Aims:
- developing intercultural communicative competence;
- developing intercultural sensitivity and intercultural interest.
Target group: youths from 15-20 years of age
Duration: 3 hours
Short description:
In the majority of cases, intercultural communication is accompanied by a 'language barrier.' Thus, in order to better understand one another, we begin to actively employ nonverbal communication – after all, mimicry, gestures, poses, and facial expressions are international, and are taken the same way by representatives of all national cultures, no? Why is it then that we encounter unexpected reactions from our conversation partners to our nonverbal behaviour? Roleplays and interactive experiments allow us to answer this question and grow in our communicative competence.
Content and basic concepts: The significance of nonverbal behaviour. The universalism and cultural specifics of nonverbal signals. The basic forms and methods of nonverbal communication. Kinesics: gestures, poses, body movement and mimicry in intercultural interaction. Time and space in intercultural interaction. Proxemics, high- and low-contact cultures. Chronemics, poly-, mono-, and reactive cultures. Paralinguistics in intercultural communication.