This document discusses lessons from intercultural communication that are relevant for university classrooms. Intercultural communication refers to verbal and non-verbal communication between people from different cultures. The document provides tips for instructors on communicating effectively with international students, such as being careful with wording, repeating ideas, and making expectations clear. It also discusses challenges with group work and leadership roles due to cultural differences, and suggests strategies like assigning roles and turn-taking procedures to mitigate issues. While instructors can't change students' cultural views, following these tips can help address common communication problems in mixed-classroom settings.

1. Lessons from Intercultural
Communication for
University Classrooms
Chad Eller, MA-Ed-TESL
Global Student Success Program
University of Idaho

2. What is intercultural communication?
Verbal and non-verbal communication
between people from different cultures.

3. Questions for educators
1. What proportion of your classes are international students?
1. What kinds of challenges have you encountered while working with
international students and/or in mixed-classroom settings?

4. Communicating with international students
➢ Be careful with your wording.
➢ Anticipate misunderstandings.
➢ Repeat ideas and instructions.
➢ Use a multi-modal approach.

5. Communicating with international students
➢ Make your expectations clear
○ E.g., regarding punctuality and due dates

6. Communicating with international students
➢ Encourage students to use your office hours
➢ Build face-to-face relationships
➢ Let students know it’s OK to make mistakes

7. Group work and class discussions
➢ Make turn taking part of your instructions
➢ Appoint roles to group participants
➢ For peer feedback sessions, model polite feedback and encourage the use of
the pronoun “I”

8. Leadership roles
➢ Studies report that, in activities requiring group decision making involving
American and East Asian participants, East Asians reported feeling less
included in the decision-making process than their American counterparts
(Artitz & Walker, 2014).
➢ Low participation in group work may stem from unfamiliarity, but also from
expectations about leadership.

9. Leadership roles
➢ Western attitudes about leadership are “characterized by individualism and
self-sufficiency, competitiveness, toughness, and rationality” (Artitz &
Walker, 2014).
➢ East Asians from Confucian-influenced cultures “value benevolence, harmony
with others, and self-restraint in leaders” (Artitz & Walker, 2014).

10. Leadership roles
Whereas American who were surveyed valued “decisive and task-oriented”
leadership, East Asians tended to value and expect leadership qualities such as,
“involves others in decision making” and “status-conscious and procedural” and
“modest and compassionate” (Artitz & Walker, 2014).

11. Implications for instruction
While you probably can’t change your students’ culturally-based views about
leadership and group work, the tips I listed regarding turn-taking procedures and
assigning roles can mitigate some of the communication and participation
problems that teachers often report.

12. Thank you for listening!

13. References
Aritz, J., & Walker, R. C. (2014). Leadership styles in multicultural groups: Americans and East Asians working together.
International Journal of Business Communication, 51(1), 72-92. https://doi.org/10.1177/2329488413516211.
Hall, E. T. (1959). The silent language (Vol. 3, p. 1959). New York: Doubleday.
Meyer, Erin (2014, May). Navigating the cultural minefield. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from
https://hbr.org/2014/05/navigating-the-cultural-minefield.
Neese, Brian (2016, Aug. 7). Intercultural communication: High- and low-context cultures. Southeastern University Online
Learning. Retrieved from https://online.seu.edu/high-and-low-context-cultures/.
Toegel, G., Barsoux, J. (2016, Jun. 6). 3 situations where cross-cultural communication breaks down. Harvard Business
Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/06/3-situations-where-cross-cultural-communication-breaks-down.