Uncovering and negotiating barriers to intercultural communication at Greenmarket Square, Cape Town's 'world in miniature': an insider's perspective

Intercultural communication (ICC) is one of the most relevant fields for investigation in postcolonial Africa and post-apartheid South Africa, given the freedom of movement between African countries and the wide range of attractions, both economic and social, that South Africa holds for people from other African countries. This article is based on research conducted at Greenmarket Square in the heart of Cape Town, well-known as a hub for informal traders (mainly from other parts of Africa), local people and tourists from all over the world. It discusses three of the major barriers to ICC in this space which emerged from our research. These three major 'intercultural fault-lines' (Olahan, 2000) are identified as non-verbal communication, ethnocentrism / xenophobia and the contrasting communication styles of people from High Context Cultures and Low Context Cultures (Katan, 2004). The paper concludes with some suggestions on how such barriers can be overcome if people in this space learn to become more 'interculturally competent' (Jandt, 2004).Department of HE and Training approved lis

A selective investigation of the University of the Western Cape‘s students and teachers attempts at intercultural communication : exploring the connections between intercultural communication competence and identity construction

Philosophiae Doctor - PhDLife in the twenty-first Century globalised world brings people into contact with others from different cultures who use different languages. Through these contacts, the need for interactions makes these people to find different ways of understanding one another and to generate knowledge. For them to achieve this objective, they need a strong medium. L2 and Foreign language education has been develop to unravel such challenges posed to competence in intercultural communication, with the emphasis placed on how to communicate with a different "other" since the world is now a small village. Foreign and second language teaching and learning (a social practice) in this study, is tangible to eradicate linguistic and cultural barriers. In this case, it does not only require to promote competence through linguistic capital (language), but more importantly, it arouses intercultural awareness. For these issues to develop and consolidate intercultural communication competence, language practitioners need to deviate from the rationalist reductionistic approaches to language teaching and learning in favour of an ecological or a constructivist perspective, which views language learning as a social practice. In view of this, whatever language the participants may use for communication does not matter, what really matters is that they need to switch to any given language as a situation may demand. In upholding a constructivist perspective, this research hypothesized that engagement and participation as a social practice, does not only increase competence in the target language, but it also helps the participants to develop in terms of emotional maturity and character (Bilton and Sivasubramaniam 2009). This research made use of the qualitative research methodology, revolving around an ethnographic design, to understand the outcomes and the fluidity of interactions among a diverse community of the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. Such an understanding can therefore only be deduced from the perspectives of the role-players through their engagements and participation in activities and events in and out of the classrooms. The research population constituted lecturers, tutors and students of the above institution. The four principal tools used for data collection included: the Interviews, Questionnaires, Naturally Occurring data and Participant Observation. The interviews were both formal and informal and together with the Questionnaires, they were all open-ended. Their open-ended nature was not only because of the interaction it provided between the researcher and the researched but also because they aroused an awareness of diversity and a need to understand otherness. The findings from the study affirmed that the participants gained competence in intercultural communication through the different levels of interactions that were used to enhance participation, engagement and involvement. In view of this, the participants benefited from provisional understanding, tentative interpretations and the affective environment. Furthermore, it could be said that interactions provided them the rationale to challenge, develop and explore ideas and meanings for communication. Holistically, the study attested to the importance and centrality of participation and engagement in a target language, with the main aim of motivating the participants to understand that there is no such thing as correctness in meaning or proficiency in a language, nor in understanding the world around them

Who Am I: Identity Construction of Otherness on a Social Media

Staying the same without change is a reverse of growth. To develop in one’s life requires fluidity of identity with satisfaction of ‘who we are’ emanating from what is being done at the moment, or what is being planned to be done in the future but not merely on what has been done. In view of this, the concept of identity is a very fuzzy one that is dynamic but not static. As we grow and develop in our daily lives, so does our identities. This study aims to bring out the flirtatious nature of identity. The data for the study was gathered from birthday messages that were sent to me. These messages left me wondering ‘who am I’ really. In an attempt to analyse the different messages, I came to realise the fluid nature of identity, the rationale for this paper. The main findings of the paper suggest that the ‘self’ is ever changing over time. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n23p180

An ethnographic study of the barriers to intercultural communication in Greenmarket Square, Cape Town

Magister Artium - MAIntercultural communication (ICC) is one of the most relevant fields for investigation in post-colonial Africa and post-apartheid South Africa, given the movements between people from African countries and the wide range of attractions, both economic and social, that South Africa holds for people from other African countries. This study reports on intercultural communication in post-democratic South Africa in an era marked by what Appadurai (1990) calls 'flows'. Greenmarket Square in the heart of Cape Town, well known as a hub for informal traders, local people and tourists, was chosen as the site for this study, because of the rich cultural diversity of the role-players. The principal aim of this research is to examine how people from different cultural backgrounds in this particular space of Greenmarket Square communicate with one another, and where the'intercultural fault-lines' (Olahan, 2000) occur, keeping in mind how ICC could be improved in such a space. My position as a trader in the market placed me in an ideal 'insider' position to do the research. The theory of spatiality (Vigouroux, 2005; Blommaert et al. 2005) was used to show how the space of Greenmarket Square affected intercultural communication. Discourse analysis was also applied to the data to show how the various roleplayers were socially constructed by others. Saville-Troike's (1989) ethnography of communicative events was also used to bring out other barriers that were not identified by spatiality and discourse analysis. Aspects like scene, key, message form and content, the observed rules for interaction and where these rules were broken and to what effect as well as the norms for interpretation were considered during the analysis of this qualitative data. The analysis showed that spatiality, social constructions of 'the other' and other factors like nonverbal communication and differences between communicative styles in high and low context cultures (LCC/HCC), had a major impact on intercultural communication at Greenmarket Square, frequently leading to complete breakdowns in communication. Many of the traders interviewed acknowledged that they needed to improve their competence in intercultural communication. The study concludes with a number of recommendations on how people can become more 'interculturally competent' (Katan, 2004) in a globalized world.South Afric

Language Ideologies in the Linguistic Landscape of One University in South Africa

This paper explores the language ideologies reflected on the linguistic landscape of one South African university. The main aim of this paper is to show how the language ideology of an institution or a community is reflected on its landscape (signs, billboards, notice boards, buildings). It also argues that there is a mismatch between the language policy put in place and the actual practice. The findings from this study are examined using studies on language ideologies and linguistic landscapes. The paper suggests that the linguistic landscape of an institution or a community should be an actual representation of its people’s language practices and should tie or match with the language policy put in place. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n7p62

Managing racial integration in South African public schools: In defence of deliberative racial integration

The paper explores what racial integration is. Furthermore, it scrutinises how racial integration is currently managed in South African Public schools. The main argument of the paper defends a deliberative conception of managing racial integration in South African public schools. In light of this, there is some form of hope to address the weakness associated with the present form of managing racial integration in Public schoolsKeywords: Racial Integration, Public Schools Managing, Racial Integratio