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3. Effective Communication

Studies on the proportion of the information delivered have shown that improper

communication leads to 70% understanding, 50% accepted, 25% put into practice and 10%remembered over a longer period of time. Repetition can increase the level of information

back to 50-70%.

In oral communication, adults can keep their attention awake 40-50 minutes. What exceeds

this time without any break for energetic recovery affects to some extent the perception.

Measures to be taken for effective communication:

The message: should have a clear aim;

- the problems should be treated distinctly considering:- the topicwhat?

- the interactionwith whom?

- the receivers attitude how?

- the information should be logically and clearly expressed and exaggerated details

should be avoided.

The transmission: should be performed through channels adequate to the topic

- structure, layout etc. should be taken into account in written communication;- if the message is sent through intermediaries, these ones have to be very competent so

as not to break the flow of information

The reception: the sender should check the receivers understanding at times (by asking

certain questions or supervising the receivers actions as a consequence of the message

transmission).

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Barriers in Communication

The communication can be obstructed or only affected by a series of factors that interfere

between the senders intended meaning and the receivers perceived meaning. The

disturbance can be a result of any of the communication components (sender, receiver,channel, message) or their interaction.

a. Status differences: the high status of the sender can bring aboutmisunderstanding in the receivers perceiving the message (highly educated people speaking

with less educated ones)

b. Semantic effects: e.g. when the sender uses specialized languagethinking that the receiver is able to understand him

c. Perception faults = the receivers faults; when he is not open forcommunication, having a wrong image about his own level of understanding and not beingable to perceive the others properly

d. Cultural differences: people belonging to different cultures putdifferent meanings into the same message (especially to non-verbal signs)

e. Wrong choice for the communication channel: effectivecommunication depends also on the way and the moment chosen for delivering the

information

f. Channel length: the longer the channel, the more of the essentialinformation gets lost due to successively decoding and encoding the message

g. Physical disturbance: it occurs due to improper lighting,jamming, excessively high or low temperatures, phone calls etc.

h. The absence of feed-back: if the communication is non-reciprocal, the sender cannot properly check the level of the receivers understanding of the

message; this may lead to inefficient communication further on.

Rules of Communication

Communication obeys certain rules:

1. linguistic rules = rules related to language structures2. conversational rules: each participant in the conversation acts according to rules

suitable to the contextual situation

3. ritual rules = conventional set of rules specific to each culture (how to be polite, whatto do not to disturb the communication etc.)

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Models of Communication

- there are 3 model types:1. technical models2. psycho-sociological models3. linguistic models1. The technical models are inspired by the transmission systems in telecommunication

and are centered on encoding and quality reception.

2. The psycho-sociological models have contributed to the development of the other twomodel types and have introduced new elements.

3. The linguistic models:a) Jakobsons model

- it identifies 6 elements in human communication each having a distinct function:

- sender

- message (system of signals sent)

- common code (at least partially)

- receiver

- context

- contact (the physical connection between the interactants)

Later on Jakobson distinguishes a 7th

elementthe feedback and the receivers active

involvement in communication.

b) Hymes model

Hymes creates the SPEAKING model, whose initials stand for the 8 elements he

distinguishes as fundamental in communication:

- Ssetting: it refers to the moment and place of the exchange as well as to the context(according to the topic of communication)

- Pparticipants: including, beside the sender and the receiver, all the other peopleassisting and influencing the communication

- Eends: they refer to the objectives (aims, intentions) and the results ofcommunication- Aacts: referring to the message content and its form

- Kkeys: referring to the accent, the tonethey play an important role (e.g. irony:being used to transform a compliment into an insult)

- Iinstruments: they choose the suitable channel and form of speaking (a linguisticchannel can be used to speak, sing etc.) in order to use a code accessible to everyone

- Nnorms: they are: - interaction norms (the interactants take the floor in turns)- interpretation norms (being aware that a phrase like How are

you doing? is meant to initiate a conversation)

- Gthe genre that the message belongs to

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The Importance of the Feed-back in Communication

The term feed-back is borrowed from cybernetics and means recurrent information having the

role to control and adjust.

In the cybernetic communication model, the feed-back is communication aboutcommunication (=metacommunication, Bateson 1951), i.e. informing the sender about the

quality of transmission and the way the message has been perceived and understood.

The absence of feed-back (we formerly called it response) is characteristic of pure

information (non-reciprocal communication).

The feed-back is necessary for the sender to know to what extent his communication has been

efficient and what measures to take to make it more efficient. The senders concern for the

process of communication should include his/her being flexible and having the ability to

adjust his/he message according to the conditions of communication.

The feed-back enables the sender to draw conclusions on:

- the obstacles in communication- the receivers qualities and personality- the degree to which his/her message is appropriate

To this end, the sender should make sure to:

- construct his/her message efficiently- elicit responses- keep up good interpersonal relations.

Q: Is the feed-back only the senders concern?

TASK:

Comment on the following pieces of communication in terms of:

1. Who could be the interactants?2. Is the communication effective? Give reasons for your answer and state criteria of

evaluation (rules and barriers) you have used in giving the answer.

3. What is the feed-back the interlocutors get from one another?4. What could be done to improve the communication?

I.

A: Whatre you gonna teach today?

B: Pardon me?

A: I say what is it that youre gonna teach today?B: Oh, its ahthe art of conversation.

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II.

Child: I wanna get to the zoo now! Out of church! Now! To the zoo! Now!...

Mother: Sh!Child: But I want! I want! I want!Mother: Sh !

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4. DISCOURSE

Definition

There are 2 main definitions:

a) Discourse = language above the level of the sentence (Stubbs, 1983 and others)

- the analysis of discourse to find constituents that have certain relationships with oneanother and occur in a number of arrangements (sort of linguistic analysis at the levelof phonetics, morphology and syntax)

b) Discourse = language in use, for communication (Cook, 1989)

- the analysis of discourse cant be restricted to the description of linguistic formsindependent of the purposes/functions which they are designed to serve.

To make a better understanding of discourse, look at the following distinction between: (1)sentence linguistics and (2) discourse analysis

isolated sentences any stretch of lg. felt to be unified

grammatically well-formed achieving meaning

without context in context

invented or idealized observed (Cook, 1989:12)

What gives unity to a stretch of language?

Sentence, proposition and illocutionary act

Key terms:

- proposition = a statement that expresses a judgment or an opinion; assertion- illocutionary actperformed via the communicative force of an utterance, the

function that we have in mind when we produce an utterance. We might utter: Ive

just made some coffee to make a statement, an offer, an explanation etc.

Although we may consider usage by restricting our attention to sentences, the consideration

ofuse requires to go beyond the sentences and to look at larger stretches oflanguage. Normal

linguistic behaviour doesnt consist in the production of separate sentences but in the use of

sentences for the creation ofdiscourse.

When people produce a sentence in the course of normal communicative activity they

simultaneously do 2 things: - they express a proposition (i.e. express a judgment,

opinion)

- theyperform an illocutionary act(i.e. get some functions

involved for the sake of communication)

Cohesion and prepositional development

In effective communication, the interlocutors have to make sure to use such sentences or parts

of sentences as to ensure that each proposition fits in with the others. This is to use sentences

contextually appropriate.

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Contextually appropriate sentenceswhen they express propositions in such a way as to fit

into the prepositional development of the discourse as a whole.

If the interlocutors utterances are contextually appropriate, it means that their exchange is

cohesive.

Whereas:

e.g. A: What did the rain do?

B: The crops were destroyed by the rain.

- no cohesion because B didnt actually answer As question, as what is known/givencomes first in the sentence, so destroyed the crops should have stayed second.

So:

Cohesion = the way sentences and parts of sentences combine so as to ensure that there is

prepositional development.

Sentences used communicatively in discourse express propositions that take on value only in

relation to other propositions expressed through sentences.

If we can recognize this relationship and so are able to associate sentences or sentence-parts,

with an appropriate value, then we recognize a sequence of sentences or sentence-parts as

constituting cohesive discourse.

The difficulty we have in recovering prepositional development is a measure of the degree of

cohesion exhibited by a particular discourse.

The difficulty might arise because the form of a sentence represents an inappropriate

arrangement of information in respect to what has preceded: the work we have to do in

making the necessary readjustment disturbs the prepositional development, and so brings

about ineffective communication.

Also, the unnecessary repetition of what is already known/given may reduce communicative

effectiveness because the important / new information may become over-shadowed by the

given/known information.

Task 1:

Compare:

1 2

A: What happened to the crops? A: What happened to the crops?

B: The crops were destroyed by the rain. B: The crops were destroyed by the rain.

A: When were the crops destroyed by the rain? A: When?

B: The crops were destroyed by the rain B: Last week.

last week.

In 2 redundancies were reduced, so the prepositional development is carried forward. Thus, 2

- cohesive; 1not cohesive

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Coherence and illocutionary development

The description of discourse involves partly accounting for the way propositions combine to

form an ongoing development; but it also involves accounting for the illocutionary acts thesepropositions are used to perform, and how they are related to each other.

e.g.

1. A: What are the police doing?B: They are arresting the demonstrators.

They cohesive link, a prepositional link, refers to police

So, the discourse is cohesive.

But:

2. A: What are the police doing?B: I have just arrived.

There is no connection between the 2 sentences. Still, Bs answer can be imagined to

be appropriate ifwe consider the illocutionary acts that the propositions are being

used to perform: we create a situation in our minds which will provide us an

illocutionary link between the 2 sentences.E.g.: B isnt able to answer As question because he has just arrived.

So, we can supply the missing prepositional link as follows:

A: What are the police doing?

B: (I dont know what the police are doing because) I have just arrived.

Conclusion: When we can establish a prepositional relationship (using, for instance, formal

links) between sentences, without regard of what illocutionary acts are being performed, by

reference to formal syntactic and semantic signals, then we recognize COHESION.

Cohesion = the overt relationship between propositions expressed through sentences.

While:

When we recognize a relationship between the illocutionary acts which propositions are being

used to perform, then we perceive the COHERENCE of a discourse.

E.g. 1)cohesive and coherent

E.g. 2)coherent, but not cohesive

Task 2:

Is the following example cohesive or coherent or both?

e.g.: A: Thats the telephone.

B: Im in the bath.

A: O.K.

Concl.:

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COHERENCE of a text refers to the perceived continuity of meaning for which contextual

factors were taken into account

(factors outside lg.)

[There are 2 ways of looking at language: - contextual

- formal ]

COHESION refers to facts inside lg. and is achieved through the formal links that give a

sense of unity beyond the sentence.

Cohesion and coherence are distinct from each other but share one crucial characteristic

they both have the function to bind the text together by creating sequences of meaning. But

the manner in which they do this and the nature of the meaning involved is different:

Cohesion consists of the mutual connection of components of SURFACE TEXT within a

sequence of sentences; = a lexico-semantic connection

Coherence, in contrast, consists of the configuration and sequencing of the CONCEPTS and

RELATIONS of the TEXTUAL WORLD which are realized by the surface text (actor,process, goal, circumstances, etc. (R. Bell)

E.g. I had a cup of coffee. I got up. I woke up. +cohesion; -coherence

Conclusion: (Canale 1983) Discourse competence is concerned with cohesion and coherence

in the structure of text, i.e. it includes knowledge about the organization of different speech

events and the interpretive rules for relating form to function.

Formal links (cohesive devices)

1. Conjunctions and adverbials:- additive: and, or, in addition- adversative: but, however- causal: so, consequently- temporal: then, finally2. Referring expressions (mainly pronouns): he, she, it, they, this, here

-

they refer to smth. that has been said or will be said:a) anaphoric relations (look back in the text for interpretation)e.g. Billy is my brother. He is 8.

b) cataphoric relations (look forward in the text)- favourite opening device for novel writers

3. Parallelismsuggests a connection simply because the form of one sentence repeats the

form of another

- often used in prayers, speeches, poetry, ads, etc. (emotional involvement)e.g. Teach us, Good Lord, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the

wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labour and to ask for no reward, (St.Richards Prayer)

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- repeated grammatical structure: toX and not to Y the/for Z1. Substitution (partial ellipsis)e.g. A: Do you have a match?

B: Yes, I do. (= have)

5. Ellipsis (full ellipsis):

e.g. A: What is she doing?

B: Cleaning her room.

6. Repetitions and lexical chains

a) Repetitionsinstead of referring expressions- repetitions of the same word: - for the purpose of clarification

- elegant repetitionsusing different words to refer to the same item

e.g. The pineapple the luscious fruit or meal the tropical luxury)

b) Lexical chains (chains of reference) = connected wordsrunning through discourse, not having the same meaning

necessarily:

e.g. school - teachertextbooklearning

7. The verb formThe tense of the first verb in the text determines the use of the following ones.

Tasks

1. Provide repetitions for the word: fame

2. Provide lexical chains for the words: city-life, concert

3. Find cohesive devices in the following discourses:

A. In every argument with her mother, Susan had in point of reason the advantage, and never

was there any maternal tenderness to buy her off. The blind fondness which was for ever

producing evil around her she had never known. (from J. Austen:Mansfield Park)

B. So how long have you been in Chicago, you two?

October we came.

And your husbands a teacher?

He teaches English at the university. He also writes.

What? Books, article, plays?Hes writing a novel now. Hes still only a young man.

And you what about yourself?

I dont write, she said firmly. [] I dont do anything.

(from Philip Roth: Very Happy Poems)

C. [] I dont do that kind of work for nothing, the artist said.How much? Parker asked.

Itll take maybe two days work.

How much? Parker said.

On time or cash? the artist asked. []

Ten down and ten for every day it takes, the artist said. (from Flannery OConnor:Parkers Back)