In the contemporary globalised world, where the tempo and intensity of international contacts are continually strengthening, international communication has become increasingly crucial. This interdisciplinary major is intended to help students understand cross-cultural and cross-linguistic issues involved in international communication and a working knowledge of another language.

International communication is inseparable from intercultural communication - in the era of ‘global English’ more than ever, since one ‘international English’ can conceal deep differences in cultural assumptions and understandings. This major will introduce students to issues involved in interaction between speakers from different language backgrounds and equip them with conceptual tools to explore those issues.

The major will include either two years of language study (for beginners) or one year of language study (for non-beginners), one compulsory course (for everyone), and for beginners one other course from a list of eight and for non-beginners three other courses from the same list.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Due to structural changes in the undergraduate program rules in 2012, the courses that make up the new 2012 majors may be different to the pre-2012 majors, and therefore some courses cannot be counted between majors.  Students are advised to contact the CASS Student Office if they are unsure about their Majors.

Learning outcomes

On satisfying the requirements of this minor, the students will be able to:

• demonstrate an understanding of the nature of the complex and multifaceted relations between communication, culture, language and identity;
• demonstrate an understanding of the limits of translatability of key concepts across languages, and the implications of these limits for international communication;
• analyse cultural assumptions underlying expressions such as “the ideals of freedom, democracy, and the rule of law” (Obama 2006: p. 284) and explain their linguistic underpinnings;
• explain the sources of miscommunication between speakers of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds who communicate using English as a lingua franca;
• demonstrate an understanding of potential sources of miscommunication within multilingual and multi-cultural societies such as Australia.
• Students will have working knowledge of another language sufficient for effective communication in many contexts and for good understanding of the issues that can arise in international communication due to linguistic differences.