Intercultural competence, its interpretation, assessment and application

1
Intercultural competence, its interpretation,
assessment and application

• Lan Anh NGUYEN LUU
• lananh_at_ppk.elte.hu
• Center for InterculturalPsychology and
  Education Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest
• ELTE

2
What is intercultural competence

• Gardner social psychologist (1962, quoted by
  Rathje, 2007) to what degree is it actually
  possible, for an expert from one culture to
  communicate with, to get through to, persons of
  another culture?
• Gardners answer unusual capacity with
  personality traits such as integrity, stability,
• extroversion, socialisation in universal values,
  special intuitive and telepathic abilities.

3
What is intercultural competence according to top
intercultural scholars

• Delphi method by Deardorff (2006) with among
  others
• Janet Bennett, Intercultural Communication
  Institute, Oregon
• Michael Byram, University of Durham, England
• Mitchell Hammer,American University
• Jolene Koester, California State University,
  Northridge
• R. Michael Paige, University of Minnesota
• Paul Pedersen, Syracuse University
• Harry Triandis, University of Illinois
• Richard Wiseman, California State University,
  Fullerton

4
(No Transcript)
5
Specific components of intercultural competence
6
Different models on intercultural competence

• Different focuses
• individual level (intercultural competence as
  something in the person)
• interaction
• A broader context of sociocultural adaptation

7
Different models on intercultural competence
individual focus

• Cultural Intelligence (Early, Ang, 2003) ..a
  persons capacity to adapt effectively to a new
  cultural context with 3 components
• - cognitive (knowledge-based)
• - motivational (self-efficacy)
• - behavioral (repertoire of appropriate
  responses)

8
Different models on intercultural competence
individual focus

• Matsumoto Intercultural Adjustment Potential
  Scale (ICAPS)
• emotion regulation,
• openness,
• flexibility,
• creativity/critical thinking/autonomy
• (Via analysis on intercultural encounters, which
  due to differences in language, nonverbal
  behaviors, values, norms, attitudes, rules,
  systems, and all the other manifestations of
  culture are full of conflict, frustration, and
  struggle.

9
Different models on intercultural competence

• Is it within the individual?
• Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ)
  (van Oudenhoven, van der Zee)
• cultural empathy (Is attentive to facial
  expressions )
• openmindedness (Finds other religions
  interesting)
• social initiative (Takes initiatives)
• emotional stability (Is not easily hurt)
• Flexibility (Easily from one activity to
  another)

10
Different models on intercultural competence
individual focus

• Further scales, e.g.
• Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory (CCAI)
  Kelley Meyers, 1995),
• Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (Bhawuk
  Brislin, 1993)

11
Different models on intercultural competence
Individual and developmental focus Developmental
Model of Intercultural Sensitivity - Bennett
Conceptualization of intercultural sensitivity
(ability to discriminate, construe, and
experience relevant cultural differences) and
competence (the ability to think and act in
interculturally appropriate ways)
12
Different models on intercultural competence
interaction focus
13
Different models on intercultural competence
interaction, negotiation focusTing-Toomey model

• conflict face-negotiation theory people in all
  cultures try to maintain and negotiate face in
  all communication situations.
• Individualism-collectivism of culture
  preferences for self-oriented or other-oriented
  face work
• Small-large power distance preferences for
  horizontal or vertical face work.
• Facework competence 4 criteria of facework
  competence appropriateness, effectiveness,
  adaptability, and interaction satisfaction

14
Different models on intercultural competence
interaction, negotiation focusAnxiety/Uncertainty
Management Theory (Gudykunst)

• Encounting another person anxiety (affective)
  and uncertainty (cognitive) experience.
• The competence lies in managing these two
  variables. The means mindfulness (Langer)

15
Different models on intercultural competence
interaction, negotiation focusintercultural
approach of Cohen-Emerique

• Intercultural communication is based on a
  paradox the other is at the same time different
  and similar to the self
• Based on identity negotiation (Ting-Toomey,
  Gudykunst)
• to maintain and to respect ones own and the
  culturally different others identity
• To strenghten positive identity both in self and
  other.
• Steps to be taken 1) decentration to realize
  our own reference, frame (I am interpreting the
  situation through what values and norms), 2)
  stepping into the reference, frame of the other
  and looking out from there how he/she can
  interprete the situation, 3) negotiation,
  mediation.

16
Different models on intercultural competence
interaction, negotiation focusDialogical self
(Hermans, 2002)

• Selfs and others understanding in interaction
  inevitable misunderstanding due to difficulty in
  integrating different sources of information
• first-person information (which I have about
  myself),
• third-person information (which my interaction
  partner has about me).
• Solution (competence?) ongoing dialogue,
  continuing exchange of information with a minimum
  of relative dominance between the communicating
  parties. Dialogical relations in which the other
  person, object is not only known as
  objectified realities or internalized objects,
  but can be known only as they are allowed to
  speak from their own perspectives

17
Different models on intercultural competence
Intercultural communication and competence in a
broader context Culture learning approach
(Masgoret, Ward)

Socio-cultural adaptation
Effective intercultural interaction
Foreign language proficiency and communication
competence
18
How to measure?

• Popular measures see above
• According to top intercultural scholars
  (Deardoff, 2006) quantitative methods do not
  seem the best. Top methods are

19
Issues raised by intercultural scholars
concerning assessment of intercultural competence
(Deardoff)
20

• For an integrative model see Vera Várhegyis
  paper

21

• Thank you for attention!
• Köszönöm!