final examination topics: MA, English: Culture, Language and Communication Studies

These are the final examination questions for students having written their MA thesis in an area related to Culture, Language and Communication Studies in the British Cultural Studies track

The key concepts of the topics are discussed in the BMA-ANG-A4 Intercultural Communication Studies lecture series, while the illustrations can be based on issues discussed in the different seminars.

1. Discuss different elements of culture both in the ‘Big C culture’ and ‘small c culture’ areas, and illustrate their role in intercultural situations on the basis of a literary piece, a film or a publicly known event.
2. Describe the elements of communicative competence and explain their relevance in an intercultural situation on the basis of a literary piece or a film.
3. Discuss Byram’s construct of intercultural communicative competence and the attributes that are necessary to achieve it. Illustrate these through a concrete situation, too.
4. Discuss the concepts of ‘culture clash’ and ‘culture shock’, illustrate these by describing concrete situations and describe various ways in which they can be prevented.
5. Describe the process and stages of acculturation. Discuss how language proficiency is linked to these stages, and illustrate the stages through a literary piece, a film or a publicly known event.
6. Discuss cultural dimensions that characterise a person’s relation to themselves and other people, and explain how these affect intercultural communication. Illustrate these on the basis of a literary piece, a film or a publicly known event.
7. Discuss cultural dimensions that characterise a person’s relation to context and situations, and explain how these affect intercultural communication. Illustrate these on the basis of a literary piece, a film or a publicly known event.
8. Discuss cultural dimensions that characterise a person’s relation to time, and explain how these affect intercultural communication and how other cultural dimensions are also connected to these. Illustrate these on the basis of a literary piece, a film or a publicly known event.
9. Discuss sociolinguistic issues in language use, cultural identity and intercultural communication. Illustrate these on the basis of a literary piece, a film or a publicly known event.
10. Discuss the relevance of pragmatics in intercultural communication. Illustrate this on the basis of a literary piece, a film or a publicly known event.
11. Discuss the role of discourse features in intercultural communication. Illustrate your points by referring to concrete texts or text types.
12. Discuss the role of nonverbal features in intercultural communication. Provide an illustration on the basis of a literary piece, a film or a publicly known event.

• Barna, L.M. (1994). Stumbling Blocks in Intercultural Communication. In Samovar, L.M. & R.E. Porter (Eds.) Intercultural Communication – A reader. Belmont CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
• Bennett, M. J. (1997). How Not to Be a Fluent Fool: Understanding the Cultural Dimension of language. In: Fanitini, A. F. (Ed.). New Ways in Teaching Culture. (16–21). Alexandria, VA: TESOL.
• Bolinger, D. (1980). Language - The Loaded Weapon. Harlow, Longman.
• Byram, M., C. Morgan et al. (1994). Teaching-and-Learning Language-and-Culture. Clevedon, Multilingual Matters No.100.
• Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
• Cook, G. (1990). Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Connor, U. (1996). Contrastive rhetoric. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Damen, L. (1987). Culture Learning: The Fifth Dimension on the Language Classroom. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
• Enyedi Á. (2000). Culture Shock in the Classroom. novELTy 7 (1), 4-16.electronically available: http://ludens.elte.hu/~deal/pages/novelty/index.HTM
• Fantini, A.E. (ed.). (1997). New Ways in Teaching Culture. Alexandria V.A.: TESOL.
• Hall, E.T. & M.R. Hall (1990). Understanding Cultural Differences. Yarmouth: Intercultural Press.
• Hofstede, G. (1994). Cultures and Organizations – Software of the Mind. London: Harper Collins Publishers.
• Kaplan, R. B. (1966). Cultural thought patterns in intercultural education. Language Learning,16, 1-20.
• Kramsch, C. (1998).Language and Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Kramsch, C. (2001). Language, culture and voice in the teaching of English as a foreign language. novELTy 8 (1), 4-21. electronically available: http://ludens.elte.hu/~deal/pages/novelty/index.HTM
• Polyák, I. (2004). Cross-Cultural Communication. Budapest: Perefekt.
• Prodromou, L. (1992). What culture? Which culture? Cross cultural factors in language learning. ELT Journal 46 (1) 39-50.
• Samovar, L.M. & R.E. Porter (Eds.) (1994). Intercultural Communication – A reader. Belmont CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
• Schiffrin, D. (1996). Interactional Sociolinguistics. In: McKay, Sandra Lee és Hornberger, N.H. (Ed.). Sociolinguistics and Language Teaching. (307–328). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Tomalin, B. & S. Stempleski (1993). Cultural Awareness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Valdes, J.M. (ed.). (1986). Culture Bound. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Williams, R. (1983). Keywords - A vocabulary of culture and society. London: Flamingo. (pp.87-93)
• Yule, George (1996). Pragmatics. Oxford:Oxford University Press.