Communication Across Cultures

Reviewed by Roger Adkins, Executive Director of Global Education, Earlham College on 8/9/25

Comprehensiveness rating: 2 see less

The text is divided into three main modules, including one each on understanding what "culture" means, understanding culture shock, and addressing intercultural challenges. These three topics, taken together, can provide a strong introduction to intercultural communication. However, this text relies too heavily on outside resources from many different creators, effectively becoming a hodgepodge assemblage of disconnected and even conflicting points of view on the text's themes. Moreover, with so little original content, and insufficient author-created content to explain and link the many external resources, the overall result is a disjointed text that may leave at least some learners confused.

Content Accuracy rating: 3

Unfortunately, a substantial percentage of the external resources used in this text are poorly created and oversimplify some of the complex issues involved in intercultural communication. As a rule – there are a few exceptions – these easily digestible video resources and the text itself are not informed by research in the field of intercultural communication or even strong practitioner scholarship from fields like second-language acquisition and teaching, global learning/international education, or media and communication studies. The text's treatment of the topic is at the beginner level (think: study abroad pre-departure orientation, first meeting), and it is fairly accurate for that level, but this would not be considered an accurate text for a credited course (module) in intercultural communication.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 2

The text is not terribly relevant to the current state of the field of intercultural communication or its discussions over the past decade or two. Had the authors provided more original content to help explicate and contextualize the themes found in the external resources, it might have been a more relevant resource for introductory-level discussions of communication across cultures – again, for contexts such as study abroad orientation, international student arrival orientation, etc.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is highly accessible, given the content provided. One strength of the text is that it might make a good resource for lower- to intermediate English language learners. It would be accessible for ELLs studying English after arriving in an English-speaking institution as it showcases (via mostly the external resources) the kinds of experiences that newer international students will face.

Consistency rating: 3

The content provided by the authors is consistent, but the external content – which makes up more than half of all content in the text – is not consistent because it comes from many different authors, institutions, countries, etc. Again, the authors of this text do not sufficiently explain these variations – a missed opportunity, in a resource on communicating across cultural differences! The framework of the text is largely consistent, with repetitive assignments for writing and oral/recorded reflections throughout as well as a journaling exercise at the end of each module.

Modularity rating: 5

Modularity is very high in this resource. In fact, it would be quite possible to use its linked or embedded external resources only, and some users might be inclined to do so. That said, even those who would find value in using the authors' own content and exercises for students would be able to make highly selective and even out-of-sequence use of modules and/or the individual tasks they contain without detriment to learning outcomes.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 3

The three modules of the text proceed in a logical order that is common to the introductory unit of most intercultural communication courses and discussions. Again, though, the external resources present varying approaches and are structured in divergent ways, and little assistance or 'roadmapping' provided by the authors to help learners follow the flow of discussion between these quite different treatments of topics within the subject area.

Interface rating: 3

Some of the many external resources that the text utilizes are embedded within the structure of the text itself. At its best, it includes video resources embedded in frames that allow learners to click on a pencil icon to pause the video resource and take notes in a panel with three consistent content sections: cues (main ideas or terminology), notes (more detailed or personal comments), and summary (restating the main points made). However, there are also numerous links that exit the text interface, sometimes even with complicated instructions about how to use an external resource, save the result, then use another resource, save that result also, and finally to add one file to the other. While the fact that the interface opens a new window or tab makes it possible to toggle back to the instructions, I found myself doing so repeatedly to the point of annoyance as I tried to follow the instructions as if I were a student user. There is also a section early in the text on Hypothes.is which, while it is an interesting and powerful tool, is not really connected to the text in any meaningful way. Perhaps the authors meant to suggest that instructors using this text might also use Hypothes.is in order to allow for subsequent generations of student users of the text to have asynchronous online discussions and share notes, but that is not clear to student users, who may be confused about what they are supposed to do with Hyposthes.is vis-a-vis this particular text.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

There are no significant grammatical or writing errors in the text.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

This text is itself focused on this very question of cultural sensitivity and presents a strong array of examples coming from different cultural contexts and of direct relevance to diverse peoples. That said, a few of the external resources oversimplify cultural differences and present national groups ("Japanese," "Australian," etc.) as monolithic cultures with characteristics that are not, in reality, shared across such large groups. This effectively makes the very mistake that a text like this is intended to address and help students learn to avoid. (Indeed, the best practice in intercultural education now is to help students understand the complexities of cultures in intersectional ways, and this text tends to reify "culture" as a relatively static and isomorphic phenomenon.) In addition, one of the final assessments includes a question clearly targeted to student users based in Australia, which will be a very confusing moment for students in any other contexts.

As of this iteration, this text makes a strong start in providing an introductory resource in intercultural communication. With additional original content that both introduces appropriate (i.e., introductory) ideas current in the field of intercultural communication and better connects and explicates the external resources used, tying them back to the core content provided by the authors, the book will become a much more useful resource.