poor cellular and Wi-fi signal. He also appeared to be tired and
short-tempered and no longer laughed as much as he used to. In the last test Professor
Hauwanga had drawn big red circles around the sms-style of abbreviations that Tawanda
had used in his essay. Hazel was sure that he would not pass his subjects at the end of the
year.
She longed for face-to-face communication with Tawanda without technological
interference and pestered him about spending quality time with her. While Tawanda was
16
CHAPTER 5: Intercultural communication
busy responding to her accusation and telling her that she was important to him, his phone
beeped signalling an incoming Twitter message and he broke of mid-sentence, glancing
down at his screen at which point Hazel got up and stomped away in anger.
1. Explain with examples what had changed in Tawanda’s nonverbal behaviour with
reference to:
a. his relationship with Hazel; and
b. his sense of self and identity.
2. What impact was Tawanda’s obsession with the digital context having on his:
a. academic performance; and
b. social relationships?
17
Introduction to Communication Studies for Southern African Students
3. What does Tawanda have to do in order to normalise his usage of social networking and
mobile technology?
4. Clearly Tawanda’s obsession with the digital communication is impacting negatively on
his nonverbal skills. What advice do you have for Tawanda to improve his nonverbal
communication?
18