"'Intermediate-Level' Communication: A Model of Communication for Multiple Cultures"
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About the AuthorTravis Daniel Griffin attended New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and graduated with a B.S. in Technical Communication in May of 2013. Prior to receiving his degree, Mr. Griffin spent ten years working in an international company, addressing the inherent challenges associated with working with multiple cultures. After receiving his degree, Mr. Griffin and his wife moved to Austin, Texas, where he accepted employment h a growing social media management software company. Mr. Griffin works daily with customers from around the world who use his company's software to manage relationships built through social media. Contents |
Background and Literature Review (Continued)Merging the Concepts Valerie Goby suggests in her Journal of Business and Technical Communication article, "All Business Students Need to Know the Same Things!: The Non-Culture-Specific Nature of Communication Needs” that there is a non-culture specific root to the needs of modern communication. These roots of communication include being articulate, assertive, and persuasive in writing. Goby suggests focusing communication on concepts that are familiar and common to readers and writers all around the world. She also points out that professionals in the globalized world are familiar with the concepts of low and high context cultures and are willing to bridge the gap when communicating. Her conclusions focus on the premise that there isn’t a need to focus so intently on audience and culture analysis but instead search for good, common communication techniques shared by multiple cultures (1999). Goby has touched on some important topics. However, completely disregarding all the concepts that are taught and practiced in technical communication would have many hazards that would prevent bridging communication gaps. There is promise in understanding that readers have some level of comprehension of the workings of the global workplace and the cultures that they will be dealing with. If a foreign company is looking at a U.S. website, they are making a conscious decision to assimilate the knowledge contained in that website. This allows communicators to prepare “generic” information designed to appeal to multiple cultures (St. Amant, 2002). Goby’s idea is that there are many concepts in cross-cultural communication which do not place an overwhelming importance on tailoring communication for the target culture. Combined with the fact that the world is shrinking due to the boom in technology around the world, there is room to form a working language or “Lingua Franca.” This working language would constitute generalized communication meant for non-specific audiences around the world. Companies often establish a Lingua Franca for communication between cultures within their own walls (Louhiala-Salminen & Kankaanranta, 2012). By focusing on the effective concepts of ESP teaching techniques, and the successes of technical communication currently practice, there is room to expand cross-cultural communication beyond its current boundaries. Hutchinson and Waters discuss the concept of “instrumental motivation.” Instrumental motivation is the concept in teaching English as a foreign language described as learning a language because the learners need to learn as opposed to wanting to learn. This is an important concept to explore due to the fact that readers of technical documents and business communication are usually in a position that they must read a document for a work reason (1987). Hutchinson and Water’s focuses on moving from the concept of “instrumental motivation” to “integrative motivation” wherein the subject gets a desire to become more involved for joy of learning. The external motivation becomes internal motivation and the reader desires to learn more about the subject being studied. It is necessary to design documents with this in mind because they point out that readers learn in leaps and bounds. They describe important points of knowledge as “towns” which alone, serve little purpose until they are connected by networks of roads and bridges. It is, therefore, important to design a model of communication that provides a reader logical and familiar pathways to attain all the necessary knowledge within a document (1987). While Hutchinson and Water’s work is specifically geared for designing curriculums for teaching English as a second language, it can easily related to technical communication. Documents serve to both educate and inform readers about a subject. Often times, writers want to educate readers about the businesses and organizations they represent as well as the specific subject matter being detailed in the document. It makes sense to integrate engaging models that allow the reader to form positive opinions about the writer and the company or organization the writer comes from. By doing this, we change the reader’s motivation from purely instrumental motivation to integrative motivation. In order to facilitate this move from instrumental to integrative motivation, we must design a model specifically designed to transform the English in the document into a unique Lingua Franca that the reader can easily become comfortable with. In the same way establishing a Lingua Franca within an organizational setting can make the environment more comfortable for people of multiple cultures, Lingua Franca can be applied to document design in order to make readers more comfortable continually reading or returning to works written in such a manner. The logical method of establishing a Lingua Franca is to integrate a model of communication that can allow a writer a standard way to write documents that readers can be comfortable with while providing a contextual environment within the document that the reader can continue to find enjoyable and reliable and thus form a relationship with the writer. While there are many concepts that must be addressed in establishing a Lingua Franca for an organization, there are perhaps key concepts from ESP teaching that can be effectively utilized. These concepts are as follows:
While this may be a revolutionary step into developing a pattern of communication during the beginning of a business relationship, it is no way designed to be a substitute for established practices for prolonged communication practices between two cultures. In the computer-mediated communication field, there is documented evidence that companies have attempted to use computer-mediated communication without making culturally-based decisions on the communication process, have shown limited success in building effective international business. While this is due in part to preparing generic language and structure for web documents, it can be exaggerated by not using a higher context of communication. Using an “intermediary,” person who has knowledge of a specific culture, or multiple cultures can help establish a contingency model for communication that involves developing language to be used within a company designed specifically for facilitating communication. This can help ensure that the communication materials being produced by the home company reach the maximum amount of potential readers with a lower initial investment (Giaglis, 2002). Jinhua Wang and Hua Wang look into online class design, which is an extension of document design for the internet. Their article goes into great detail about the importance of students and teachers establishing a working environment that facilitates learning. They noted that Chinese students, as members of a High-Context society, often feel uncomfortable dealing with strangers that they have not formed a relationship with. This emphasizes the need to form a relationship between writer and reader to facilitate effective communication. This is increasingly difficult in the reader/writer relationship simply because when a writer authors a document, they generally have little to no follow-up contact with the reader. It should therefore be the goal of the writer to do whatever is necessary to form a relationship through the writing that is both trustworthy and informative (2012). Most important to the integration of ESP and technical communication is the use of visualization and etymology. By effectively integrating these concepts into communication produced, we can establish an effective “Intermediate-Level Context.” These concepts will build context around the writer and the writer’s company that will appeal to “High Context” societies and help build trust without bogging “Low Context” readers down in what could be perceived as unnecessary information with communication. In effect, Intermediate-Level context will serve as a meeting point between two cultures. |