Purposive Communication Overview

Course Description

• Purposive Communication is about writing, speaking, and presenting to different audiences and for various purposes.
• It develops students' communicative competence and enhances their cultural and intercultural awareness through multimodal tasks.
• It equips students with tools for critical evaluation of a variety of texts and focuses on the power of language and the impact of images to emphasize the importance of conveying messages responsibly.

Communication Definition

• Any act by which one person gives to or receives from another person information about a person's needs, desires, perceptions, knowledge, or affective states.

Importance of Communication

• To express thoughts and feelings
• To get along well with people
• To look for a job
• To pass a job interview
• To bridge the gap between individuals and groups through proper flow of information
• For individual fulfillment

Communication Process

• Includes a sender, receiver, message, channel, feedback, and context.
• The sender encodes the message, the receiver decodes the message, and feedback is provided to the sender.

Evolution of Communication

• Smoke Signals: Used by indigenous tribes in the 1500s as a form of visual communication over a long distance.
• Pigeon Post: Used by the Romans more than 2,000 years ago to carry messages on tiny pieces of paper in a metal canister attached to their feet.
• Snail Mail: Earliest surviving piece of mail from 255 B.C. Postal services included dogsleds, donkeys, balloons, and submarines.
• Electrical Telegraph: First American electrical telegraph was invented in 1836, used electrical currents to deliver messages across long distances.
• Telephone: First telephone patented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell.
• Text Messaging: First text message sent in 1992, "Merry Christmas".
• Video Messaging: First camera phone was sold in 1996 in Japan. The introduction of video calling changed the way people interact.

Communication Methods

• Words are 7% effective
• Tone of voice is 38% effective
• Non-verbal clues are 55% effective

Types of Communication

• Verbal Communication
• Non-verbal/Interpersonal communication
• Visual Communication
• Written Communications
• Formal & Informal

Verbal Communication

• One way for people to communicate face-to-face.
• Key components: sound, words, speech, and language.

Ways of Expressing Verbal Communication

• Dialogue: Person-to-person communication in which deep, intimate, and personal relationships are formed.
• Conversation: Friendly and informal talk between two people, less purposive, serious, and intimate.
• Interview: Most purposive form of communication in which both parties talk and listen.

Non-Verbal Communication

• Cues: A type of communication used by anyone to let a person know what is expected of him/her in a given situation.
  • Touch cues
  • Sensory cues
  • Object cues
• Non-verbal cues include:
  • Body language (e.g., arms crossed, standing, sitting, relaxed, tense),
  • Emotion of the sender and receiver (e.g., yelling, speaking provocatively, enthusiastic)
  • Other connections between the people (e.g., friends, enemies, attitudes, expectations).

Body Language

• How people situate their body depending on the situation, environment, and feelings.
• Includes gestures, eye contact, posture, and facial expressions.

Space or Proxemics

• The amount of space that exists between yourself and others communicates comfort level, the importance of the conversation, desire to support or connect with others, and the relative degree of power you hold.
• Categories: intimate, personal, social, and public.

Signals

• Movements a person uses to communicate needs, desires, and feelings to adults.
• A form of expressive communication.
• May start as a behavior that a person is not intentionally using to communicate.