LCOMM4107 Global and Intercultural Communication Course Descriptor

Course Overview

This course focuses on theories of and approaches to the study of intercultural communication. It studies the importance of being able to negotiate cultural differences and of understanding intercultural contact in societies and institutions. The course stresses the benefits and complexities of cultural diversity in global, local, and organisational contexts. 

Course Aims

This course aims to:

• Introduce students to a variety of frameworks through which to practise intercultural communication.
• Familiarise students with historical and current perspectives on the study of intercultural communication. 
• Allow students to examine the social construction of identity, relationships, and community within and across cultural groups.
• Enable students to be able to theorise issues of cultural dominance and power in the world that arise through different uses of language, media, and technology. 

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable and Professional Skills

Teaching and Learning

Teaching and learning strategies for this course will include: 

A minimum of 36 contact hours, typically to include interactive group teaching, co-curriculars, individual meetings, in-class presentations and exams.

Course information and supplementary materials are available on the University’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).

Students will receive individualised developmental feedback on their work for this course.

Students are required to attend and participate in all the formal and timetabled sessions for this course. Students are also expected to manage their directed learning and independent study in support of the course.

Assessment

Formative

Students will be formatively assessed in class through class activities, and during office hours. Formative assessments are ones that do not count towards the final grade but will provide students with developmental feedback.

Summative

Further information on the structure of summative assessment elements can be found in the Summative Assessment Briefs.

Feedback

Students will receive feedback in a variety of ways: written (including via email correspondence); oral (within office hours or on an ad hoc basis) and indirectly through class discussion.

Feedback on examinations is provided through generic internal examiners’ reports and are made available to the student on the VLE. For all other summative assessment methods, feedback is made available to the student either via email, the VLE or another appropriate method.   

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is used as part of the approval/modification process only.

Books 

J.N. Martin and T.K. Nakayama, Intercultural Communication in Contexts, 7^th edition, McGraw-Hill, 2018.

Indicative Topics

• History of Intercultural Communication 
• Frameworks for Intercultural Communication
• Identity and Intercultural Communication
• Language and Intercultural Communication
• Culture, Communication, and Intercultural Relationships
• Intercultural Communication and Conflict