This development of my communication skills has been heavily influenced by the international context of this module. I was introduced to theory in the ninth seminar and undertook and activity in the fourth which highlighted to me the need to adapt my ‘message’ for the receiver (Anawati & Craig, 2006). In an article I read Millet (2009) proposes that as a native English speaker in an Intercultural virtual team messages should be sensitive to the fact that for other team members it may be a foreign language. I tried to follow this advice in all my communications finding it helpful to use Guffeys 3x3 writing process (Guffey, 2006). After routinely implementing this into my writing style I feel that it improved.

By taking a leadership role within a culturally diverse virtual team and by researching the most prominent cultural barriers to intercultural communication, and how they can be avoided, I have increased my cultural awareness. Relating to communication theory I thought these cultural barriers could be described as ‘noise’ in the communication process (Beamer and Varner, 2008) therefore should be avoided.

The Gamelan lecture exercise in the second seminar pointed out to me that barriers can be present even if communication is in a common native language. Further research into this provided me a good example, the fact that the relatively small differences between American and British English are substantial enough to cause uncertainty in communication (Scott, 2000). This made me place more importance of adapting the ‘message’ to the receiver even when communicating with people from similar cultures.

To assess the development of my cultural awareness I took the following quiz (http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/culture-test-1.html). My result was 60%, although this was not as high a mark as I was expecting I am not discouraged because the test used quite specific examples and I believe that the growth of intercultural awareness I have experienced on this module has been broader covering a wide range of factors relating to cultural awareness.