Introduction

Welcome to Action English!

English is one of the most dominant languages in the global business arena today. Around the world, speakers of English as a second language, especially those aspired to becoming a player in the thriving and increasingly competitive global economy, are making every effort to master the use of English for their personal enrichment and professional development. Training courses in business English abound. Thousands upon thousands of books and multimedia study aids are sold and many more are used by eager learners everyday. Teaching English to non-native speakers has become a multi-billion-dollar business world-wide.

But many learners or study guides in English as a second language have tended to focus on the technical-linguistic aspects of the language, such as its syntectical structure or grammatical rules, vocabulary, pronunciation, and so on. Of course, the fact that many learners focus on these technical aspects of the language is understandable. After all, English is an alien language to those who are not born and or raised "in" it. It is not part of their natural linguistic environment. Everything about it--its shape and form, its sound, its usage--is strange. So it is important that they learn the basics first.

But while understanding the basic mechanics of English is essential to beginners, it is not enough for our practical and intelligent use in real-life contexts, such as interacting with foreign friends or English-speaking co-workers in the office. English, like all other natural languages in the world such as Chinese, French, or Italian, is part of a larger cultural system. Indeed, imbedded in every language is a system of thought patterns, or ways of thinking, and a body of cultural history and content. It is a reflection, as well as the outcome of an on-going evolution of the everyday life experiences of the people who use it, or the "native speakers."

At this point, it is useful for us to make a distinction between the native speakers and the non-native speakers. Of course, one very obvious difference is that native speakers have tended to have a higher technical-linguistic competence in using the language than the non-native speakers. But the more profound distinction between the two, in my view, lies in the fact that the natives are acculturated in the larger cultural system of which their language is only a part. By this definition, a native New York English speaker, for example, would be a person who is acculturated in "New York culture." Or, on a more general conceptual level, a native American English speaker, a native Australian English speaker, or a native Taiwanese speaker would be a person acculturated in "U.S. American culture," "Australian culture," or "Taiwanese culture," respectively.

If I may push the argument further to clarify this point, the fact that a person is versed in the technical-linguistic aspects of a language--for example, scoring very high on the TOEFL test--in and of itself does not automatically qualify that person as a "native." It is because the person may not be versed in the "everyday culture" relating to the language which, as an aside, is not and most probably cannot be examined in such a limited testing device as the TOEFL test.

What I am suggesting here is that for us to better learn, understand, and perhaps master a foreign language, it is not enough to know just its mechanics. We need to also learn about and understand the culture of which the language is a part. Language embodies, symbolizes, and reflects the meaning-making or sense-making experience of its users. This is why studying English cannot, and most probably should not, be regarded as merely a process of acquiring a foreign language. Instead, it is first and foremost an intercultural learning experience, a process of understanding another culture through the study of its language. And, by extension, using English as a second language must also be conceived and practiced as an intercultural experience.

What we attempt to do in this forum is to share with you some ideas about how you can use your Action English skills "interculturally." To do so, we will have a brief introduction to some issues relating to culture, communication, and intercultural communication. Intercultural communication as an organized field of study in the U.S. did not start until after the Second World War. At around that time, scores of American government officials, technicians, corporate managers, business people, and workers were sent to overseas locations--such as newly independent nations or "developing countries"--for development or business projects. Researchers with knowledge in cultures outside of the U.S., such as anthropologists, were retained by the U.S. government and business corporations as consultants to train their overseas-bound employees in matters relating to what has come to be known later as intercultural communication. Intercultural training of this kind has been the result of the realization that knowing the native's culture was as important as acquiring a reasonable level of operational proficiency in foreign language. Intercultural skills facilitate productivity in this regard.

Intercultural communication refers to communication between people from different cultures. But while this definition gives us an initial conceptualization of the term, it nonetheless is a rather simplistic definition. For example, it does not tell us anything about what communication or culture actually is. Nevertheless, it is good enough for our purpose now and we will have more details about it later.

In the next section, we will have a conceptual orientation of the nature of "culture" and "communication" to help us better understanding the nature of intercultural communication. Thereafter, we will have a series of discussions on various issues in intercultural communication. We will not cover everything there is to cover in intercultural communication, however, because to do so will take many more courses to accomplish. It is because some of these topics, such as "language, culture, and communication," are covered the course itself such as in some of the Action English television programs you see and my corresponding columns, where we will address other, more specific issues or questions. Moreover, we will update the site's content at strategic points in time. So you will get to know more along the way.

Nonetheless, we will discuss several important issues in this forum. Our focus here is on giving you a bigger picture in reference to intercultural communication; it is meant to help you better prepare yourself interculturally and therefore use your Action English skills more effectively and productively. So please use the ideas we discuss herein for your general reference.