Lessan 1 (From Tentative Module)

• Sussman (1984) stated that communication occurs when a sender expresses an emotion or a feeling, creates an idea, or senses the need to communicate.
• The communication process is triggered when the sender makes a conscious or an unconscious decision to share the message with another person—the receiver.
• It is a process wherein the exchange of information between two or more people (Bernales, Balon and Biligan, 2018).
• Keyton (2011) as cited in Lunenburg (2010) supported the notion that communication is the process of transmitting information and common understanding from one person to another.
• For communication to succeed, both the participants must be able to exchange information and understand each other. If this flow of information is interrupted or blocked communication fails.
• In our everyday living, for a communication to be effectively transmitted, elements of communication must be present and these include

  1. Speaker
  2. Message
  3. Receiver
  4. Channel
  5. Feedback
  6. Communicative Situation
• Sussman (1984) further explains that every communicative act is based on something that conveys meaning, and that conveyance is the message.
• Sight and sound are the two most frequent communication channels used in our society.
• When the receiver gets the message (through seeing, hearing, feeling, touching, or smelling), he or she will usually give feedback (return message) unconsciously or consciously. Thus, the communications process is on-going.
• The worst assumption a sender of a message can make is that the message will be received as intended. So many things can go wrong during the communications process that we should always assume that something will go wrong and take steps to prevent that occurrence.

  Barriers to good communications are always present.
• For instance, you would not use the telephone to relay a lot of statistical information; you would need to write that message on paper. Poor listening skills can constitute a barrier also (Sussman, 1984).
• But as Ben Johnson, the English poet, has said, the ability to speak and the ability to speak well are two different things.
• We are social beings and such; we feel an intense need to express our thoughts, feelings and aspirations, doubts, questions, and fears. Equally intense is our need to be listened to. These needs - to express and to be listened to – are basic or innate in all of us.
• Speaking well is comparable to any skill in the sense that it can be developed and enhanced. All that you have to do is expose yourself to various speaking situations. Listen well and study how effective speakers express themselves.
• As much as 75% of the average person’s day is spent communicating.
• Those in technical jobs are estimated to spend between 50% and 90% of their work day engaged in communication process
• Communication is derived from the Latin word ‘communis,’which means, “Belonging to many” or “equally” and “communico” – to confer with others. It is the mutual exchange of information, ideas, and understanding by any effective means (Ballesterros, 2003).
• Communication is a process by which we assign and convey meaning in an attempt to create shared understanding.
• This process (communication) requires a vast repertoire of skills:

  o Intrapersonal and interpersonal processing

  o Listening

  o Observing

  o Speaking

  o Questioning

  o Analyzing

  o Evaluating
• It can be seen as processes of information transmission governed by three levels of semiotic rules:

  ↔ Syntactic

  ↔ Pragmatic

  ↔ Semantic
• It is therefore (communication) a social interaction where at least two interacting agents share a common set of signs and a common set of semiotic rules.
• The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines communication, as the act of passing news, information..., the act of sharing or exchanging thoughts, ideas, feelings with others or with a group; the act of participating with or sharing in common, the “we-belong-to-same-feeling” as in communication with... or the act of thinking about oneself.
• Communication refers to the process of human beings responding to the symbolic behavior of other persons (Adler and Rodman, 1997).
• COMMUNICATION IS HUMAN. The communication done by animals is relatively different from humans.
• COMMUNICATION IS A PROCESS. Communication is a continuous, ongoing process. It does not occur in isolation.
• COMMUNICATION IS SYMBOLIC. Symbols are used to represent things,

  processes, ideas, or events in ways that make communication possible. The most significant feature of symbols is their arbitrary nature. In addition to this, nonverbal communication can have symbolic meaning. As with words, some nonverbal behaviors, though arbitrary, have clearly agreed-upon meanings (Adler and Rodman, 1997).
• Written communication is most common form of communication being used in business.
• Appearance (speaker) - Clothing, hairstyle, neatness, use of cosmetics.
• Appearance (surrounding) – room size, lighting, decorations, furnishings.
• The Latin prefixes intra-means within or inside.
• Intrapersonal communication can be defined also as communication with one‘s self, and that may include self-talk, acts of imagination and visualization, and even recall and memory (McLean, 2005).
• Communications expert Leonard Shedletsky examined intrapersonal

  communication through the eight basic components of the communication process (i.e., source, receiver, message, channel, feedback, environment, context, and interference) as transactional, but all the interaction occurs within the individual (Shedletsky, 1989, as cited in McLean, 2015).
• DYADIC COMMUNICATION

  • Communication happens between two persons. Either way, the source become the receiver and vice versa because of the dynamic and spontaneous flow of discourse. One of the best examples of dyadic communication is between a patient and a doctor.
• SMALL GROUP COMMUNICATION

  ↔ This type of communication usually happen in an organizational communication and involves more than two individuals. In this form of communication, the information comes from the source down to the receiver and vice versa. There is a continuous sending and receiving of feedbacks.
• Physical Needs - Communication is so important that it is necessary for physical health. Evidence suggests that an absence of satisfying communication can even jeopardize life itself.
• Identity Needs - Communication does more than enable us to survive. It is the way – indeed, the only way – we learn who we are.
• Social Needs - Besides helping to define who we are, communication provides a vital link with others.
• Practical Needs - Communication is the tool to help us in our everyday tasks.
• The medium or channel is through which communicative intent is expressed.
• The typical communication modes include natural speech, facial expression and gesture while exceptional communication modes include the use of graphic symbols or synthetic speech.