From Dialog to Praxis: Crossing Cultural Borders in the Business and Technical Communication Classroom

Abstract

Business and technical communication textbooks take two approaches to intercultural communication: an information-acquisition approach, which provides students with information about practices in other cultures and tips for using this information in communication transactions; and a case-study approach, which encourages students to engage in dialog about problems encountered in intercultural communication. Both models enable students to confront cultural difference, but neither approach provides the means for successfully negotiating this difference. A praxis model provides an alternative strategy which enables students to negotiate cultural borders in actual workplace settings. But this model also exposes students to conflict which inevitably accompanies intercultural communication.