Intercultural Communication and ESP: Points of Intersection

1. Intercultural Communication and ESP: Points of Intersection Ulla Connor William Rozycki Indiana Center for Intercultural Communication Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis 2007 TESOL Convention Seattle, WA, March 21-24, 2007

2. Culture as a burning issue in the 21st century Culture is one of the two or three most complex words in the language (Williams, 1983, p. 87) Early notions of culture, the “received view,” consider large groups as sharing a definable culture (ethnic, national, international) Postmodern views see culture as “a dynamic, ongoing process which operates in changing circumstances to enable group members to make sense and meaningfully operate within those circumstances” (Holliday, 1999, p. 248) Culture has become less and less a national consensus, but a consensus built on common ethnic, generational, ideological, occupation – or gender related interests, within and across national boundaries” Kramsch, 2002, p. 276)

3. Treatment of culture and communication in ESP Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) Theory: culture ‘comprises various aspects such as national, professional…and personal cultures” (p.66) Practice: Present ‘received culture’ model of Hofstede (1991) and Trompenaars (1993), e.g. “In diffuse cultures, such as China and Indonesia, the boss…In specific cultures, such as Australia and the Netherlands, the boss…” (p. 67)

4. Relevant theories of intercultural communication for ESP Interacting large cultures and small cultures Byram’s (1997) theory of intercultural competence; Kramsch’s (1998) “intercultural speaker” and (Kramsch & Lam, 1999) third space Accommodation theory in communication

5. Two paradigms(Holliday, 1994, 1999)

6. Large and small cultures in the classroom Complexly interacting small cultures in an educational setting. Atkinson, 2004 adapted from Holliday, 1994, 1999.

7. Byram’s (1997) theory of intercultural competence Five key ideas Attitudes Knowledge Skills of discovery and interaction Skills of interpreting and relation Critical cultural awareness

8. Accommodation in English as a Lingua Franca Communication accommodation (Giles et al., 1991; Coupland & Jaworski, 1997) Native and nonnative English speakers accommodate toward World Standard English (Crystal, 1997)

9. Accommodation (cont.) How like you our fish? (Connor, 1999) • Finnish fish broker adjusts his English to accommodate his buyers and sellers • To buyers he is more polite • He adjusts his grammar and style depending on his understanding of their language ability and culture

10. Culture in 2 ESP programs of ICIC English for Specific Purposes in Business, Finance, and Economics (Ministry of Finance of PRC) Training for International Postdoctoral Researchers

11. Ministry of Finance program(Connor, Rozycki, & McIntosh, 2006) Large culture Chinese Small cultures disciplinary generational gender Intercultural competence interaction and negotiation in the third space power stance Accommodation linguistic and interactional strategies for L1 and L2 in the third space

12. Postdoctoral researchers(Connor & Mbaye, 2004) Large cultures Chinese Korean Small cultures disciplinary, gender, generational Intercultural competence Accommodation oral communication written communication

13. Relevance of intercultural communication models for ESP programs 1. Large vs. small cultures 2. Intercultural competence and negotiation in the third space 3. Accommodation in the third space by L2 and L1