Honours is General Linguistics Theme 1: Language and Communication in Diverse Contexts Assignment Jenna Crossley 17402468 Task 1 Communicative competence in intercultural communication can be discussed in terms of components of intercultural communicative competence, the criteria for establishing intercultural communicative competence, and sympathy and empathy as possible determiners of intercultural communication. Three components of intercultural communication competence include the knowledge blocks component, the mindfulness component and the communication skills component. The knowledge blocks component entails a process of understanding intercultural communication concepts on a deeper level with the aim of being able to place oneself …show more content…
Misunderstandings have a beginning and an end, although the beginning is sometimes not reconstructable. Possible reasons for breakdown in intercultural communication include high anxiety, assuming similarity instead of difference, ethnocentrism/anthropological concepts of cultural relativism (Jandt, 2004). High anxiety refers to how in an unfamiliar setting, one may be anxious of what is expected of them and may therefore focus on that anxiety rather than the situation itself. This is problematic as then one will be unable to consider the cultural differences between themselves and the person they are interacting with, and this may result in miscommunication. For EXAMPLE Assuming similarity rather than difference involves acting as you would around members of your own culture rather than being aware of the differences that lie between your culture and the culture of the person you are interacting with. This is detrimental to intercultural communication as when one does this, they are completely overlooking factors that could contribute towards a miscommunication. An EXAMPLE OF