Lesson 3

Local and Global Communication in Multicultural Settings

Varieties and Registers of Spoken and Written Language

What to achieve?
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
• cite examples on how to enhance one’s ability to communicate with people from diverse
cultures;
• apply varieties and registers of spoken and written language in the proper context;
• adopt cultural and intercultural awareness and sensitivity in communication of ideas; and
• create a role play about various cultural modes of communication of a certain country.

What to ponder?
How do you get to communicate effectively across cultures? Indicate whether you agree or
disagree with each of the following statements. Check the box to indicate your answer.

Agree Disagree
1. I am interested in interacting with people who are both like me
and different from me.
2. I am sensitive to the concerns of all minority and majority groups
in our multicultural country.
3. I can sense when persons from other cultures seem not to
understand me or get confused by my actions.
4. I have no fear communicating with persons from both minor and
major cultural groups.
5. People from other cultures may get angry with my cultural
affiliates.
6. I deal with conflicts with people from other cultures depending on
the situation and their cultural background.
7. My culture is inferior to other cultures.
8. I can manage my behavior when dealing with people of different
cultures.
9. I show respect to the diverse communication practices of other
people.

Note: the more number of agreements you have indicates the more prepared you are in
expanding your communication arena by welcoming people from different cultures.

What to learn?
In today’s era of increased global communication, it is imperative to understand
intercultural communication for us to enhance our intercultural awareness and competence.
This is essential for us to live harmoniously despite our differences in culture.

Intercultural communication - interaction with people from diverse cultures (Jandt, 1998)

Forms of Intercultural Communication (Jandt, 1998):

1. Interracial communication – communicating with people from different races
1.1 Interethnic communication – interacting with people of different ethnic origins
2. International communication – communicating between representatives from different
nations

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 3. Intracultural communication – interacting with members of the same racial or ethnic
group or co-culture

According to Gamble and Gamble (2008), communication style among cultures differs; it
may be high-context or low-context communication.

High-context communication Low-context communication

 tradition-linked communication system • a system that works on straightforward
which adheres strongly to being communication
indirect • more of the information in a message
 relies on implicit communication and is spelled out and defined
non-verbal cues • e.g. cultures with western European
 a message cannot be understood roots, such as the United States and
without a great deal of background Australia
information
 e.g. Asian, African, Arab, central
European, and Latin American cultures
Association Association
• relationships build slowly, and depend • relationships begin and end quickly
on trust • identity of individuals is rooted in
• an individual’s identity is rooted in themselves and their accomplishments
groups (family, culture, work)
Interaction Interaction
• Voice tone, gestures, facial expression • Nonverbal elements are insignificant
and eye movement are significant • An individual can be explicit about
• A person is sensitive to conflict another person’s bothersome behavior.
expressed in someone else’s
nonverbal communication.
Territoriality Territoriality
• People stand close to each other and • Privacy is important, so people stand
share the same space. farther apart.
Temporality Temporality
• Everything has its own time, and time • Events and tasks are scheduled and to
is not easily scheduled. be done at particular times.
• Change is slow, and time is a process • Change is fast, and time is a
that belongs to others and nature. commodity to be spent or saved. One’s
time is one’s own.
Learning Learning
• Multiple sources of information are • One source of information is used.
used. • Thinking proceeds from specific to
• Thinking is from general to specific general.
• Learning occurs by observing then • Learning occurs by following explicit
practicing. directions and explanations of others.
• Groups are preferred, and accuracy is • Individual orientation is preferred, and
valued. speed is valued.

Improving Intercultural Communication Competence

The following guidelines may help you enhance your ability to communicate effectively
across cultures:
1. Recognize the validity and differences of communication styles among people.

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 2. Learn to eliminate personal biases and prejudices.
3. Strive to acquire communication skills necessary in multicultural world.

What to think about? Answer the following questions.

1. In what specific ways can you enhance your ability to communicate with people from
diverse cultures? ________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________.

2. How do you greet your best friend? Your mother? Your teacher? Your dean of college?
Do your ways of greeting these people vary? __________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________.

What to learn?
The spoken mode is often associated with everyday registers while written mode is
strongly associated with academic registers. However, this is not always true. Both everyday
and academic communications are characterized by multi-modality or the use of multiple modes
of communication, including spoken, written modes and images, music, videos, gestures, etc.

Varieties of Spoken and Written Language

Lin (2016) presents the following nature of language variations as prescribed by most
linguists based on the ideas of Mahboob (2014):
1. Language varies when communicating with people within (local) and outside (global) our
community.
2. Language varies in speaking and in writing.
3. Language varies in everyday and specialized discourses.

Mahboob (2014) identifies 8 different domains in which language varies depending on the
combination of different values on the 3 dimensions (field, tenor and mode) of the context of

communication. The first four domains include language variations that reflect local usage done
in one local language or multiple local languages depending on the context. They vary in
following ways:
1. Local everyday written – may include instances of local everyday written usage found in
the neighborhood posters (e.g. posters looking for transients/bed spacers)
2. Local everyday oral – may occur in local communications among neighbors in everyday,
informal and local varieties of languages
3. Local specialized written – can be found in the publications and web sites of local
societies (e.g. Baguio Midland Courier)
4. Local specialized oral – involves specialized discourses, specialized local usage of
terms (e.g. specialized computer game-related vocabulary is used)

The other four domains involve global usage. This refers to contexts of language usage
where participants need to communicate with people not sharing their local ways of using
the language.
5. Global everyday written – avoids local colloquialisms to make the text accessible to
wider communities of readers (e.g. international editions of newspapers and magazines)
6. Global everyday oral – may occur in interactions between people coming from different
parts of the world when they talk about everyday casual topics.

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 7. Global specialized written – expands to as many readers internationally, hence the non-
usage of local colloquial expressions (e.g. international research journal articles)
8. Global specialized oral – occurs when people from different parts of the world discuss
specialized topics in spoken form (e.g. paper presentation sessions in an international
academic conference)

What do you mean?

 Race – refers to the person’s physical characteristics, such as bone structure and skin,
hair, or eye color.
- your race is determined by how you look like
- e.g. brown, white, or black skin (all from the various parts of the world)
 Ethnicity – refers to cultural factors, including nationality, regional culture, ancestry and
language
- determined based on the social and cultural groups you belong to
- e.g. German or Spanish ancestry
- you can have more than one ethnicities but you are said to have one race, even
if it’s a mixed race
 Registers – defined as the way a speaker uses language differently in different
circumstances
- In Linguistics, this is any of the varieties of a language that a speaker uses in a
particular social context
- refers to degree of formality
 Specialized discourse – not usually done everyday (e.g. appointment with a doctor)
 Field – the topic or subject matter of the conversation
 Tenor – the relationship of the people involved in the communication process and their
purpose for communicating (e.g. writer and reader)
 Mode – the medium or form of communication (e.g. spoken or written)

What to do?
Encircle the letter of the correct answer.
1. Toni is a fresh graduate. He needs to find work and a place to stay. While he was
walking, he saw a signage post beside the wall of the busy road, with a text “Room for
rent, inquire inside…”
a. Local everyday written
b. Global everyday written
c. Local specialized written
d. Global specialized written
2. Ana visits her neighbour and talked about their errands in school. The said scenario
belongs in what domain?
a. Local everyday oral
b. Global everyday oral
c. Local specialized oral
d. Global specialized oral
3. “Extend, Open-time and 1 hour” are some terms commonly heard in a computer shop.
These are under in what domain?
a. Local everyday oral
b. Global everyday oral
c. Local specialized oral
d. Global specialized oral
4. Which of the following is true?

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 a. You are said to have one race and one ethnicity.
b. You can have more than one race but you are said to have one ethnicity only.
c. Race is based on the culture while ethnicity is based on physical characteristics.
d. Race refers to a person’s physical characteristics and ethnicity refers to cultural
factors.
5. What is the difference between high-context and low-context communication?
a. Asian, African, Arab, central European and Latin America cultures are generally
considered to be low-context cultures.
b. Cultures with western European roots, such as the United States and Australia are
considered to be high-context cultures.
c. High-context communication relies on implicit messages and nonverbal cues. On the
other hand, low-context communication works on straightforward communication.
d. Low-context communication relies on implicit messages and nonverbal cues. On the
other hand, high-context communication works on straightforward communication.
6. A married couple have an entire conversation without speaking a word, through nothing
more than glances and quirked eyebrows.
a. High-Context Communication
b. Low-Context Communication
c. High-Context and Low-Context Communication
d. none of the above
7. People in United Kingdom tend to have short-term relationships, follow rules and
standards closely and are generally very task-oriented.
a. High-Context Communication
b. Low-Context Communication
c. High-Context and Low-Context Communication
d. none of the above
8. Jhop Santos is attending an orientation for his new job. His employer, a German
national, tried to give an extensive background information and explanations to avoid
misunderstandings.
a. High-Context Communication
b. Low-Context Communication
c. High-Context and Low-Context Communication
d. none of the above
9. The French speaker assumed that the listener knows everything about the topic. That is
why he did not try elaborating it.
a. High-Context Communication
b. Low-Context Communication
c. High-Context and Low-Context Communication
d. none of the above
10. People are comfortable standing close to each other in an event in the plaza.
a. High-Context Communication
b. Low-Context Communication
c. High-Context and Low-Context Communication
d. none of the above