This article critically reviews three frameworks for studying communication and culture in the research published in English: the traditional intercultural communication, the interactional sociolinguistics, and the ethnography of communication. It aims to consider possible application of these frameworks to the intercultural communication education in Japan. Although there are some overlaps among the frameworks, each has its own view of some important metatheoretical issues. The article demonstrates commonalities and differences among the perspectives by describing research objectives, typical research questions, methods of inquiry, examples of research, strengths and weaknesses, and, especially, the ways in which culture is treated by scholars in each framework. By exemplifying diverse approaches to studying communication and culture, this essay suggests that it is important to engage in the discussion on the similarities and differences among the frameworks and introduce multiple perspectives on intercultural communication in class.

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The power of metaphors is used in Zen Buddhism in the process of attaining enlightenment. To understand the unique style of communication in Asian societies, it is pivotal to first comprehend how Zen masters and their disciples communicate to allow them to see the Zen reality. This paper discusses the significant role metaphors play in Asian social communication with a concentration on religious communication in general and Zen Buddhism in particular. It examines the use of koan and mondo, two forms of discourse found in Zen Buddhism that rely heavily on metaphors, to obtain enlightenment.

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During the past 10 years, what intercultural communication research does has been criticized in articles of the journals of the Communication Association of Japan (CAJ) and in various symposia and panels held at the annual conventions of CAJ. This paper summarizes some of the critical points which have been discussed and reexamines them in the context of education. This paper refers to the findings from initial work on the documentary film, Rokkashomura Rhapsody. The author visited the site where the film was shot and interviewed those who appeared on screen. She also interviewed those who organized the viewings of this film. Based on this preparatory work, the author proposes that it is necessary to deconstruct the "majority" and "minority," and the "global" and "local" in intercultural communication education to overcome the binary opposition of categories and stereotypical description of culture.

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Based on the reading of three contributed articles, this response paper proposes a dialectical way of looking at /bunka/ (culture). In the traditional research and education in Intercultural Communication, /bunka/ has been treated as the object of research or teaching. However, as a researcher or an educator interacts with the object of /bunka/, a new /bunka/ emerges out of symbolic interaction that occurs between the researcher/educator and /bunka/. This newly emerged /bunka/ then becomes a subject and reflects the researcher/educator. Therefore, a researcher/educator is a subject and simultaneously an object as well as /bunka/ is both a subject and an object. In essence, this paper recommends that a researcher or a teacher should fully integrate self-reflexivity in research or teaching: they should not only describe how one positions in relation to the object of /bunka/ but also examine how one is reflected and defined by /bunka/.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of classroom-based social skills training on communication skills of high school students. The target skill was "Confirmative response." The subjects of this investigation were 3 experimental classes and 3 control classes. These were selected from 431 high school students (243 male and 188 female students) based on the results of the pre-test. "Communication skills with classmates scale" was used in this study. The experimental classes participated in "Confirmation skill" training facilitated by each homeroom teacher for about 20 minutes. The training was continued 4〜8 times. The control classes participated in the normal homeroom. After the training the score of "Communication skills with classmates scale" increased. The results showed that "Confirmation skill" training was effective to enhance the level of trained students.

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This study is an attempt to develop and practice an assessment model of productive skills in a communication-oriented English learning program at the university level. The model is to be proposed as one applicable to language education in general, although it focuses on English leaming. Cornmunication consists of perceiving and producing messages by means of verbal and nonverbal media. Language education in the past put too much emphasis on perception through verbal media. There are a host of assessment models which aim to measure the perceptive verbal skills. These models fail to measure the productive verbal skills, not to speak of accompanying nonverbal productive skills. Most major assessment models currently available to us now are perceptive models. Such assessments models unfortunately often limit the scope of language education to developing the perceptive verbal skills, which may prevent language education from incorporating in it a functional model of communication. Recently, however, there have been developed several language learning models whose focus is placed on developing communication skills in a sense mentioned above. In order to promote such communication-oriented language learning models, it is urgent to develop an adequate assessment model which can evaluate not only verbal but also nonverbal communicative competence.

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