DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

HA NOI LAW UNIVERSITY

GROUP ASSIGNMENT
CROSS – CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

TOPIC:
“Intercultural communication competence”

Group: 04
Class: N04

Hà Nội, 2022
A. INTRODUCTION
 Intercultural communication competence (ICC) refers to the ability to
understand cultures, including personal knowledge, and use this understanding to
communicate with people from other cultures successfully. Intercultural
competence is a valuable asset in an increasingly globalized world where we are
more likely to interact with people from different cultures and countries who have
been shaped by different values, beliefs, and experiences. There are numerous
components of ICC. Some key components include motivation, self-and other
knowledge, and tolerance for uncertainty.

B. DEVELOPMENT

I. Intercultural communication competence

1. The definition of intercultural communication competence

Although there is still some disagreement among scholars about how best to
conceptualize and measure communication competence, there is increasing
agreement about certain of its fundamental characteristics. In our discussion, we
draw heavily on the work of Brian Spitzberg and his colleagues. The following
definition of communication competence illustrates the key components of their
approach:

“Competent communication is the interaction that is perceived as effective

in fulfilling certain rewarding objectives in a way that is also appropriate to the
context in which the interaction occurs.”

Thus, communication competence is a social judgment that people make

about others. The judgment depends on the context, relationship between the
interactants, the goals or objectives that the interactants want to achieve, and the
specific verbal and nonverbal messages that are used to accomplish those goals.
2. Analyze and specify the characteristics of intercultural communication
competence

The definition guides the understanding of communicative and intercultural

competence in several ways. It has 2 characteristics. Those are interactions that are
perceived as effective in fulfilling certain rewarding objectives and appropriate to
the context in which the interactions occur. A keyword is perceived because it
means that competence is best determined by the people who are interacting with
each other. In other words, communicative competence is a social judgment about
how well a person interacts with others. That competence involves a social
perception suggests that it will always be specific to the context and interpersonal
relationship within which it occurs. Therefore, whereas judgments of competence
are influenced by an assessment of an individual's characteristics, they cannot be
wholly determined by them, because competence involves an interaction between
people.

Competent interpersonal communication results in behaviors that are

regarded as appropriate. That is, the actions of the communicators fit the
expectations and demands of the situation. Appropriate communication means that
people use the symbols they are expected to use in a given context.

Competent interpersonal communication also results in behaviors that are

effective in achieving desired personal outcomes. Satisfaction in a relationship or
the accomplishment of a specific task-related goal is an example of an outcome
people might want to achieve through their communication with others.

II. Components of intercultural competence:

1. Analyze the components of intercultural communication competence:

- Context
 Intercultural competence is contextual. An impression or judgment that a
person is interculturally competent is made concerning both a specific relational
context and a particular situational context. Competence is not independent of the
relationships and situations within which communication occurs. Competence is
not a personal attribute; rather, it is a characteristic of interpersonal bonding. It is,
therefore, possible that someone is considered highly competent in one set of
cross-cultural interactions and average in another.

- Appropriateness and effectiveness

By appropriate means, those behaviors are regarded as proper and suitable

given the expectations generated by a given culture, the constraints of the specific
situation, and the nature of the relationship between the interactants. By effective,
we mean those behaviors that lead to the achievement of desired outcomes.

- Knowledge

Knowledge is the foundation of everything, not just cross-cultural

competence. Knowledge refers to the cognitive information you need to have about
the people, the context, and the norms of appropriateness that operate in a specific
culture. Without such knowledge, it is unlikely that you will correctly interpret the
meanings of other people's messages, nor will you be able to select behaviors that
are appropriate and that allow you to achieve your objectives. Consequently, you
will not be able to determine what the appropriate and effective behaviors are in a
particular context.

The kinds of knowledge that are important include culture-general and

culture-specific information. Culture-general information provides insights into the
intercultural communication process abstractly and can therefore be a very
powerful tool in making sense of cultural practices, regardless of the cultures
involved.

- Motivation

Motivations include people's overall set of emotional associations as they

anticipate and communicate interculturally. Some scholars have suggested that
people's motivations-particularly those that make one more willing to participate in
intercultural communication encounters-are often the starting point for becoming
interculturally competent different aspects of the emotional terrain contribute to
intercultural competence. Human emotional reactions include both feelings and
intentions.

Feelings refer to the emotional or affective states that you experience when
communicating with someone from a different culture. Feelings are not thoughts,
though people often confuse the two; rather, feelings are your emotional and
physiological reactions to thoughts and experiences. Feelings of happiness,
Sadness, eagerness, anger, tension, surprise, confusion, relaxation, and joy are
among the many emotions that can accompany the intercultural communication
experience. Feelings involve your general sensitivity to other cultures and your
attitudes toward the specific culture and individuals with whom you must interact

- Skills

Skills refer to the actual performance of those behaviors that are regarded as
appropriate and effective. Thus, you can have the necessary information, be
motivated by the appropriate feelings and intentions, and still lack the behavioral
skills necessary to achieve competence. For example, students from other cultures
who enroll in basic public speaking classes often have an excellent understanding
of the theory of speech construction. In addition, they have a positive attitude
toward learning U.S. speaking skills; they want to do well and are willing to work
hard in preparation. Unfortunately, their speaking skills sometimes make it
difficult for them to execute the delivery of a speech with the level of skill and
precision that they would like.

2. Give examples of the components of intercultural communication

competence:

For example, with a British child, if they grow up in an Asian environment,

they will surely speak that Asian language too, that's the interesting point of the
context, or imagine the image of two people from two different cultures working
together, for example instead of nodding in agreement like most other countries,
Indians shake their heads, which creates a lot of confusion when interacting with
foreigners. Going back to the British kids in the first example, if the kid grew up in
his own country but didn't move to Asia until he was 18 when he made a mistake,
we should reprimand him the way the British did, not the way Asian parents are
used to. That is appropriateness and effectiveness. The British kid, when he grows
up in Asia, will gain a lot of knowledge from Asian people, besides having the
emotions of being next to them, practicing skills like a native, for sure. I'm sure
that kid will like a real Asian when he grows up.

III. Basic tools for improving intercultural competence

1. Analyze the differences between basic tools for improving intercultural
competence
There are two main basic tools for improving intercultural competence, they
are The Behavioral Assessment Scale for Intercultural Competence (BASIC) and
Description, Interpretation, and Evaluation (D-I-E).
The BASIC skills developed by Jolene Koester and Margaret Olebe are
based on work done originally by Brent Ruben and his colleagues. A very simple
idea provides the key to understanding how to use these BASIC skills is what you
do, rather than your internalized attitudes or your projections of what you might
do, which is what others use to determine whether you are interculturally
competent. The BASICs skills are a tool for examining people's communication
behaviors, including yourself and in so doing provide a guide to the very basics of
intercultural competence. There are eight categories of communication behavior
described in the BASIC instrument and each of which contributes to the
achievement of intercultural competence. These BASIC skills may be used in most
cultures to make judgments of competence about themselves and others. But
within each culture, there may be, and in all likelihood will be different ways of
exhibiting these behaviors. For example, actions that show respect for others, and
the ability to maintain conversations and manage communicative interactions, are
necessary for all cultures for someone to be judged as competent, however, the
way each culture teaches its members to exhibit these actions is different.
The D-I-E skills are the tool that allows people to control the meanings they
attribute to the verbal and nonverbal symbols used by others. The tool is based on
the differences in how people think about, and then verbally speak about, the
people with whom they interact and the events in which they participate. The
interaction tool starts with the assumption that, when most people process the
information around them, they use a kind of mental shorthand. Because people are
taught what symbols mean, they are not very aware of the information they use to
form their interpretations. In other words, when people see, hear, and in other ways
receive information from the world around them, they generally form
interpretations and evaluations of it without being aware of the specific sensory
information they have perceived. A statement of description details the specific
perceptual cues and information a person has received, without judgments or
interpretations in other words, without being distorted by opinion. A statement of
interpretation provides a conjecture or hypothesis about what the perceptual
information might mean. A statement of evaluation indicates an emotional or
affective judgment about the information. Often, the interpretations people make of
perceptual information are very closely linked to their evaluation of that
information. Any description can have many different interpretations, but because
most people think in a mental shorthand, they are generally aware of only the
interpretation that immediately comes to mind, which they use to explain the event.
The simplicity of the D-I-E makes it available in any set of circumstances and may
allow the intercultural communicator to suspend judgment long enough to
understand the symbols used by the culture involved.
2. Give examples of basic tools for improving intercultural competence
- The BASIC skill, eight types of communication behavior will have eight
examples corresponding.
+ Display of Respect: The ability to show respect and positive regard for
another person. Although the need to display respect for others is a culture-general
concept, within every culture, there are specific ways to show respect and specific
expectations about those to whom respect should be shown. Respect is shown
through both verbal and nonverbal symbols. Etiquette greetings in Korea and
Japan, for instance, South Koreans are reserved and well-mannered people and the
bow is the traditional Korean greeting, although it is often accompanied by a
handshake among men and women usually nod slightly, to show respect when
shaking hands, they support their right forearm with the left hand. However, in
Japan, greetings are considered to be of extreme importance in Japanese culture,
everyone is often admonished to deliver greetings with energy and vigor and there
are many types of greetings, different forms of these greetings may be used
depending on the relative social status.
 + Orientation to Knowledge: The terms people use to explain themselves
and the world around them. A competent orientation to knowledge occurs when
people's actions demonstrate that all experiences and interpretations are individual
and personal rather than universally shared by others. Among European
Americans, for instance, declarative statements that express personal attitudes or
opinions as if they were facts and an absence of qualifiers or modifiers would show
an ineffective orientation to knowledge: "New Yorkers must be crazy to live in that
city." "The custom of arranged marriages is barbaric." In contrast, a competent
intercultural communicator acknowledges a personal orientation to knowledge, as
illustrated in the following examples: "I find New York a very difficult place to
visit and would not want to live there." "I would not want my parents to arrange
my marriage for me."
+ Empathy: The capacity to behave as though you understand the world as
others do. Empathy is the ability of individuals to communicate an awareness of
another person's thoughts, feelings, and experiences, and such individuals are
regarded as more competent in intercultural interactions. Alternatively, those who
lack empathy, and who therefore indicate little or no awareness of even the most
obvious feelings and thoughts of others, will not be perceived as competent.
Cultures that tend to be more collectivistic such as Ecuador and Saudi Arabia tend
to have higher empathy scores. Collectivism involves seeing oneself as being part
of a larger, interconnected group of familial and other close relationships, with a
priority on fitting in with others and maintaining harmony. In contrast, more
individualistic cultures, for instance, the majority of the Western world tend to
score lower on empathy. In an individualistic society, people see themselves as
distinct and separate from others, and prioritize showcasing their uniqueness and
valuing their self-expression. This can perhaps make it harder to see the
commonalities that we share, in turn making us less likely to feel compassionate
toward others and put ourselves in their shoes.
+ Interaction Management: Skill in regulating conversations. Some
individuals are skilled at starting and ending interactions among participants and at
taking turns and maintaining a discussion. These interaction management skills are
important because, through them, all participants in an interaction can speak and
contribute appropriately. In contrast, dominating a conversation or being non-
responsive to the interaction is detrimental to competence. Developing these
competencies as part of a global management mindset is not only important
because Western expatriate managers may find themselves working in a
developing country but also important because of the apparent arrogance of the
Western world in believing that the 80 percent of the globe comprising the
developing country has nothing to offer the developed country. Meanwhile, the
former Soviet Union, the opening up of the People's Republic of China to East-
West joint ventures, and the end of apartheid in South Africa make Western think
that people here do not have interaction management, even imposed on them.
+ Task Role Behavior: Behaviors that involve the initiation of ideas related
to group problem-solving activities. Task role behaviors are those that contribute to
the group's problem-solving activities, for example, initiating new ideas, requesting
further information or facts, seeking clarification of group tasks, evaluating the
suggestions of others, and keeping a group on task. The difficulty in this important
category is the display of culturally appropriate behaviors. Task behaviors are so
intimately entwined with cultural expectations about activity and work that it is
often difficult to respond appropriately to task expectations that differ from one's
own. For example, socializing at a restaurant or a bar may be seen as a necessary
prelude to conducting a business negotiation. Sometimes that socializing is
expected to occur over many hours or days, which surprises and dismays many
European Americans, who believe that "doing business" is separate from
socializing.
+ Relational Role Behavior: Behaviors associated with interpersonal
harmony and mediation. These behaviors may include verbal and nonverbal
messages that demonstrate support for others and that help to solidify feelings of
participation. Competent relational role behaviors include harmonizing and
mediating conflicts between group members, encouraging participation from
others, general displays of interest, and a willingness to compromise one's position
for the sake of others. Examples of competent relational role behaviors include
harmonizing and mediating conflicts between group members, encouraging
participation from others, general displays of interest, and a willingness to
compromise one's position for the sake of others.
+ Tolerance for Ambiguity: The ability to react to new and ambiguous.
Some people react to new situations with greater comfort than do others while
some are extremely nervous, highly frustrated, or even hostile toward the new
situations and those who may be present in them. Those who do not tolerate
ambiguity well may respond to new and unpredictable situations with hostility,
anger, shouting, sarcasm, withdrawal, or abruptness. For example, the manager of
a restaurant may know exactly what to do if someone calls and asks if the
restaurant can set aside enough tables for a group of 30 people at 7:00 pm that
evening. The owner or manager of a new restaurant may have never had that
request before and may have to stop and think about what to do. The manager
might think, “I’d love to seat 30 people at the same time, but what will the people
who have already waited 30 minutes for a table think if a large group walks in and
is seated right away?” These types of dilemmas face the owners of new businesses
frequently because the businesses are new and are still establishing their policies
and procedures. Business owners with a high tolerance for ambiguity can normally
handle new and uncertain situations with relative ease, while business owners with
a low tolerance for ambiguity would handle the same situations with more angst
and unease.
+ Interaction Posture: The ability to respond to others in descriptive, non-
valuative, and nonjudgmental ways. Although the specific verbal and nonverbal
messages that express judgments and evaluations can vary from culture to culture,
the importance of selecting messages that do not convey evaluative judgments is
paramount. Statements based on clear judgments of rights and wrongs indicate a
closed or predetermined framework of attitudes, beliefs, and values, and they are
used by the evaluative, and less competent, intercultural communicator. Non-
evaluative and nonjudgmental actions are characterized by verbal and nonverbal
messages based on descriptions rather than on interpretations or evaluations. For
example, two forms of posture have been identified, ‘open’ and ‘closed’, which
may reflect an individual's degree of confidence, status, or receptivity to another
person. Someone seated in a closed position might have his/her arms folded, legs
crossed, or be positioned at a slight angle from the person with whom they are
interacting. In an open posture, you might expect to see someone directly facing
you with hands apart on the arms of the chair. An open posture can be used to
communicate openness or interest in someone and a readiness to listen, whereas
the closed posture might imply discomfort or disinterest.
- The D-I-E skill, three types of communication behavior will have three
corresponding examples.
+ Description: People are taught what symbols mean so they are not very
aware of the information they use to form their interpretations. In other words,
when people see, hear, and in other ways receive information from the world
around them, they generally form interpretations and evaluations of it without
being aware of the specific sensory information they have perceived. For example,
in a conversation between students and teachers, they rarely do these conversations
detail the specific perceptual information on which that interpretation is based.
Rarely does someone say, for instance, "This room is about twenty by forty feet in
size, the walls are painted a cream color, there is no artwork on the walls, it is lit by
eight fluorescent bulbs, and the floors are cream-colored tiles with multiple pieces
of dirt." Most people who have spent a great deal of time in such rooms have a
fairly accurate image of the classroom, they say that their classroom is "sterile,
institutional-looking, and unattractive". Similarly, if a friend is walking toward
you, you might say, "Hi! What's wrong? You look really tired and upset." That
kind of comment is considered normal, but if you said instead, "Hi! Your shoulders
are drooping, you're not standing up straight, and you are walking much slower
than usual," it would be considered strange.
+ Interpretation: Any description can have many different interpretations,
but because most people think in a mental shorthand, they are generally aware of
only the interpretation that immediately comes to mind, which they use to explain
the event. For example, teachers occasionally have students who arrive late to
class. A statement of description about a particular student engaging in this
behavior might be as follows: "She arrived ten minutes after the start of the class.";
"She also arrived late each of the previous times the class has met.". Statements of
interpretation, which are designed to explain her behavior, might include she
doesn't care very much about this particular class or she is always late for
everything.
+ Evaluation: Any interpretation can have many different evaluations, the
interpretation a person selects to explain something like someone's behavior
influences the evaluation that is made of that behavior. For each interpretation, the
evaluation can vary. Still working with the above example, if the interpretation of
this situation is "She doesn't care very much about this class," different professors
will have differing evaluations such as "I am offended by that attitude" or "I like a
student who chooses to be enthusiastic only about classes she likes". The
interpretation a person selects to explain something like someone's behavior
influences the evaluation that is made of that behavior.

IV. Case study

1. The difference between responding to complaints between Vietnamese and

British people

MILITARY FOREIGN LANGUAGE SCIENCE

No.09-September2017

On the theoretical foundation of speech acts, complaints are an inevitable

part of our daily lives and in today's multicultural environment. More importantly,
we need to cultivate communicators from different cultures with the necessary
knowledge on how to deal with complaints. This study aims to investigate the
preferred strategies used by British and Vietnamese people in response to
complaints. Moreover, the article also aims to explore the differences when
communicators use strategies in different situations and with different
interlocutors. The results show that there are 13 preferred strategies used when
Vietnamese and British respond to complaints and there are indeed many
differences in their choice of strategy. It can be concluded that some cultural
considerations have been suggested for those who are living, studying, and
working in a multicultural environment including the UK and Vietnam.

2. Analyze this and use the definition above to clarify the influence of cultural
factors on the way people behave/communicate
 From the research, we can see that, with the complainers being parents,
British participants tend to use all strategies except for Asking for help,
complaining back, and threatening back, but Vietnamese ones prefer to combine
several strategies. This way makes their apology more sincere and repentant to the
Hearer. Similarly, Vietnamese ones do not use strategies Asking for help,
Complaining back, and Threatening back. Nevertheless, they neither use Accepting
and Rejecting as well. Interestingly, despite the higher power of parents, British
ones still reject the complaints which account for 16.32% while Vietnamese ones
do not reject the complaints from their parents at all. The reason is that when they
are grown up, they want their privacy and individuality to be respected and even
parents can not tell them what they should do, they just do what they want. On the
contrary, as a tradition of Vietnamese people, parents are among the most
important people in one’s life and one should respect their parents’ advice. That is
due to the knowledge component that decides the behaviors.

Besides, when the Speaker and the Hearer are equal in power like among
friends, the Threatening back strategy is not be used at all among Vietnamese
participants. In addition, Vietnamese participants have a general trend of
combining strategies more than British participants. In both Vietnam and British, if
Hearer is a close friend, they tend to use Rejecting or Complaining Back. The
reason for those behaviors is mainly due to the context, especially the relationship
between the Speaker and Hearer. On the contrary to accepting, some respondents
choose Rejecting as their response strategy. When using this strategy, the Speaker
does do an FTA towards the Hearer by ignoring, turning the complaints down, or
telling them that the Hearer is wrong. Moreover, Complaining Back is also an FTA
and the Speaker chooses this strategy to save his/her face, nevertheless, by doing
so, he/she threatens the Hearer’s face. It is similar when Hearer is not Speaker’s
close friend, they tend to use a more polite strategy such as Apologizing or
Explaining - the act of describing the situation which caused the Speaker to
misbehave. By doing so, the Speaker intends to win sympathy from the Hearer.

FTA (FTAs – acts that threaten the face)

From the evidence mentioned above, it is clear that each country has its
strategies to behave or communicate with each other. Not only does that depend on
the purpose of the Speaker’s behaviors, but also depends on the contexts,
effectivenesses, knowledge, motivations, and skills - which are the components of
intercultural competence.

C. CONCLUSION
Intercultural competence is part of a family of concepts including global
competence, graduate attributes, employability skills, global citizenship, education
for sustainable development, and global employability. Core to all these concepts
is the recognition of globalization as a force for change in all aspects of the
contemporary world, and the importance for graduates to be able to engage and act
globally. Individuals who are intrinsically motivated toward intercultural
communication may have a higher tolerance for uncertainty, in that their curiosity
leads them to engage with others who are different because they find the self-and
other-knowledge gained rewarding.
 APPENDIX
 Strategies
1. Apologizing
2. Explaining
3. Promising
4. Asking for help
5. Accepting
6. Rejecting
7. Complaining back
8. Threatening back
9. Apologizing and Showing concern
10. Explaining and Showing concern
11. Apologizing and Explaining
12. Apologizing and Promising
13. Explaining and Promising

Chart. Comparison between British and Vietnamese mostly used strategies

 BIÊN BẢN XÁC ĐỊNH MỨC ĐỘ THAM GIA VÀ
KẾT QUẢ THAM GIA LÀM BÀI TẬP NHÓM
REFERRENCES
1. Lustig, M. W., & Koester, J. (2010). Intercultural competence: Interpersonal
communication across cultures (6th ed.): Pearson/A and B.

2. https://tailieutuoi.com/tai-lieu/nghien-cuu-ve-giao-tiep-lien-van-hoa-viec-dap-
lai-loi-than-phien-giua-nguoi-viet-nam-va-nguoi-anh

Nhóm số: 01 Lớp: 4430 – N04 Khóa: 44

Tổng số thành viên của nhóm: 04
- Lê Quỳnh Chi 443031
- Nguyễn Thùy Linh 443032
- Hoàng Việt Linh 443035
- Dương Khánh Linh 443036
Có mặt: 04 Vắng mặt: 0
Tên bài tập: “Intercultural communication competence”
Xác định mức độ tham gia và kết quả tham gia của từng sinh viên trong việc thực hiện bài
tập nhóm số: 01
Kết quả như sau:

Đánh giá Đánh giá

của SV SV của GV
STT Mã SV Họ và tên ký GV
A B C tên Điểm Điểm ký
(số) (chữ) tên

1 443031 Lê Quỳnh Chi x

2 443032 Nguyễn Thùy Linh x
3 443035 Hoàng Việt Linh x
4 443036 Dương Khánh Linh x

Hà Nội, ngày 05 tháng 04 năm 2022

Kết quả điểm bài viết: ............................ NHÓM TRƯỞNG
- Giáo viên chấm thứ nhất:.……………...
- Giáo viên chấm thứ hai:.………………. Linh
Kết quả điểm thuyết trình:…………….
- Giáo viên cho thuyết trình:……………. Hoàng Việt Linh
Điểm kết luận cuối cùng:………………
- Giáo viên đánh giá cuối cùng:…………