Communication Accommodation Theory

Communication Accommodation Theory says that when humans talk to each other, they tend to change the way they talk to match the way the listener talks. It is it as “a theory of inter-cultural communication that actually attends to communication.


Throughout the theory’s extensive development, Giles has consistently contrasted two strategic forms of communication that diverse people use when they interact convergence and divergence . Convergence is a strategy by which you adapt your communication behavior in such a way as to become more similar to another person. Divergence is a communication strategy of accentuating the differences between you and another person. In interethnic encounters, you might insist on using a language or dialect with which the other is uncomfortable.


Example is when you went to another places like it’s either you divert the communication or you convert the communication behavior on the culture to the places you go.

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