Communication and Language

• Communication relies significantly on language.

Nature of Language

• Language facilitates expressing and understanding thoughts and emotions.
• Language is a human, non-instinctive system for communicating emotions, ideas, and desires using voluntarily produced symbols.
• Language forms components of culture (Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis).
• Language is the expression of thought through speech sounds.
• Language is communication by sound among a community, using vocal symbols with arbitrary conventional meanings.

Macro Skills

• Macro skills are essential for communication, including listening, speaking, reading, writing, and viewing.
• All macro skills are interconnected; balanced engagement is most effective when learning a language.

Listening

• Listening is crucial for understanding and effective communication.
• Listening involves grasping the meaning of what is heard.

Speaking

• Speaking involves meaning (connotation, denotation, grammar), sociality, cultural issues, performance (articulation, projection, pronunciation), and sound elements.

Functions of Speaking

• Interaction includes social conversations.
• Transaction involves a clear message and expected action.
• Performance focuses on speeches to persuade.
• Accuracy, sequencing, form, and organization are emphasized in performance speaking.

Reading

• Reading involves word recognition, comprehension, fluency, and motivation.
• Reading is making meaning from print through word identification, understanding construction, and coordination for automaticity.

Writing

• Writing is a complex activity that requires control of language and can lead to success.
• Types of writing include expository, descriptive, persuasive, and narrative.

Viewing

• Viewing skills involve reflection, analysis, and evaluation of images for better comprehension.
• It includes interpreting visuals, computer programs, and websites.
• Viewing gives an avenue for understanding and gaining knowledge through information via technology.
• Visual literacy is crucial in the information age.

What is Communication?

• Communication is conveying information between individuals across various channels, contexts, media, and cultures.
• Communication occurs in various settings like face-to-face interactions, phone calls, discussions, meetings, or recitations.

Nature of Communication

• Communication is a process involving transmission, listening, participation, and reception (T-L-P-R).
• Communication occurs between at least two people.
• Communication can be verbal, nonverbal, or both.

Types of Communication

• Verbal communication uses words.
• Nonverbal communication includes gestures, facial expressions, posture, haptics, chronemics, olfactory cues, and paralanguage.
• Written Communication

Elements of Communication

• Speaker: the source of the message.
• Message: information conveyed by the speaker.
• Encoding: converting the message into understandable forms.
• Channel: the medium through which the message is conveyed.
• Decoding: interpreting the speaker's message.
• Receiver: the recipient of the message.
• Feedback: responses from the receiver.
• Context: the environment where communication occurs.
• Barrier: factors affecting communication flow.

Explore the nature of language as a human communication system for expressing thoughts and emotions. Learn about macro skills such as listening and speaking. Understand how language is intertwined with culture and effective communication.