MISSING THE POINT

Purpose

Part of understanding communication is understanding failures in communication and their consequences. Common barriers to the clear sending and clear receiving of messages are: misinterpretation, prejudice, ethnocentrism, and cultural differences. In this series of activities, the class will encounter some of these barriers and explore the consequences. The experience, especially if amplified and reinforced in later grades, will help develop the capacity to view the world with less ethnocentric bias.

Areas of Study

Language Arts (clear communication)
Social Studies (culture studies, ethnocentrism)
Media (analyzing plots)

Suggested Time

2-3 class periods

Objectives

Students will:

• Give examples of reasons for miscommunication and hypothesize about the consequences.
• Find examples of miscommunication in television comedies.
• Recognize that judgments of other cultures is often based on misunderstanding messages.
• Understand the importance of viewing other cultures without judging forms of behavior that seem strange.

Comments to the Teacher

This series of activities can be undertaken at any time, but it is probably most valuable when used in connection with the study of other cultures. After the class has learned about at least one other culture, talk about what seemed strange or odd in their ways of living, and then proceed with these episodes.

Activity 1.

The Game of Rumor

This is an excellent way to develop awareness of how easily messages are distortedöeither in the sending or the receiving. If you're not familiar with the game, it works like this: Bring one student to the front of the class, after instructing the rest of the class that each is to pass on a message as clearly and accurately as possible, without leaving out any details. Whisper the message to the first student. It should be simple but detailed, for example:

Jack Walsh was a carpenter. He and his friend Bill Smith, a plumber, had an argument. They always argued over which team was better, the Bears or the Giants. When the Bears beat the Giants 37-6, Jack felt he had won the victory himself.

(Depending on ability levels, you may want to simplify this message or, make it more complicated.)

Whisper the message to the first student. He or she then calls someone's name, the person comes to the front of the room, and Student 1 whispers the message. Student 2 passes it onto someone else. Allow no talking, no repeating, and no writing. Continue to the last student, who then writes down the message as he or she heard it.

Compare the written message with your original version. (It may be useful to have both written on the chalkboard.) Have the class point out errors and distortions. In some cases, you'll find the whole meaning has been lost. You might also want to spend some time seeing if they can locate where particular distortions occurred, to see if they were in the giving or receiving.

Exploring the Consequences

Once the class has seen how easily miscommunication occurs, it can begin to consider how this can lead to problems for people. As an assignment, have the class watch a situation comedy on TV. (The "situation" almost invariably involves a fouled-up message.) Check the TV listings and assign a number of different programs. Their task is to find out what missed messages occurred and how this led to trouble.

The next day ask for reports. There should be plenty of material for discussion and they will recognize the parallels with the game of rumor.

Activity 2.

Communicating Across Cultures

When studying other cultures, texts will often give examples of misunderstanding, usually based on ethnocentrism-even if the word isn't defined. Outsiders judge people whose behavior seems odd or bizarre. A great deal can be gained by exploring some of these incidents and considering the possible consequences of such misunderstanding. This is also a good way to demonstrate that action or behavior communicates just as speech and "silent language" do.

Here are some brief episodes to use in conjunction with whatever cases you encounter in your text:

1. Jane Smithers was a teacher. Her first job took her to a Navajo reservation school in New Mexico. Jane was excited about the job. Being white and also from a northern city, she knew little of Indian ways. But she was eager to learn and to help improve education in the Navajo schools.

But from the very first day, things went wrong. The children never did well in tests. They were eager to learn and they did their work. But when test time came, she was always disappointed. Ms. Smithers tried everything she could think of. She talked to her best students and urged them to do better. She offered prizes to the person with the highest score.

Still when the next test came, the same thing happened. It was as though no one wanted to do well. She began to think the Navajo were lazy or didn't care. She had heard that kind of thing a lot. "Indians are lazy," people said. "They don't want to work."

What was wrong? What kind of judgment was Ms. Smithers making about the Navajo? Was her judgment right?

One day she talked to one of the parents. She told the man her problem. She said, "Your son could be a good student. But he doesn't try. Would you talk to him and see what the trouble is?"

The father shook his head and smiled. "I don't need to talk to him," he said. "I know what is the trouble." And then he explained: "Among the Navajo it is wrong to try to push ahead of others. Only a showoff would do that. We believe it is more important to help each other. So, if some are not getting good tests, others will not try to beat them in the scores. That would be showing them up."

Questions

1. What lesson did the teacher learn?
2. What harm could have been done if she had not learned this lesson? (Answers will vary.)
3. Suppose someone said to you: "I've been to Greece. I know those people. They are loud and rude." Would you believe this judgment? Why or why not? (Students should be able to draw the inference that the person might not have understood the culture.)
4. Harvey Brown was a high school student. As part of a special program, he was sent to Brazil to study for a year. He would be staying with a family named Vargas.

Mr. Vargas met Harvey at the airport. And right away something happened that bothered Harvey. When they talked, Mr. Vargas stood with his face almost touching Harvey's. Harvey took a step backward. It was not very comfortable to be that close and try to talk. But no sooner did Harvey step back than Mr. Vargas stepped forward. They were nose-to-nose again.

If people were watching, they must have thought it was a strange sight. Harvey kept backing up so he could talk to the man. And Mr. Vargas kept edging forward. They went down the whole airport hallway like that, Harvey backing and Mr. Vargas advancing.

1. How do you suppose Harvey would have described this in a letter to his parents?
2. Do you think he might begin to make false judgments of Mr. Vargasöor all Brazilians?
3. Can you think of some custom that might be common in Brazil that Harvey didn't know about? (The custom, of course, is to stand very close to the person you're speaking with. Many Americans find this unsettling in Latin American countries.)

These examples are adapted from The Silent Language by anthropologist Edward T. Hall. The book contains numerous other examples that you could easily write up into episodes for the class to consider. You might deal with Hall's title, too, and ask the students what he means by "the silent language." They should be able to give other examples of how behavior or actions send messages.

Before reading the next episode, you might ask the class what things in our culture might be hard for a foreign visitor to get used to. They will probably have trouble with this because our cultural patterns seem "right" and "natural;" in fact, if it's hard for us to picture different ways of doing things. This third episode is adapted from an account by a Chinese scholar who visited the United States in 1899 Hwuy-yung, A Chinaman's View of Us and of His Own Country (London: Chatto & Windus, 1927).

Their clothing is very strange. It is tight and so uncomfortable I could not bend my knees. They. have a great number of slits in their clothes leading into small bags. This is a curious device for storing many items, such as coins, a cloth for the nose, a watch, paper, tobacco, pipe, matches, and many other things. I counted three in my trousers, as many as 5 in my jacket, 4 in my little undercoat, making 12 in all. Surely if they put an object in one of them, they may have to hunt through all 12 to find it again. . . .

I went a moon before with my instructor to see the game they call Foo-pon (football). It is played in winter season and requires strength and activity. Within edge were three ten thousand men and women. They came from what place to watch?

The game was same as a battle. Two groups of men struggling. These young, strong, quick men, what do they do? Men on one side try to kick a goose-egg pattern ball between two poles that form a gate or entrance. They run like rabbits, charge each other like bulls. They knock each other down trying to send the ball through the enemy's poles. When ball is kicked good and then caught, the voices of the people burst forth like a huge wave dashing against a cliff. Men and women mad with excitement yell and scream at the players.

Questions

1. What were the slits leading to small bags?
2. How would you describe football to the Chinese visitor?
3. Do you think the Chinese scholar might make mistaken judgments of American culture?