Argues for a reconceptualization of second language learning in ways that account for the larger social and cultural forces that influence both the meanings residing in the linguistic resources used in face-to-face communication and the ability of individuals to use them. Also considers the sociohistorical significance of this perspective for…

Indicates that communicator gender and cultural ancestry interacted to influence the intensity of language chosen. Reveals that men of Chinese and Japanese ancestry produced significantly more intense messages than did their female counterparts, while no significant differences were apparent between the messages produced by Caucasian men and…

Argues that little attention is paid to the ways in which social relations of power mediate the process of meaning creation. Suggests that ideology provides a way of contextualizing the communication process within such power relations and that communication is intrinsic to the means by which relations of domination are produced and reproduced.…

Reflecting the ideas of Roland Barthes, this paper examines the nature and importance of myth as a type of speech. The investigation proceeds by discussing myth from the perspectives of both traditional and contemporary disciplines, then considers the universality of myth, its religious impulse, and its functions. Using examples from television…

Defines Uncertainty Reduction Theory. Examines the influence of cultural variability on communication. Argues that cultural variability in individualism-collectivism influences uncertainty reduction in ingroup and outgroup relationships, while cultural variability in masculinity-femininity influences uncertainty reduction in same- and opposite-sex…

A study investigated communication apprehension in the Philippines and compared its incidence there with that in populations in the United States, Australia, China, Japan, Korea, and Micronesia. The Personal Report of Communication Apprehension for College Students (PRCA) was administered to 312 students in Manila, as well as to comparable numbers…

Noting that studies of media, culture, and consciousness assert wide-ranging connections among the three, this paper proposes a research program for investigating the media-consciousness-cultural link. Sections I and II provide a brief review of orality-literacy theories and communication theories. Section III proposes five areas of media…

To determine the effects of race and dialect in communication effectiveness, a study integrated research in referential communication with work on standard and black English, creating three hypotheses: that decoding within-race or within-dialect would be more effective than decoding across race or dialect, that decoding within any dialect would be…

A study explored the universality of widely accepted descriptors of the ideal speaking voice in cross-gender and cross-cultural perspective. To construct and contrast the ideal voice types, university students from Mexico and Arizona described the ideal voice type under consideration and completed a semantic differential indicating the collective…

The spontaneous speech of three Mexican American children (one boy and two girls) and their mothers, siblings, relatives, and neighbors was recorded to investigate the relationships between language and cultural values and beliefs, and between language, input, and cognition and the acquisition of linguistic forms. The children were first-born, 20,…