Global Intercultural Communication MA

University of East Anglia

Overview

How do we successfully communicate with people when we come from different cultures or do not share their language? How can global companies manage their diverse workforce? These are the kind of issues you'll learn to address on this MA.

You’ll develop a broad-based approach to the study of language and intercultural communication, both as a cultural resource and a cultural practice. You’ll think about how our individual positions in society affect our intercultural interactions. And you’ll gain an understanding of how the new media and mobile technologies that characterise contemporary global networks are affecting communication.

In a world where most people work in professions that routinely operate across linguistic and cultural barriers, our MA in Global Intercultural Communication will enable you to take on a wide range of key roles in a host of professions where an understanding of intercultural communication is critical.

About This Course

Intercultural communication is crucial to comprehending the world of today and participating in the world of tomorrow. Globalisation has led to greater centrality of knowledge and information. Different linguistic communities have ever-increasing contact – through migration, tourism, education, and information and media flows - yet linguistic and cultural barriers persist.

As language and intercultural exchanges become more frequent and diverse – and the media that carry these exchanges proliferate – it is even more crucial to understand intercultural communication and how to use and promote it. This course will equip you to do just that.

You’ll explore how the linguistic forms and patterns within a language influence a culture’s worldview, sociocultural norms and values. You’ll approach linguistic communication as a cultural practice, used to both create and sustain our sense of personal, cultural and national identity. And you’ll use a variety of different analytic approaches, ranging from discourse analysis and anthropological linguistics to cross-cultural pragmatics, to explore these issues from different perspectives.

You’ll also study digital technologies which increasingly mediate international human communication and constitute one of the key infrastructures that enable and inflect global cultural interchange. This will equip you with the theoretical and empirical understanding necessary to explain global cultural communications today. Our students come from a range of academic and vocational backgrounds. You might already have studied, or have a career in, business, communication, development studies, education, hospitality and tourism, languages, law, management, marketing, psychology or medicine, or you might have studied for a degree in English, history, geography, media or politics. Our students also come from across the globe, and this makes our seminars particularly engaging – you’ll take part in fascinating cross-cultural exchanges both with your peers and your tutors. Whatever your background, as a graduate of this course you'll bring significant added value to your chosen profession.

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