Communication Fundamentals Quiz

Communication Defined

• Communication is the act of conveying facts, feelings, and wishes from sender to receiver.
• Communication can occur verbally, non-verbally, and through various mediums.

Intrapersonal Communication

• Communication with oneself can involve self-analysis, goal setting, building confidence through self-affirmations.

Communication Cycle or Communication Loop

• The communication cycle involves a sender who encodes a message, a channel for sending the message, and a receiver who decodes the message and provides feedback.
• Noise, barriers, or hindrances can disrupt the communication cycle.

Types of Noise

• Physical noise: Environmental disruptions, sensory limitations (e.g., hearing problems)
• Psychological noise: Internal distractions like stress, emotions, pre-conceived notions.
• Cultural noise: Misunderstandings stemming from cultural differences in language, gestures, or social norms.
• Organizational noise: Issues within an organization that impact communication flows (e.g., unclear channels, misaligned goals).
• Semantic noise: Miscommunication due to language style, sentence structure, or jargon.
• Technical noise: Issues with communication mediums (e.g., poor phone reception, low video quality).

Verbal Communication

• Communication that involves the use of language, including spoken and written forms.

Non-Verbal Communication

• Communication without words, involving various behaviors and expressions of emotions, often unconsciously.
• Communicative Behaviors:
  • Facial Expressions: Powerful non-verbal communication, often conveying universal emotions like anger, happiness, fear, and sadness.
  • Non-Oral: Sounds like laughing, crying, coughing, and body language like gestures.

Organisational Context

• Communication that occurs in organizational environments like workplaces, schools, banks, etc.
• Characteristics:
  • Perintane: Information-intensive.
  • Complex: Multiple communication patterns co-occurring.
  • Patterns: Downward, upward, horizontal, grapevine.

Academic Context

• Communication in academic settings encompasses aural, oral, and written forms.
• Key skills include attentive listening, effective group work, comprehensive reporting, effective note-taking, persuasive writing and presentations, constructive questioning, and succinct writing.

Contexts of Communication

• Intrapersonal Context: Communication with oneself involving internal symbol processing, including internal discourse (thinking, analyzing, daydreaming), solo vocalizing, and solo writing.
• Interpersonal Context: Communication between two or more individuals, characterized by being inescapable, irreversible, complicated, and contextual.
• Small Group Context: Communication in groups of 2-12 individuals, like classroom discussions, online forums, group projects, and conference calls.

Body Language and Gestures

• Non-verbal communication through gestures, movements, and mannerisms, often with cultural variations.

Proxemics

• The study of how people use physical space and distance to communicate, culturally dependent.

Chronemics

• The use of time in communication, culturally influenced.

Appearance and Dress

• Clothing, grooming, and appearance can convey non-verbal cues about status, personality, and mood.

Para Language

• The non-verbal aspects of speech, like tone, pitch, and volume.

Graphics and Symbols

• Visually perceptible figures with meaning that convey information independently of language.

Intercultural Context

• Communication between people from different cultural backgrounds.

Interpersonal Communication

• Communication between two or more individuals, often in close proximity.

Activity 3.1: Interpersonal Skills

• Examples: Teamwork, customer service, public speaking, parenting.

Definition of Language

• Language is a structured and conventional use of words for communication, displayed through speech, writing, and gestures.

Importance of Language To Society

• Key aspects:
  • Enables social norms and information sharing.
  • Transmits cultural knowledge.
  • Supports legal, political, and educational systems.
  • Facilitates creative and recreational expressions.

Characteristics of Language

1. Human: Unique to humans, a key factor in human development.
2. Verbal: Must be spoken to be considered language.
3. Written (Recordable): Must be recordable through a consistent system of marks or signs, with symbols representing words and meanings.
4. Systematic: Has structured patterns for organization.
5. Symbolic: Words represent real-world things, but require definitions.
6. Conventional: A shared agreement on word use, subject to change.
7. Universal: Found in all human societies.
8. Flexible: Evolves with new words and meanings (e.g., "selfie").
9. Dynamic: Changes over time.
10. Natural: Develops and adapts to human needs and communities. 11.Non-instinctive: Created by humans, a tool for communication, not an inherent ability.

Language Survival

• Formality and structure within organizations help ensure continuity in the transmission of language.

Language Transmission

• Human society is the key mechanism for successful language transmission.

Levels of Comprehension

1. Literal Understanding: Understanding the basic meaning of what is said.
2. Interpretive Understanding: Interpreting implied or deeper meaning.
3. Analysis: Assessing, concluding, and summarizing information, like identifying themes and drawing conclusions.
4. Evaluation: Judging the value and significance of information.