Module information

Code

COM3102/3

Name

Cross-Cultural Communications (Credit: 2 or 3 hours)

Average equivalent

ECTS 4 or 5

Description

Though an extremely important activity, cross-cultural communications has only recently received much attention as a direct object of investigation. The study of culture has not, however, been overlooked. Anthropology is directly concerned with the study of culture. Similarly, other social and behavioral sciences have looked at humanity’s cultural differences. Cross-Cultural Communications gratefully draws from these other disciplines and contributes its own valid emphasis in a very practical way. How do cultural differences make a difference in the way people interact? How might one improve communicative skills in a shrinking world? This course attempts to help the student discover answers to these current problems. Perhaps the most important aspect of this course relates to the word mission. This Study Guide and the textbook are dedicated to the special task of helping the person who would become a “sent one” to present Christ and His kingdom in an environment other than his or her own familiar culture. To do this, we address the relationship of communication and culture, how to reach people where they are, how different people think and express ideas across cultures and subcultures within a culture, and how the thought and expression of people affect their behavior.

Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course, you should be able to: 1. Define, with an emphasis on intentional and cross-cultural aspects, the process of effective communication. 2. Describe some cross-cultural problems that hinder and some cross-cultural conditions that help the process of effective communication. 3. Define the term worldview and describe both similarities and differences among various worldviews. 4. Outline variations within each of six basic value orientations of humanity and give evidences of how individual human cultures maintain specific variations within these orientations. 5. Describe ways of thinking among human cultures, and explain how a Christian witness can increase his ability to communicate Christ to people who think in each of these ways. 6. State why a cross-cultural missionary should learn the language of his respondents, and why his indirect expression in speech can sometimes help him to communicate to them. 7. Explain how the cross-cultural missionary’s own behavior and the social structures within his respondent culture relate to the success or failure of his efforts to communicate Christ to his respondents. 8. Relate kinship, individualism, industrialization, and most importantly Jesus Christ to the future of Christian missions in all types of societies. 9. Demonstrate a more effective cross-cultural communication of Christ because of your study in this course.

Mode of Study

• Lecture • Video (in progress) • Student interaction • Professor of Record Interaction • Hands on

Assessment

• 100 objective multiple choice questions • Online or pencil and paper • Project • Collateral Reading Assignment (for 3 (USA) credit courses • Student Learning Requirement • Passmark 70% •