Communication

CHAPTER 1DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION

INTRODUCTIONOur behaviour has, seemingly, communication potential. All we do can communicate something about us.

THEME PRESENTATIONCommunication is a vital ingredient in all domains of human life and activity. In a rough classification, one can observe standard, business or intercultural communication and the series of particularities that can be identified for each.

1.1 DEFINITION

In order to understanding communication we have to first clarify its mechanisms. It all starts with the fact that people need social contact and thus they come to long for the exchange of messages. This is done through certain specialised or adapted human behaviour, such as: talk, smile, frown, walk, wave, shake head, other gestures. Still, these actions will come to represent messages only if they are observed by the other and, at the same time, they elicit meaning for the other, more precisely the same meaning (as the one intended by the performer).

1.1.1. THE COMPLETE COMMUNICATION

When someone observes our behaviour and attributes a meaning to it, communication has taken place, regardless of whether that behaviour was conscious or unconscious, intentional or unintentional. “We cannot not communicate” (to be, to simply exist, is a ‘behaviour’, too). What is important is to understand communication as intended (the conscious intention). As a general concept, communication is a process that allows organisms to exchange information by several methods. Considering the participants, the action occurring, the object and the objective of the action, a more complete definition can be produced. The participants are the people involved in an interaction. The activity producing communication is the transmission of a message, the object. The purpose is the transfer of some knowledge between the persons engaged in the process.

Communication can be defined as the process of meaningful interaction among human beings. It is the act of passing information and the process by which meanings are exchanged so as to produce understanding.

Moreover, communication can only be considered complete if the intended receiver perceives the message, attributes meaning to it (decodes it) and is somehow affected by it.

A complete communication is a two-way, on-going, behaviour-affecting process in which one person (a source) intentionally encodes and transmits a message through a channel to an intended audience (receivers) in order to induce a particular attitude or behaviour.

1.1.2. THE INGREDIENTS OF COMMUNICATION

Communication consists of several elements giving its characteristic features. Thus, we may identify as ingredients of communication, the following: Source, Encoding, Message, Channel, Receiver, Decoding, Receiver’s response, Feedback.Other characteristics that identify communication are: Dynamic, Interactive nature (Intrapersonal, Interpersonal), Irreversible, Physical and social context.The process of communication can be noticed in figure 1.

Figure 1. Communication process

On the way from the speaker to the listener, the message has to go through and may be distorted by various filters, be these the sender’s or the receiver’s. The filters are represented by:

• semantics• emotions • attitudes • role expectation• gender bias• nonverbal messages

1.2 CLASSIFICATION

Communication in English can be studied following three major aspects that the language itself, on one hand, and the particularities of the field of business, on the other hand, suppose. In a didactic approach of assessing the spheres of communication of interest for the business fields, we can identify the occurrence of three large areas that are

related and strongly interact: standard, business and intercultural communication, as represented in figure 2.

Figure 2. Business approach of the classification of communication

The interdependence that provides the reason of their inseparability is understandable if we think that, obviously, one cannot approach the domain of business communication, let alone that of intercultural communication, without having first assimilated the general structures of the language, as well as the conversational elements of lexis, the basis of Standard English communication.

Much in the same way, the general knowledge might prove almost useless in the business field without a proper awareness of the specific vocabulary of Business English or of the peculiarities that might occur in the communicational behaviour of their collocutors as traces of their environment, of their cultural background.

1.2.1. STANDARD ENGLISH COMMUNICATION

The specific language of communication implied by the general English will include grammatical structures, elements of vocabulary and idiomatic expressions useful for:

greeting introducing oneself / somebody inviting / suggesting / advising accepting / refusing expressing opinions / preferences giving directions / orders specifying facts / locations / attitudes.

1.2.2. BUSINESS ENGLISH COMMUNICATION

In Business English the specificity consists in the fact that, besides mastering the skills of general communication, the collocutors are supposed to deal with and make use of specific lexical elements, managing vocabulary regarding activities or concerns such as:

telephoning e-mailing, writing business letters making presentations negotiating debating in / conducting meetings winning cooperation / trust dealing with subordinates / peers / the higher-ranked

1.2.3. INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

When the cross-culture communication is implied, the concern is at the same time placed on the elements of standard and business communication and on the background particularities (national/ geographic culture, social environment, ethnic/ racial/ group behaviour). The approach will comprise categories regarding:

Perception Belief, value, attitude systems World view Social organization

Verbal processes Patterns of thoughts

Nonverbal processes Behaviour Concept of time and space

Summary: Communication is a process of meaningful interaction among human beings. In what the business field is concerned, three large spheres of communication can be identified and discussed: standard, business and intercultural communication, each comprising specific elements.

Self evaluation :

1. Define communication.2. What areas of communication can you identify as concerning the field of business?3. Explain the interrelation of the spheres of communication.4. Enumerate 4 special activities requiring business communication skills.