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ERIC ED269181: Understanding Mexicans and Americans: A Mexican-U.S. Communication Lexicon of Images, Meanings, and Cultural Frames of Reference.
This "communication lexicon," a new source of information in the field of language and area studies, describes how selected themes such as family, society, work, and entertainment are perceived and understood by members of the Mexican, Colombian, and United States cultures. It identifies broad trends of perceptions and evaluations through analysis of related themes. The awareness it provides of differences in perceptual and motivational dispositions can be applied to educational and training tasks which require cultural sensitivity and interpersonal skills. Information is based on Mexican and United States student samples tested in Mexico City and Washington, D.C. A parallel presentation is based on a comparable Colombian sample. Introductory chapters discuss problems of cultural understanding and how research information can be used in communication strategies. Chapters 3-12 present Mexican and American images and meanings from themes of Family/Self, Friendship/Understanding, Community/Society, Love/Sex, Religion/Mortality, Education/Upbringing, Economy/Money, Work/Achievement, Government/Politics, and National/Ethnic Images. Graphs are used to show differences and similarities. General trends across several themes reflecting perceptual and motivational dispositions are discussed in chapter summaries. The original response lists arranged in semantically related clusters for each theme are provided in Appendix 1. The Associative Group Analysis method used to collect and interpret research data is discussed in Appendix 2. (FL)
