Competence

First Reader: Katherine
This week's chapter is possibly one of the most important of the book, and it discusses how to increases intercultural communication competence. It looks at competence from the three different perspectives we have discussed, and then describes how the dialectical approach brings it all together. According the the social science, or functionalist approach, there are four basic components of competence. The first component is motivation, and it focuses on the desire one has to make a commitment in relationships, to learn about the self and others, and to remain flexible. The most important concept of this component is that nothing else concerning communication matters if we aren't motivated to communicate. Often times the more dominant group may not be motivated to communicate with other cultures because they do not see the need to, but the less powerful groups are very motivated to communicate with the more dominant. The second component is knowledge, and the book defines it as the quality of knowing about one's self, others, and various aspects of communication. There are two main types of knowledge; self-knowledge which is knowing how others perceive you, and other knowledge which is knowing about how others behave and think. The third component of communication is attitudes it describes individual's tolerance for ambiguity, empathy and non-judgementalism. The final component that this chapter discusses is behaviors and skill and this analyzes what the most competent behaviors may be and if there are any universal behaviors that can work well in all contexts.

The interpretive and critical perspectives both look at communicative competence by focusing on contexts with interpretive focusing more on the current context of communication, while the critical perspective thinks about how an individual's competence may be constrained by the political, economic and historical contexts. An important part of communication competence is being able to apply knowledge about intercultural communication, and that is where the dialectical approach comes in with focusing on the importance of individual skills and contextual constraints in improving intercultural relations. Many of these skills are self explanatory but I will list them just to provide an understanding of what an intercultural communication skill set looks like. These skills include entering into dialogue, becoming interpersonal allies, building coalitions, social justice transformation, and forgiveness. By combining all of these components, behaviors, and skills like focusing on the context of the communication we can become more competent intercultural communicators.

Respondent: Marilyn
Communication seems like such a simple task until you look at it from the outside perspective as this chapter has done for us. You may think that you’re the most competent communicator in all of Italy until you realize the different elements involved in everyday communication and how those elements affect us as we try utilizing them. I found it very interesting how ones motivation or lack thereof can severely affect how they communicate through cultures. Your desire to communicate with someone different from you will directly correlate to how much you gain from the experience. On the other hand, depending on whether you fall into the in-group or out-group of a certain society, your motivation to communicate may alter without you realizing it. Very fascinating. Another thing I really enjoyed learning about was behaviors and how evaluating those behaviors can increase competence by creating connections between groups in different contexts. It’s very interesting to read that a good amount of communication competence stems from self-evaluation. In many situations we are quick to blame the opposite party for not adhering to what we are comfortable with. When communicating across cultures, it’s important to also be aware of the customs and habits of the other cultural group in order to competently communicate with them. For example, it’s common knowledge that Italians are loud and festive. However, when they meet in public spaces, they actually are quieter and keep to themselves. In the U.S., it’s more common to find loud groups in public areas. So, when communicating with the Italian culture, if you are in a public space, it may be more beneficial for you to adjust the volume of conversation depending on your location. If you are motivated to competently communicate with the Italians, you will have to evaluate your behavior and become self-aware of what you are doing and what you need to do to adjust your volume depending on where you are with your Italian friends.

Researcher: Kendall 

Intercultural communication is what gives people across the world the ability to relay information from one culture to the next. Intercultural competence is what makes communication effective across borders. As I was looking through different research studies, I ran across this one, “The Effect of the LanguageBarrier on Intercultural Communication: A Case Study of Educational Travel inItaly”. This case study was an experiment performed by 10 American students that were studying abroad in Italy, hoping to uncover the barrier between students and their host families’ communication. It rang home to me because I studied abroad in Granada, Spain, and definitely felt the language barrier myself. As I read further, I was amazed at the conclusions that were drawn.

The research based its findings on the motivation of the students, the “culture shock” concept, and the sojourners’ perceptions of intercultural competence. I think the most interesting conclusion was that during lunch time with students and host families, the research uncovered that because of the language proficiency merged the two groups into feeling frustrated and humorous commonality. It was not the language that the participants used to become culturally competent, it was the motivation to try which led into a bonding over emotions felt on both sides of the conversation. Although not much was understood from the interaction, they found that formal borders were broken down faster than casual barriers – which I found completely shocking! The research resulted in the findings that if one of the participants on the Italian or American side of the conversation is fluent in the other’s language, it is unlikely that the communicators will become competent because they lack the motivation and behaviors to try to be.

This article was not only educational and pertinent on the best ways that a study abroad participant can become cultural competent. I always found it helpful for any situation where language can act as a barrier, the research provided multiple different ways in which competence can be achieved no matter where you may be communicating from. The two biggest factors from this article to me were motivation and behavior, as long as a person can be aware of their action and have the motivation to break down barriers, it is only a matter of time until they achieve competence.

Mancini-Cross, Cinzia, Kenneth F. Backman, and Elizabeth Dennis Backman. "The Effect of the Language Barrier on Intercultural Communication: A Case Study of Educational Travel in Italy." The Effect of the Language Barrier on Intercultural Communication: A Case Study of Educational Travel in Italy: : Vol 9, No 1-2. Journal of Teaching in Travel and Tourism, 16 Sept. 2009. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.

Investigator: Daniel
As blogs themes go on, in my opinion, topics become more important as well as beneficial. Cultural competence is an ability that we all should master in order to become better intercultural communicators. In our day by day situations, our competences strongly affect many of our conversations. As a result, I wanted to investigate better about Italian cultural competences.

But the thing is, I actually do not have to investigate too much, I have an example from home that perfectly describes the competence of the Italian society; It is well known that the Italians were forced to flee their country during WWII, and as I have mentioned in previous blogs, Venezuela was one of the spots that they chose as a new home. Most of them got there with nothing but what they had on them, they struggled, obviously, it is not easy to settle in a new country, where you don’t even speak the language, and mainly because they did not want to leave Italy in the first place, they were forced to do so. But they did not make up excuses, they worked, and continue to do so.

Right now Italian descendants in Venezuela form a fundamental part of the country’s diverse society, they were able of reaching respectable socio-economic status on it, all of these accomplished without even knowing the language, if this is not a prove of the cultural competence of the Italian society, I honestly do not know what is.