Chapter 13 - Miscommunication, Conflict, and Intercultural Communicative Competence

Summary

Miscommunication and conflict are an inevitable part of human interactions. Managing them can be challenging even when participants share cultural and linguistic knowledge, but using a second or foreign language may lead us to communicate less appropriately and effectively across cultural and linguistic boundaries (Ting-Toomey, 2012). Our limited language skills may make us misunderstand someone’s utterances or prevent us from being able to express what we wish to. We may miss the implications of linguistic and cultural practices or employ disparate communication styles. There may also be external reasons for conflict, that make interaction problematic. The causes, contexts, and resolutions for conflict are numerous, so miscommunication is not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when.’ It is a common feature of intercultural existence, and learning to manage it is part of intercultural communicative competence. To foster this competence, this chapter examines communication accommodation for managing miscommunication, causes of conflict, and possible paths towards resolving it. The discussion closes with an examination of what it means to become a more effective intercultural communicator.