Interethnic Communication: How to recognize negative stereotypes and improve communication between ethnic groups

The booklet is designed to accompany a videotape (not included here) of the same title in the series "Talking Alaska," and is intended for personal use and use in workshops and other presentations on cross-cultural and interethnic communication. The text can be used with or without the videotape. Introductory sections describe the background of the materials and offer suggestions for their classroom use, including workshop preparation, the initial session, videotape presentation and discussion, post-workshop evaluation, and time considerations. The core of the text discusses basic principles of interethnic communication and related issues: the importance of communication; interethnic communication in Alaska; ethnic stereotyping, particularly in Athabaskan-English interethnic communication; gatekeeping, or making decisions that will affect the social, economic, and geographic mobility of others; communicative styles; and dealing with conflicting styles of politeness. The final section contains specific behavioral recommendations for improving interethnic communication, based on three basic strategies: perception of what is happening in the communication; acceptance that others do not intend to miscommunicate; and repair of miscommunication. (MSE)"