Hall's Paradigm for Intercultural Communication

What were the main elements of the paradigm, defined as a conceptualization that provides exemplary problems and methods of research to a community of scholars for intercultural communication?

1. The FSI scholars focused on intercultural communication, rather than on macro-level monocultural study, which Hall originally (and unsuccessfully) taught the FSI trainees. Although intercultural communication had roots in anthropology and linguistics, it became quite different from either in the decades following 1955.

2. Nonverbal communication, defined (by Hall) as communication that does not involve the exchange of words. Hall and his colleagues created the empirical study of various types of nonverbal communication (proxemics, chronemics, and kinesics), setting forth the leads that were followed up by later generations of nonverbal communication scholars.

3. The emphasis, especially in nonverbal communication, was on the out-of-awareness level of information-exchange. Here Hall was particularly influenced by Sigmund Freud.

4. The approach to intercultural communication accepted cultural differences and was nonjudgmental, reflecting a perspective from anthropological research and training. Here Hall strongly supported cultural relativism, the belief that a particular cultural element should only be judged in light of its context.

5. Participatory training methods were necessitated in part because intercultural communication was taught in all-day workshop sessions at the Foreign Service Institute to midcareer trainees who already had extensive experience in the field. Hall and his fellow trainers at the FSI used simulation games, exercises, and other participant-involving methods of experiential instruction.

6. Intercultural communication began as a highly applied type of training, intended to ameliorate the lack of skills of U.S. American diplomats and development technicians.

These six main elements of the paradigm worked out at the Foreign Service Institute generally characterize the field of intercultural communication today as it is taught at U.S. universities.

The beginning of intercultural communication at the Foreign Service Institute in the 1950s influences this field today. Simulation games, exercises, and other experiential methods are presently used to teach many intercultural communication courses, perhaps more than in any other communication course. Edward Hall insisted that a learner had to do intercultural communication, not just talk about it. Many students who enroll in intercultural communication courses want to learn how to solve the difficult problems of intercultural communication, and this desire to gain intercultural communication competence is reflected in contemporary textbooks.

Over the past four decades the field of intercultural communication has grown mainly within university departments of communication. Dozens of textbooks on intercultural communication have appeared. Throughout the growth of intercultural communication study, Hall's work has remained influential. Hall and his publications are still highly cited, both within the field of intercultural communication and outside of the field. Edward Hall ranks as one of the most-cited intercultural communication authors and three of his books are among the most-cited books in intercultural communication.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11