Lude: intercultural and cross-cultural communication

Hi, dear all:

It seems that we are all interested in but confused with the difference between “intercultural communication” and “cross-cultural communication”. I checked the book Culture learning: the fifth dimension in the language classroom written by Louise Damen in1987, one of the books included in the reading list of the intimidating comprehensive exam in this PhD program, and found the following definitions for your reference.

Intercultural communication: acts of communication undertaken by individuals identified with groups exhibiting intergroup variation in shared social and cultural patterns. (These shared patterns, individually expressed, are the major variables in the purpose, the manner, the mode, and the means by which the communicative process is affected.)

Cross-cultural awareness: understanding of similarities and differences in cultural patterns of other than native culture.

I also checked the Longman dictionary of language teaching & applied linguistics (3rd edition 2002) and found the definitions of these two terms as follows:

Intercultural communication, also interdiscourse communication//intercultural discourse: an interdisciplinary field of research that studies how people communicate and understand each other across group boundaries or discourse systems of various sorts including national, geographical, linguistic, ethnic, occupation, class or gender-related boundaries and how such boundaries affect language use. This could include the study of a corporate culture, a professional group, a gender discourse system, or a generational discourse system.

Cross-cultural communication: And exchange of ideas, information, etc., between persons from different cultural backgrounds. There are often more problems in cross-cultural communication than in communication between people of the same cultural background. Each participant may interpret the other’s speech according to his or her own cultural conventions and expectations. If the cultural conventions of the speakers are widely different, misinterpretations and misunderstandings can easily arise, even resulting in a total breakdown of communication. This has been shown by research into real-life situations, such as job interviews, doctor-patient encounters and legal communication.

It seems that my previous interpretation of these two terms at the study group was kind of misleading, though not totally wrong. The difference between “intercultural” and “cross-cultural” seems to lie in their different foci rather than locations (within or not within a common geographical nation). “Intercultural communication” focuses on the skills, conduction, and problems of communication by people from different cultural backgrounds. For example, Damen mentions in his book:“intercultural communication can entail ‘error’ in social perception brought about by cultural variations that affect the perceptual process”. Besides, the different cultural backgrounds can refer to not only ethnic but national, geographical, linguistic, or occupation backgrounds, as the Longman dictionary says.

On the other hand, “cross-cultural” seems to address the awareness of the similarities and differences between other cultures and one’s native cultures. In fact, the term ”cross-cultural communication’ is kind of obsolete. It used to be one of the equivalences of “intercultural communication”. Now “cross-cultural” is often juxtaposed with the terms “awareness”, “research”, or “training”, emphasizing the comparison between two or more different cultural groups. Here are some examples from Damen’s book for you:

“The first cross-cultural training manual only appeared in 1970 in the United States for Peace Corps volunteers.

Cross-cultural research should not be carried out with methods and instruments developed in monocultural contexts.

That is my short research about the definitions of the two terms. Hope they’re helpful to you. Meanwhile, I’d like to thank all of you for inspiring me at the study group. I really enjoyed it and I’ve learned a lot from you. Special thank goes to Ruth. It is very sweet of you to make the certificates for us. You have really warmed my heart. Thank you very much.

Lude (Christine)