Conflicting Assumptions as Barriers to Inter-American Communication. Final Report.

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Institute of International Studies (DHEW/OE), Washington, DC.
Office of Education (DHEW), Washington, DC. Bureau of Research.

Communication (Thought Transfer); Cross Cultural Training; Cultural Context; Cultural Differences; Cultural Interrelationships; Interaction Process Analysis; International Relations; Latin American Culture; Material Development; Nonverbal Communication; Observation; Research Methodology; Sociocultural Patterns

The general purpose of this project was to produce some reliable and valid knowledge of how differences in the non-linguistic aspects of North American and Latin American socio-cultural patterns (concepts, values, beliefs, norms, expectations, and ethnocentrism) act as barriers to cross-cultural communication. The end product was to be instructional materials which would contribute to understanding the general nature and socio-cultural contexts of communication, and, to provide concrete practical knowledge of roles played in various situational settings in Latin America. The field methods included the use of direct participant-observation, depth interviews and questionnaires. The subjects were 160 Colombians who interacted in varying degrees with 140 North American undergraduate students and Peace Corps Trainees. A "syllogistic model of meaning" was devised to treat all the concerns of linguistics, semantics, kinesics, proxemics, and paralinguistics. Socio-economic subcultures were not considered. To dramatize and disseminate the subject data of 5 reports summarized here, a prototype of the Cross-Cultural Communication Packet (CCCP) for training Americans was developed: Cross-Cultural Encounter in a Latin American Bank (SO 000 108). Other related documents are: ED 023 337, ED 023 338, and ED 023 339. (SBE)

1970

ED040119