Communication Accomodation Theory.

It is in human nature, that we tend to make efforts to adapt to different situations when meeting people with different cultural background (behavior, attire) or language speak that they used.  When this happen, one would try to accomodate the other's cultural language and behaviors in order to gain their approval in communicating with them.  For this post, a 2008 film of 'Wild Child' will be use as an example, which this post will be looking at how Poppy Moore adapt herself in a different school in United Kingdom.

The activity of where two different cultures encounter each other, it often takes one or both parties to accomodate the other's cultural language and behaivours. Howard Giles in Griffin (2009) stated that "a theory of intercultural communication  that actually attends to communication" is the deifinition for 'Communication Accomodation Theory'. The meaning of accomodation itself refers to a continous action of moving toward or away from each others by adjusting to one's communicative behavior (Griffin, 2009, p.388). In other words, it is a movement whether an individual would adapt or not towards the other person's culture; by changing the way they behave and communicate. 


According to West and Turner (2010, p. 472 ) in 'Introducing to Communication Theory', there are three strategies to accomodate a conversation differences, they are; convergence, divergence and overaccomodation. Covergence and Divergence is being defined as simply as the methods where the speakers would adjust their language or behavioural distinction to decrease or rise the dissimilarities between them (Giles, 1973; 1984; Giles and Powesland, 1975). 


In other words for convergence, it means that when we aim to be similar as others, we would alter our communication and behavioural styles towards how the others does it. We converge into becoming like them, in order to be accepted by them and therefore communication can be made much more easier. In the movie, Poppy Moore converged herself when she wanted get a 'new change'. Poppy, then, decided to change her hair into brunette and start dressing herself in a proper school uniform, to be seen as more 'British'. She even started to behave proper and speak in a much well-mannered with who she speaks with. Hence, 'fitting' into the British's school community. 


In contrast, divergence,  refers to when an individual would divert away or refuse to accomodate from towards the communication style used by others; this is to display their uniqueness apart from others. This is supported by Giles and his colleagues (1987, p. 28) in West and Turner (2010, p. 476ay), "deliberatley use their language or speech style as a symbolic tactic for maintaining their identity, cultural pride, and distinctiveness". Before Poppy convert into becoming more 'British-like', she refused to adapt to how the British girls in her school dressed, for example; she wore heels instead of the proper school shoes, and she even behaved inapporpriately. Due to the fact that she originated from California and is from an affluent family background; she is quite spoil, bossy and ignorant, she sees it was not necessary for her to follow how things are done in Britain. Even the way she speaks was quite dictorial and often used American-slangs. At one point where she was being called to the principal office, she stated "I didn't start it and it wasn't my fault. If this was America, I would've sued". Hence, divergence occured. 


Overaccomodation is defined by Jane Zeungler (1991) in West and Turner (2010, p. 477) as method of where an individual accomodate a certain language and behaviour stlyes with good intentions, but instead become patronizing and demeaning in their speak. This often makes the recipent feel worse, when an individual goes 'overboard' on the vocal clarity, repitition, amplitude or message simplification (Griffin, 2009, p. 391).


In Griffin (2009, pp. 388 - 391) stated that Giles and his colleagues mentioned another two accomodation strategies called 'Counter-Accomodation' and  'Maintence or Underaccomodation'; both are under divergence. Counter-Accomodation as stated by Giles in Grffin, is highly making the differences between two speakers directly. Whereas for 'Maintenance or Underaccomodation', Giles claimed that the strategy is basically where an individual would presist and reatain its original communication way without paying the attention on the communication way of the other. This is a similar case as what it was being explained in 'Divergence', where Poppy spoke in a more typical rich American girl way; dictorial and used American-slangs most of the time, directly to the Head Girl of the school, Harriet Bentley, making the distinctive between them more clear.


In West and Turner (2010, p. 486), according to Jessica Abrams, Joan O'Connor and Howard Giles (2003, p. 221) "Accomodation is fundamental to identity construction". Identifying the signifcance of the self and association of group identity was what Henri Tajfel and John Turner (1986, p. 498) stated about the development of Social Theory; in which West and Turner further defined the theory as "that proposes a person's identity is shaped by both personal and social characterisitcs." In other words, we can communicate by using our own identity that is as who we truly are or communicating by representing the group we belong to. This is one of the motivations that motivates any individual to converge or diverge as mentioned in Griffin (2009, p. 391). By using personal characteristics, we are willing to adapt in certain areas while retaining our own identity; for example, Poppy changed her speaking style from being dictorial into more proper and conversational with others, while still using her American accent because personally she is born-American. If we are to communicate by representing own group we belong to, we tend to be defensive and would not adapt to how others communicate. In the case for Poppy, she initially kept her rich-American daugther image by acting spoil and bossy, even dress not-accordingly to the school's rule.


Another motivation to convergence and divergence is 'Initial Orentation', which according to Griffin (2009, pp. 392- 393) means where during a coversation, communicators tendency to pay attention on either individual identity or group identity. There are five factors; first is 'Collectivistic cultural context', this refers to an action where we focus on collecting the similarities and mutual approval within the culture. For example, Poppy and her friends they are similar in speaking English language and because they are girls, naturally they have common interest in every angles suchs manicure and pedicure. Second is 'Distressing history of interaction', where if the previous interaction was negative, the next meeting will be negative. However if the previous interaction was positive, the next meeting will be positive. Third is 'Seterotypes', this is often seen as labelling others in a negative way. For example, Poppy was being labelled as 'American' by Hariett Bentley not because of her origin, but in the school hierarchy; it is seen as the lowest level among the school social status. Fourth,  'Norms for treatment of groups', Griffin defined it as "expectations about behavior that members of a community feel should (or should not) occur in particular situations". When Poppy transformed herself into becoming more 'British' like and reduce in uncertainty with her friends, she felt belong to her new circle of friends. Finally, 'High group solidarity'.


In conclusion, 'Communication Accomodation Theory' helps us to understand how to adapt to different cultural situations much more easier. However, it does not mean that we have to converge everytime we meet people with cultural background. Because divergent does not mean one refuses to communicate, sometimes it is good to have the distinctiveness to be obvious among both parties. This to let that social identity is identified easily and both can learn each other's cultural background; to be fair.




References List;


Giles, H. (1973) Accent mobility: A model and some data. Anthropological Linguistics, 15, 87-105. In Coupland, N. , Coupland, J. and Giles, H. (1991). Language, Society and The Elderly: Discourse, Identity and Ageing. Oxford, United Kingdom; Blackwell.


Giles, H. (ed.) (1984). The Dynamics of Speech Accomodation. (International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 46) Amsterdam: Mouton. In Coupland, N. , Coupland, J. and Giles, H. (1991). Language, Society and The Elderly: Discourse, Identity and Ageing. Oxford, United Kingdom; Blackwell.


Giles, H. , Mulac, A., Bradac, J. J., & Johnson, P. (1987). Speech accomodation theory: The first decade and beyond. In M.L. Mclaughlin (Ed.), Communication yearbook 10 (pp. 13-48). Newsbury Park, CA: Sage. In West, R. and Turner, L. (2010). Introducing Communication Theory: Analysis and Application. (4th Ed.). New York; McGraw-Hill.


Giles, H. and Powesland, P.F. (1975) Speech Style and Social Evaluation. London: Academic Press. In Coupland, N. , Coupland, J. and Giles, H. (1991). Language, Society and The Elderly: Discourse, Identity and Ageing. Oxford, United Kingdom; Blackwell.


Griffin, E. (2009) A first look at communication theory. (7th Ed.) Glencoe, IL: McGraw Hill.


Jane Zeungler (1991). In West, R. and Turner, L. (2010). Introducing Communication Theory: Analysis and Application. (4th Ed.). New York; McGraw-Hill.


Jessica Abrams, Joan O'Connor and Howard Giles (2003, p. 221). In West, R. and Turner, L. (2010). Introducing Communication Theory: Analysis and Application. (4th Ed.). New York; McGraw-Hill.