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Lesson 1: Nature of communication

 We, humans, are naturally social being, we feel an intense need to express our thoughts,
feelings, aspirations, doubts, questions, and fears.
 it is our ability to communicate that makes us different from all other living things. This is our
instrument for human interaction.
 Communication is derived from the Latin word “common,” which means, “belonging to many”,
“communico”-to confer with others.

Communication

 It is the mutual exchange of information, ideas and understanding by any effective means.
 is a process by which people send messages or exchange ideas or thoughts with one another in a
verbal or non-verbal manner

Value of Communication

 The word communication is coming from the Latin word “communis” which means common or to
“commune” or to come together or to share something in common.

Elements of communication:

1.Sender/Encoder

 Decides on the message to be sent and the best/most effective way that it can be sent.
 All of these are done bearing the receiver in mind. In a word, it is the sender’s job to conceptualize.
 The sender may want to ask him/herself question like:

2.Medium

 The medium is the immediate form which a message takes.

 a message may be communicated in the form of a letter or an email or face to face in the form of a
speech.

3.Channel

 The channel is responsible for the delivery of the chosen message form.
 For example: post office, internet, television and radio.

4.Receiver

 The receiver or the decoder is responsible for extracting/decoding meaning from the message.
 The receiver is also responsible for providing feedback to the sender.
 In a word, it is his/her job to INTERPRET.

5.Feedback

 Feedback is important as it determines whether or not the decoder grasped the intended meaning and
whether communication was successful.

6.Context

 Communication does not take place in a vacuum. The context of any communication act is the
environment surrounding it.
 This includes, among other things, place, time, event, and attitudes of sender and receiver.
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7.Noise (also called interface)

 Noise is any factor that inhibits the transmission of a message.

 Noise may be internal or external.
 Student worrying about an incomplete assignment may not be attentive in class (internal noise)
 the sounds of heavy rain on a galvanized roof may inhibit the reading of a storybook to second
graders (external noise).

The communication process is dynamic, continuous, irreversible, and contextual. It is not possible to
participate in any element of the process without acknowledging the existence and functioning of the
other elements.

Lesson 2: Principles and Characteristics of Communication

1.Communication is a Schemata-driven

 Communication begins within yourself, you begin with what you have already stocked in your
brain or with what you have already known or understood about the subject matter of the
communicative act.
 Transmitted messages become understandable or meaningful because of your innate or old
knowledge about the messages.

2.Communication is an interpretative act.

 The only person who knows the exact or full meaning of the message transmitted is the sender
or speaker
 Being the creator or source of the ideas, he/she has the absolute knowledge about his message.
 role of the receiver or listener is just to interpret, infer, or guess the meaning of things appealing
to his sense of hearing.

3.Communication does not guarantee a direct or automatic link between two minds.

 These forms of knowledge become meaningful only to others when you initiate
communication with them.

4.Communication is active, powerful, or forceful

 Communication is generally taken as an active messages, because it has varied effects on all
participants in any communicative event.
 It engages speakers and listeners in action of giving and receiving information.

5.Communication is symbolic.

 Symbols, signs, or marks like letters, words, sentences, graphs, pictures and other concrete
objects represent or stand for ideas that you intend to convey verbally.
 non-verbal communication, you resort to bodily actions (gestures, eye movements, posture,
facial expressions) voice quality, space and time elements to stand for the ideas you want to
express.
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6.Communication always results in something.

 It refers to two or more persons participate in any communicative act.

 The first, expresses or sends a message; the second, responds or reacts to the message.

7.Communication is irreversible.

 You are free to talk about anything under the sun. But once you utter something, the things
you have said remains as it is susceptible to different interpretations or meanings.

8.Communication is contextual.

 An exchange of views, ideas, or feelings doesn’t only involve the sender and the receiver, but
also other aspects of the communication setting like time, place, topic, occasion, purpose, and
manner of communication.

9. Communication is developmental or progressive.

 To communicate ideas is to go through the different stages of language learning that begins
from birth to elementary, high school, and college levels.
 It is not a one-time learning towards communicative competence.

10.Communication is a process.

 Several stages of communication take place when people exchange or share ideas with one
another. Each stage involves elements with different functions.

11.Communication is ethical.

 Any communication event is expected to apply rules, moral values, and beliefs agreed upon by
societal members.

12.Communication is influenced by media and technology.

 Now, you are in the era of knowledge explosion or modern technology.

 This period is characterized by an instant global exchange of knowledge, services and
technology.
 Using modern electronic communication devices, an exchange of ideas occurs just in seconds or
minutes regardless of the distance between or among the participants.

Lesson 3: Communication Cues: Verbal and Non-verbal Language

Verbal Language

 Consist of symbol like letters, words, and others marks that you need to subject to language or
grammar rules for a coherent or organized means of understanding or expressing ideas.
 This verbal or spoken language becomes a written language once you put on paper or any
surface the marks or prints symbolizing or representing the ideas you intend to convey or have
spoken to others.

Non-verbal language
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 A process by which an individual stimulates meaning in the mind of another person through
intentional and unintentional messages through the use of body and other wordless messages.
 Some non-verbal communication behaviors appear to be somewhat innate because they are
universally recognized.
 Eyebrow flash- recognition when we see someone we know.
 Open hand and palm up -Signals a person would like something or needs help

Non-verbal (language symbols)

1. Body movements
 Big and small movements of your body like gestures, facial expressions, posture and eye
behavior express meanings.
 Kinesics, derived from the Greek term, kinesis, meaning ‘’motion’’ which refers to the study
of body movements.
2. Paralanguage
 These are extra sounds that go with your spoken words and a study of these special
sounds accompanying your words is called paralinguistic:

Examples of paralanguage:

a) Speaking voice produced by your voice’s

 Highness and lowness(pitch)
 Loudness or softness
 Speediness and slowness (duration)
 Rising and falling (intonation)
 Shrillness, huskiness, breathiness, mellowness, etc. (quality)
b) Vocalization
 Crying
 Giggling
 Yawning
 Groaning
c) Vocal pauses or boosters- like uhg…ummm.oh…shhhh..oppps.. many others.

3. Time(Chronemics)
 Your willingness, hesitance, or hatred to wait for a long time speaks of your trait of
patience or impatience. Likewise, this reflects your manner of valuing your relationship
with the object your waiting.
 Chronemics is the study of how time is used in communication.
 The way that an individual would perceive and value time, structure our time and react to
time is a powerful communication tool, and helps set the stage for the communication
process.
 Is the term that refers to your act of studying the impact or effect

4. Proxemics
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 A space or distance symbolizes or represents your thoughts or feelings about your
world.
 For instance, surrounding your property with steel fence or leaving it unfenced gives
people clues about your preferences or priorities
 Intimate, personal, social and public.
 Haptics- is the term used to refer to your acts of studying the effects of your touch on
people.
5. Physical appearance and object language
o Ectomorphs (thin people)
o Endomorphs (fat people)
o Mesomorphs (athletic people)
 Meaning in this kind of non-verbal language, are symbolized or represented by dressing styles,
body types appearance like size or shape.
 Architectural designs or structures, art objects graphic materials, lightning effects, aromatic or
smelly objects, and other environmental factors that influence or any effect any communicative
event.

The Cost of Cultural Ignorance

 Cultural misunderstandings often lead to lost opportunities and increased levels of
tension between people.
 Communicators who fail to realize that persons from different cultures may not look,
think, or act as they themselves do run the risk of having those with whom they interact
judge them to be insensitive, ignorant, or culturally confused.
 the culturally confused pay a high price.

 Showing the sole of a shoe means nothing to observers in the United States or Europe. As a
result, when visiting Saudi Arabia, the American and European delegates to a conference
thought nothing about crossing their legs and pointing their shoes toward the speaker
while listening to his presentation. The speaker, however, was horrified. In Muslim cultures, the
gesture is perceived as insulting (Samover & Porter, 1991).Similarly, while crossing your
legs in the United States indicates you are relaxed, in Korea it is a social faux pas.
 John, who represented the interests of an American multinational corporation, and Yu-Chen, his
Taiwanese counterpart, had difficulty establishing a working relationship. John’s eyeblink
rate increased as he became more and more nervous, fearing that his efforts to resolve their
misunderstanding had reached an impasse. This only made things worse. Blinking while
another person talks is considered normal to North Americans; to Taiwanese it is considered
impolite (Gudykunst, 2004)
 McDonald’s fast-food chain unintentionally offended thousands of Muslims when it printed
an excerpt from the Koran on its throwaway hamburger bags (The Record, June 8, 1994).
Muslims saw this as sacrilegious. The mistake could have been avoided if McDonald’s had
displayed greater sensitivity and awareness.
 The Japanese view the business card as an extension of a person, while Americans view it as a
business formality and a convenience. Consequently, while the Japanese handle business cards
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with great care, making certain to put them in safe places. Americans are quick to put
them away and thus often end up insulting the Japanese (Griswold, 1994).
 Arabs typically adopt a direct body orientation when communicating. Americans employ a
stance that is somewhat less direct and thus often find the communication of Arabs aggressive
and unnerving. Arabs and South Americans also tend to gesture vigorously when speaking
to others, causing the less physical Americans to construe their behavior as inappropriate
and unmannerly. It is common in Middle Eastern cultures for both males and females to
physically exaggerate responses, while in the
 United States emotions are more likely to be suppressed. In Japan, individuals may try to hide or
mask certain emotions. It iscommon among Asian cultures to exhibit reserve and emotional
restraint. In Japan, the word for “different” is the same as the word for “wrong.” Compare and
contrast a culture in which the goal is to become as much like others as possible with a culture
in which the goal is to distinguish oneself from others. Which cultural attitude are you most
comfortable with?
 Eye contact preferences also differ across cultures. Americans place a high value on eye-
to-eye communication and tend todistrust those who fail to look at them directly. The
Japanese, in contrast, believe eye contact over a sustained period of time shows
disrespect. Among Asian cultures, too much eye contact is deemed intrusive. Arabs, on the
other hand, maintain direct eye contact with those they interact with for prolonged periods.
 Americans tend to value personal achievement and individualism. In contrast, Asian and
Native American cultures stress group cohesion and loyalty, placing greater emphasis
on group rather than individual achievement. Failing to develop insights into cultural nuances
and differences can be costly. Recognizing and responding to differences among
cultures allows for more meaningful relationships. At the same time, we need to be mindful
that not everyone from a particular culture exhibits the same characteristics and
communication traits.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

Accommodation–It is the means by which co-culture members maintain their cultural identity while
striving to establish relationships with members of the dominant culture.

Assimilation–It is the means by which co-culture members attempt to fit in with members of the
dominant culture.

Co-cultures–It refers to group of people who differ in some ethnic or sociological way from the parent
culture.

Collectivistic Cultures –It refers to cultures in which group goals are stressed.

Cultural Imperialism–It is the expansion of dominion of one culture over another culture.

Cultural Pluralism –It is the adherence to the principle of cultural relativism.

Cultural Relativism–It refers to the acceptance of other cultural groups as equal in value to one's own.

Culturally Confused –It refers to the lacking an understanding of cultural difference.

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Culture –It is a system of knowledge, beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that are acquired,
shared, and used by members during daily living.

Diversity–It refers to the recognition and valuing of difference such factors as age, gender, race,
ethnicity, ability, religion, education, marital status, sexual orientation and income.

Ethnocentrism–It is the tendency to see one's own culture as superior to all others.

Globalization –It refers to the increasing economic, political, and cultural integration and
interdependence of diverse cultures.

High-context Communication–It is a tradition-bound communication system which depends on

indirectness.

High-power-distance Cultures–It pertains to the cultures based on power differences in which

subordinates defer to superiors.

Individualistic Cultures-It pertains to the cultures in which individual goals are stressed.

Intercultural Communication–It is the way of interpreting and sharing meanings with individuals
from different cultures.

Interethnic Communication–It refers to the interaction with individuals of different ethnic origins.

International Communication- It refers to the communication between persons representing different

nations.

Intracultural Communication- It refers to the interaction with members of the same racial or ethnic
group or co-culture as yours.

Interracial Communication -It is the way of interpreting and sharing of meanings with individuals
from different races.

Low-context Communication–It is a system that encourages directness in communication.

Low-power-distance Cultures–It pertains to the cultures that believe that power should be used only
when legitimate.

Masculine Cultures-It pertains to the cultures that value aggressiveness, strength, and material symbols
of success.

Melting-pot Philosophy–It is the view that different cultures should be assimilated into the dominant
culture.

Multiculturalism–It refers to the engagement with and respect toward people from distinctly different
cultures.

Prejudice–It is a positive or negative prejudgment.

Separation –It is the means co-culture members use to resist interacting with members of the dominant
culture

LESSON 1: Culture and Cultural Globalization

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Culture

 Originates from a French term, which in turn derives from the Latin "colere," which means to
tend to the earth and grow, or cultivation and nurture (Zimmermann, 2017).
 In other words; culture encompasses religion, food, what we wear, how we wear it, our
language, marriage, music, what we believe is right or wrong, how we sit at the table,
how we greet visitors, how we behave with loved ones, and a million other things(De Rossi,
2017).
 stated by Cristina De Rossi, Live Science Coordinator; culture appears to become a key in
our interconnected world which is made up of so many ethnically diverse societies but
also riddled by conflicts associated with religion, ethnicity, ethical beliefs, and the elements
which make up culture.
 If cultures provide diverse ways of interpreting the environment and the world, as well as
the relationship to other people; it is important to acknowledge that effective
communicators have the ability to select and perform communication appropriate to
various settings(Fred, 2013).