Multilingualism and Intercultural Communication
| Study location | Finland, Helsinki |
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| Type | Short duration course, short course |
| Nominal duration | 4–20 Aug 2020 (5 ECTS) |
| Study language | English |
| Tuition fee |
EARLY BIRD prices valid until 28 February 2020 |
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| Entry qualification | A minimum of 2 years of university-level studies is required for all courses. See course-specific requirements below >> target students. The entry qualification documents are accepted in any language |
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| Language requirements | English All courses are taught in English. Although applicants are not required to present an official certificate of language proficiency, all students must be fluent in English. A good command of English is necessary for completing the course (following teaching, participating in classroom discussions, writing essays) as well as managing day-to-day matters in Finland. An applicant can be rejected if his/her level of English is not deemed equivalent to the standards. |
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| Other requirements | A motivation letter must be added to your application. Please tell us about your academic goals and why you would like to attend Helsinki Summer School and the course you have applied for. For example: Why is this course important to your studies or to your future career? How do you satisfy the course requirements? Please note that plagiarism is strictly forbidden at the University of Helsinki. Any applicant caught of plagiarism will be automatically rejected. |
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| More information |
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Overview
Synopsis
The three main themes to be covered during the course are:
Intercultural Communication as a field of academic reflection – foundation to working in an intercultural context
This theme will cover the historical background, and the reasons for current interest in the phenomenon of intercultural communication. It will also give definitions and general features as well as the main research themes currently covered in Intercultural Communication. Key concepts in the field will be introduced, including ‘language’, ‘multilingualism’, ‘culture’, ‘communication’, ‘miscommunication’, ‘misunderstanding’, and others.
Intercultural Communication in social interaction – Intercultural Communication in the workplace
This theme will be introduced by means of specific case studies which illustrate communicative features that mark multilingual contexts, as well as the linguistic aspects of intercultural, multilingual phenomena and communicative practices in the following four domains:
- education, including choices of medium of instruction and how to integrate local (minority) languages, as well as global foreign languages such as English, French and Spanish.
- public health care, including attention to accommodating minority language speakers in treatment
- practising law, including courtroom communication
- economic activity and business communication, including intercultural negotiation practices.
Theoretical approaches to the study of Intercultural Communication phenomena and methods of research in Intercultural Communication
This theme will, in the course of looking at specific social contexts, introduce a number of theoretical approaches and the associated methodologies within the field. These will include the contrastive approach; the interlanguage approach; the interactive-intercultural approach; pragmatic approaches; sociolinguistic approaches; ethnographic approaches, (critical) discourse analysis; and linguistic analysis (e.g., structural features of code-switching and pragmatic features such as irony and truism).
Target students
This course is suitable for Bachelor’s and Master’s level students interested in interculturality. Ideal academic backgrounds include anthropology, social sciences, social psychology, psychology, postcolonial studies, linguistics, area and cultural studies, and communication.
Coordinators
saara.rautanen-uunila@helsinki.fi
You may contact the course coordinators with questions concerning the course content.
With any other questions concerning Helsinki Summer School or the application process, please contact summerschool@helsinki.fi.