ABSTRACT
Miscommunication among different cultural groups has consistently been shown to contribute to cultural conflict, serving to reinforce existing prejudices and stereotypes. Sociolinguistic studies of South Asians in Britain, urban Blacks in the United States, Athabaskans in Alaska, and Africans in Rwanda and Burundi are some of the seminal studies in this area (Gumperz, 1982b; Labov, 1972; Masagara, 1997, 2001; Scollon & Scollon, 1981); other studies, including this one, have contributed to the understanding of this phenomenon (Kamhi-Stein, 1995; Michaels, 1981, 1985). Implicit in all of these studies is the hope that, if the sources of cross-cultural miscommunication can be identified, interlocutors may be able to change their behavior consciously to reduce miscommunication and the acrimony that can result. Real-life experiments based on this hope have gained attention in the news media in recent years. For example, in 1994, Renford Reese, then a graduate student at the University of Southern California’s School of Public Administration, launched a program called Colorful Flags, the objective of which was “to break down racial mistrust by teaching five basic statements (social etiquette), in the five most spoken languages in school district[s]” (Leadership Institute, 1994, p. 1). Although students’ learning basic greetings in their classmates’ languages may seem to be only a trivial, token effort, it is surprising what walls can be broken down with such a small effort as this.
