Communicating Across Cultures » (1st Edition)

Stella Ting-Toomey, PhD, is Professor of Speech Communication at California State University, Fullerton. The author or editor of 11 books, she has published extensively on cross-cultural facework, intercultural conflict, Asian communication patterns, and the effective identity negotiation model. She has lectured widely throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe, and is an experienced trainer in the area of transcultural communication competence.

From high-level business negotiations to casual conversations among friends, every interpersonal interaction is shaped by cultural norms and expectations. Seldom is this more clearly brought to light than in encounters between people from different cultural backgrounds, when dissimilar communication practices may lead to frustration and misunderstanding. This thought-provoking text presents a new framework for understanding the impact of culture on communication and for helping students build intercultural communication competence. With illustrative examples from around the globe, the book shows that verbal and nonverbal communication involves much more than transmitting a particular message--it also reflects each participant's self-image, group identifications and values, and privacy and relational needs. Readers learn to move effectively and appropriately through a wide range of transcultural situations by combining culture-specific knowledge with mindful listening and communication skills. Throughout, helpful tables and charts and easy-to-follow guidelines for putting concepts into practice enhance the book's utility for students.

Booknews

A textbook for an intermediate undergraduate course. Ting-Toomey (speech communication, California State U.-Fullerton) introduces a new framework, the Identity Negotiation Perspective, to explain emotional vulnerability when communicating with dissimilar others. She centers her treatment on the concept of mindfulness, by which people remain aware of their own assumptions and pay attention to those which are different in other people. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Preface I. Conceptual Foundations
1. Intercultural Communication: An Introduction
2. Mindful Intercultural Communication: An Identity Negotiation Perspective II. The Intercultural Communication Process: Dissimilar Assumptions
3. Value Orientations and Intercultural Encounters
4. Mindful Intercultural Verbal Communication
5. Mindful Intercultural Nonverbal Communication III. Boundary Regulation and Intergroup Interpersonal Relationship Developments
6. Identity Contact and Intergroup Encounters
7. Intercultural Personal Relationship Development: Identity- and Relational-Based Themes
8. Constructive Intercultural Conflict Management IV. Identity Transformation and Transcultural Competencies
9. Identity Change and Intercultural Adaptation
10. Transcultural Communication Competence