UNIT 2- SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT LANGUAGE

Objectives

• To understand the importance of language

• To study the importance of education and instruction

• To study the features and scope of communication

Importance of Communication
Communication is important both for an individual and also for the society. A person’s need for
communication is as strong and as basic as the need to eat, sleep, and love.

Communication is the requirement of social existence and a resource in order to engage in the
sharing of experiences, through ‘symbol mediated interaction’. Isolation is in fact the severest
punishment for human being.

Grown-ups, children, and old people all need to communicate. Society punishes criminals by
locking them up in solitary cells, thus starving them of the basic need, and indeed the
fundamental right to communicate. Communication thus involves active interaction with our
environments -physical, biological and social. Deprived of this interaction we would not be
aware of whether we are safe or in danger, whether hated or loved, or satisfied or hungry.
However, most of us take this interaction and this relationship for granted, unless we experience
some deprivation of it. When that happens we adapt ourselves to the environment so that we do
not lose touch, in both the literal and figurative senses. For, to lose touch is to suffer isolation.

The basic human need for communication can perhaps be traced to the process of mankind’s
evolution from lower species. Animals, for instance, have to be in sensory communication with
their physical and biological surroundings to find food, protect themselves and reproduce their
species. A loss of sensation-the inability to hear a predator for instance can mean loss of life.
Thus, it is said that the biology of human beings and other living organisms is such that they
have to depend upon each other. This dependence gives rise to a situation where it is the
biological necessity for the human beings to live in groups. Society is therefore, the outcome of
the evolution of the human race and man is a social animal not by option but by compulsion.

Essentially, the primary function of communication is to inform, educate, entertain and persuade
people. Following are the basic functions of communication:

• Education and Instruction- This function of education starts early in life, at home and in
school and continues throughout life. Communication provides knowledge, expertise, and skills
for smooth functioning by people in the society. It creates awareness and gives opportunity to
people to actively participate in public life.

• Information- quality of our life will be poor without information. The more informed we are
the more powerful we become. Communication provides information about our surroundings.
Information regarding wars, danger, crisis, famine, etc. are important for the safety and well
being of our life.

• Entertainment- To break the routine life and divert our attention from the stressful life we lead
today, entertainment is an essential part of everybody’s life. Communication provides endless
entertainment to people through films, television, radio, drama, music, literature, comedy,
games, etc.

• Discussion- debates and discussions clarify different viewpoints on issues of interest to the
people. Through communication, we find out reasons for varying viewpoints and impart new
ideas to others.

• Persuasion- it helps in reaching for a decision on public policy so that it is helpful to govern
the people. Though it is possible, that one can resort to persuasion for a bad motive. Thus, the
receiver must be careful about the source of persuasion.

• Cultural promotion- communication provides an opportunity for the promotion and

preservation of culture and traditions. It makes the people fulfill their creative urges.

• Integration-it is through communication that a large number of people across countries come
to know about each other’s traditions and appreciate each other’s ways of life. It develops
integration and tolerance towards each other.

Features and scope of communication

Communication of message takes place through spoken or written words, pictures and in many
other forms. In oral communication, the transmitter is the ‘voice box’ of the speaker. The
receiver of the message may be the human ear, which converts sound waves into a
comprehensible form, which can be recognized by the human brain; a television receiver decodes
the electromagnetic waves into recognizable visual representation. In the same manner, the
reader, who can recognize and understand that particular language, can understand the printed
message.

The process of communication involves a procedure consisting of only a few steps. The
information source decides to communicate and encodes a message, transmits it through a
channel to the receiver, which is then decoded and acted upon. There are noises or distortions in
between the whole process. The main functions of communication are information, education,
entertainment, enlightenment and persuasion. Therefore, the communication process should be
designed as such so as to gain the attention of the receiver, use the signals, symbols, or codes that
are easily understood by the receiver and it must arouse needs in the receiver and suggest some
ways out to satisfy these needs. Only then it can create the desired response.

However, communication should not be confused with mass communication, while

communication is the activity of sharing, giving, imparting, receiving information, mass
communication ‘is a process in which professional communicators use communication media to
disseminate messages widely, rapidly, simultaneously and continuously to arouse intended
meanings in large and diverse audience s in an attempt to influence them in a variety of ways’.

Communication is a required skill at every level of organizational functioning. The effectiveness,

with which a person will be able to perform in almost any organization, whether social,
governmental, or commercial, will depend in large measure upon the ability to communicate
effectively.

Self-assessment Test

Question 1:

Which is true of communication?

a) Everyone does it.
b) More is always better.
c) It can solve all problems.
d) It is a natural ability.
e) All of the above are true.
Question 2:

Communication is more effective when the communicator ________.

a) is sending intentional messages only
b) has little personal commitment in the message outcome
c) takes responsibility for making the message useful to the listener
d) has less to gain, and, therefore, is willing to compromise.
e) concentrates more on the content than on the relational aspect of the message

References

1. Chirea-Ungureanu, Carmen. Developing English Communication and Understanding Skills on

Board Ship, Editura Crizon, Constanta, 2013, ISBN 978-606-8476-09-4

2. Chirea-Ungureanu Carmen, The Sea of English-Maritime English. Skills Development, Editura

Crizon, Constanta, 2015, ISBN978-606-8476-18-6

3. Chirea-Ungureanu Carmen, English Grammar In Use-Exercises and Quizzes, Editura Nautica,

Constanta, 2010, ISBN 978-606-8105-14-7

4. Barnlund, Dean C. 1991. Communication in a global village. In Intercultural communication: a

reader, (6th ed). eds. Samovar and Porter. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

5. McQuail, D., and Windahl, Sven, Communication Models For the Study of Mass
Communications, Longman, London and New York, 1981.

6. Merrill, John C. and Heinz-Dietrich Fisher, International and Intercultural Communication,

Hasting House Publishers, New York, 1976.

7. Rogers, E., and Shaemakers, F., Communication and Innovations: A Cross Cultural Approach,
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