COMMUNICATION

- is understood as the process of meaning-making 7. Context

through a channel or a medium - involves the expectations, of the sender and the
- comes from the Latin communicares, meaning to receiver and the common or shared understanding
share or to make ideas common. through the environmental signals,
- The connection that encompasses interaction among 8. Interference
partakers is at the center of our learning of - Interference is also known as barrier or block that
communication. prevents effective communication to take place.

THE COMPONENTS OF THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS KINDS OF INTERFERENCE

1. Source/ Sender/ Encoder a. Psychological barriers – are thoughts that hamper the
- The sender carefully crafts the message. message to be interpreted correctly by the receiver –
- May be anyone: an author of a book, a public speaker prejudice
in a special occasion or even a traffic enforcer. b. Physical barriers – include competing stimulus, weather
2. Message and climate, health and ignorance of the medium.
- The message is the reason behind any interaction. c. Linguistic and Cultural barriers – pertain to the
- It is the meaning shared between the sender and the Language and its (cultural environment. Words may mean
receiver. another in different cultures.
- Messages take many forms. They could mean poems, d. Mechanical barriers – are those raised by the channels
songs, essays, news articles, road signs and even employed for inter-personal, group or mass
symbols. communication. These include cell phones, laptops and
3. Channel/Medium other gadgets used in communication.
- The channel is the means by which a message is e. Process barrier – from the other elements
conveyed. When we answer a phone call, the phone is f. Semantic barrier
the channel.
- On the other hand, when your parents receive a THE NINE PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
notification of your absences from school, the channel Michael Osborn (2009) claims that communication must meet
is a letter. certain standards for effective communication to take place.
- It is the responsibility of both the sender and the 1. Clarity
receiver to choose the best channel for the interaction. - makes speeches understandable.
4. Receiver/Decoder - Fuzzy language is absolutely forbidden, as are
- The receiver is the person who receives the jargons, cliché expressions, euphemisms and
transmitted message. doublespeak language.
- The receiver may be a part of an audience in a public 2. Concreteness
speaking event, a reader of a letter or a driver who - reduces misunderstandings.
reads road signs. - Messages must be supported by facts such as
- The receiver is expected to listen or read carefully, to research data, statistics or figures. To achieve
be aware of different kinds of sender to jot down concreteness, abstract words must be avoided.
information when needed, to provide response and to 3. Courtesy
ask questions for clarification. - builds goodwill It involves being polite in terms of
5. Feedback approach and manner of addressing an individual.
- In any communication scenario, a feedback is 4. Correctness
essential to confirm recipient understanding. - Glaring mistakes in grammar obscures the meaning of
- Feedbacks, like messages, are expressed in varied a sentence
forms. A simple nod for a question of verification is - the misuse of language can damage your credibility.
considered a feedback. 5. Consideration
- Feedbacks may be written, spoken or acted out. - Messages must be geared towards the audience.
6. Environment - The sender of a message must consider the recipient's
- The place, the feeling, the mood, the mindset and the profession, level of education, race, ethnicity, hobbies,
condition of both sender and receiver interests, passions, advocates and age when drafting
- The environment may involve the physical set-up of a or delivering a message.
location where communication takes place, the space 6. Creativity
occupied by both the sender and the receiver, - Creativity in communication means having the ability to
including the objects surrounding the sender and craft Interesting messages in terms of sentence
receiver. structure and word choice.
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7. Conciseness 2. Lack of knowledge of others' culture
- Simplicity and directness help you to be concise. 3. Discrimination and harassment
- Avoid using lengthy expressions and words that may 4. Language differences
confuse the recipient. The goal of effective global communication is to achieve
8. Cultural Sensitivity communication that gets the desired response leading to
- with the increasing emphasis on empowering diverse harmonious connections. Krizan (2014) suggests these
cultures. lifestyles, and races and the pursuit for strategies to become an effective global communicator:
gender equality, cultural sensitivity becomes an 1. Review communication principles
important standard for effective communication. 2. Analyze the message receiver.
9. Captivating 3. Be open to an accepting of other cultures.
- You must strive to make messages interesting to 4. Learn about cultures and apply what is learned.
command more attention and better responses 5. Consider language needs.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN COMMUNICATION Living in a globalized world, you encounter people with diverse
Ethics – is a branch of philosophy that focuses on issues of cultural backgrounds. Such interactions occur in social,
right and wrong in human affairs. educational, political and commerce settings. Hence, in today's
era of increased global communication, it is imperative to
Ethical Communicators: understand intercultural communication for us to enhance our
1. Respect audience intercultural awareness and competence. Intercultural
2. Consider the result of communication competence is essential for us to live harmoniously despite
3. Value truth. differences in culture.
4. Use information correctly.
5. Do not falsify information Intercultural communication – refers to interaction with
people from diverse cultuřes (Jandt, 1998).
GLOBALIZATION
- is the communication and assimilation among Forms of Intercultural Communication (Jandt, 1998)
individuals, ethnicities, races, institutions, governments 1. Interracial communication – communicating with
of various nations supported by technology and people from different races
compelled by international trade. Interethnic communication – interacting with people
- Due to globalization, the more you become exposed to of different ethnic origins
diversity – the valuing of the uniqueness or differences 2. International communication – communicating
in gender preference, color, age, religious affiliation, between representatives from different nations
ethnicity, education, social and economic status and 3. Intracultural communication – interacting with
political beliefs. members of the same racial or ethnic group or co-
- Globalization is not a new process or concept. Years culture
before the advent of technology, people had been
purchasing and selling each other properties, goods According to Gamble and Gamble (2008), communication style
and other objects of certain value. among cultures differs; it may be high-context or low-context
communication.
Communication  High-context communication – is a tradition-linked
- has since been increasingly global, blurring national communication system which adheres strongly to being
boundaries. indirect.
- The ability to communicate effectively in a global  Low-context communication – is a system that works on
setting can be a challenge. straightforward communication.
- To effectively communicate in a global context, a
general understanding of the differences in conducting IMPROVING INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
communication from one country to another or from COMPETENCE
one culture to another helps avoid miscommunication. The following guidelines may help you enhance your ability to
- People's background and experiences influence their communicate effectively across cultures (Gamble & Gamble,
view of the world and the values, beliefs and behavior 2008).
patterns assumed to be good. The following are 1. Recognize the validity and differences of
possible cultural barriers to effective communication communication styles among people.
in a global environment: 2. Learn to eliminate personal biases and prejudices.
1. Cultural relativism

Purposive Communication | 2
 3. Strive to acquire communication skills necessary in a participants need to communicate with people not sharing their
multicultural world. local ways of using language. They are as follows:

The spoken mode is often associated with everyday registers 5. Global Everyday written avoids local colloquialisms to
while the written mode is strongly associated with academic make the text accessible to wider communities of readers.
registers. However, this is not always true. For instance, in This can be found in international editions of newspapers
everyday communication, face-to-face conversations are and magazines.
usually supplemented by text messaging. In academic contexts,
significant forms of oral communication are used along with 6. Global everyday oral
written communication. Significantly, both everyday and - may occur in interactions between people coming from
academic communications are characterized by multi-modality different parts of the world when they talk about
or the use of multiple modes of communication, including everyday casual topics.
spoken, written modes and images, music, videos, gestures, 7. Global/specialized written
etc. - expands to as many readers internationally, hence the
non-usage of local colloquial expressions (e.g.
A. Varieties of Spoken and Written Language international research journal articles)
Lin (2016) presents the following nature of language variation 8. Global specialized oral
as prescribed by most linguists based on the ideas of Mahboob - occurs when people from different parts of the world
(2014). discuss specialized topics in spoken form (e.g. paper
1. Language varies when communicating with people presentations sessions in an international academic
within (local) and outside (global) our community conference).
2. Language varies in speaking and in writing.
3. Language varies in everyday and specialized
discourses.

Mahboob (2014) identifies eight different domains in which

language varies depending on the combinations of different
values on the three dimensions (field, tenor and mode) of the
context of communication.

The first four domains include language variations that reflect

local usage done in one local language or multiple local
languages depending on the context. They vary in the following
ways:
1. Local everyday (written)
- This may include instances of local everyday written
usage found in the neighborhood posters (e.g. a poster
looking for transients/bed spacers).
2. Local everyday oral
- may occur in local communication among neighbors in
everyday, informal and local varieties of languages.
3. Local specialized written
- An example of local specialized written usage can be
found in the publications and web sites of local
societies such as the Baguio Midland Courier.
4. Local specialized oral
- involves specialized discourses. For example, in a
computer shop in the neighborhood, specialized local
usage can be found (e.g. specialized computer game-
related vocabulary is used).

On the other hand, the other four domains involve global usage.
These four domains of language usage differ from the first four
domains since they refer to contexts of language usage where

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