LESSON 2.3Expressive-Restrained Communication Styles

Give examples of each of the following communication styles:

Direct:

Indirect:

Linear:

Circular:

Focus

What is the difference between expressive and restrained communication styles?

How do expressive and restrained communication styles affect interactions between people?

Essential Questions

Activating What do you think is

happening in this image? Be specific of what is in the image that makes you think what is happening.

What do you think is going on in this picture.

Be specific about what it is in the picture that makes you think what you think.

Our perceptions are guided to a large degree by our culture. There is a reason why most of you in the classroom perceived the first picture negatively. The reason is, in the U.S. culture, we have been taught to adopt a more restrained communication style.

Describe the restrained communication style accepted in the U.S.

This is the communication style that most U.S. Americans feel comfortable with, especially in business settings. Since this communication style is the norm in the U.S., any deviation from it, in the context of the U.S. culture, is perceived negatively.

Displays of Emotion Activity: 20 minutes

View the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwDDb_

h2i0A

Fill in as many columns as possible on the handout. After the video is over, continue to fill in your table answering the questions.

Activities

http://www.Ipi.usra.edu/education/Ipsc_wksp_2007/resources/elliott.pdf

Communication patterns and assumptions activity handout.

Are you surprised by the final continuum? What are your experiences that support the

final arrangement of the continuum? Have you had experiences that contradict

this final arrangement?

Communication Patterns and Assumptions: 35 minutes

Expressive-Restrained Communication Styles Research Activity: 20 minutes

Divide students into the Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands (Morrison and Conaway, 2006) book groups. Based on the conversations that they have had today on the restrained-expressive communication style, as well as on their assigned reading from the book, ask each group to skim over the information about their country and write down the information that makes them think that their assigned country leans towards one communication style more than the other. Then ask each group to plot where they think their countries are on the expressive-restrained communication style continuum and use their notes to explain their decision.

Arabic-speaking World – tendency towards more expressive communication styleEgypt (pp. 148-158)Kuwait (pp.288-298)Saudi Arabia (pp. 426-436)

Chinese-speaking World – tendency towards more restrained communication styleChina (pp. 89-99)Hong Kong (pp. 100-103)Taiwan (pp. 495-505))

Spanish-speaking World – tendency towards more expressive communication styleColombia (pp. 104-112)Mexico (pp. 313-321)Spain (pp.469-476)

What is the difference between expressive and restrained communication styles?

How do expressive and restrained communication styles affect interactions between people?

reflection