We live in a more multicultural world than ever before. We face diversity in our everyday life whether it is located in our home country or abroad. Developing individual intercultural skill is therefore essential to enable successful and appropriate communication with people coming from different cultural environments, having different perceptions of life, value systems, rituals and communication patterns. Understanding the significance of culture in every human being’s life – including ourselves - will open the door to being skillful in various intercultural environments.
The aim of the Intercultural Communication module is to introduce the learners to the various dimensions of communication between cultures. The module shows different ways to comprehend cultures according to their deep structures and diverse communication patterns. Issues that create misunderstandings in intercultural interaction are considered. Through these theoretical and practical observations, another objective of the course will be achieved: development of intercultural skills and competence in diverse multicultural contexts.
After completing the module, the learners will:
- be sensitive to cultural determination of behavior and values;
- be able to identify their own cultural norms and prejudices;
- have a greater ability to understand and interpret cultural differences and to be aware of the different culture specificities they will encounter while abroad;
- be able to recognize different communication styles in a culturally sensitive manner.
Online learning in general is no novelty in the education system today, but online learning tools in intercultural communication are still rare. The most innovative aspect of this open module however resides in the fact that students from different academic backgrounds will be able to interact, exchange experience and use this open module to enhance their intercultural skills from the comfort of their home or if their university doesn't provide them with an intercultural training course.
The Intercultural Communication module can be accessed here.
| The module is structured in 4 chapters: - Chapter 1. Culture
- Chapter 2. Intercultural Dimensions
- Chapter 3. Intercultural Competence
- Chapter 4. Intercultural Communication
Each chapter contains - a small case of students' experience as an introduction;
- theoretical inputs including short learning videos and comics;
- 1-2 videos of group discussions with students;
- a self-learning exercise;
- a test for self-assessment;
- further links for information and
- the literature used.
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