ORAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS

LECTURE 2

Information exchange between living organisms

• Communication is not limited to humans or primates.

• Every information-exchange between living organisms — i.e. transmission of signals involving a living sender and receiver — can be considered as a form of communication.

• There is the broad field of animal communication

- cell signalling

- cellular communication

- chemical communication between primitive organisms, like bacteria, within the plant and fungal kingdoms

All of these communication processes are sign-mediated interactions with a great variety of distinct coordinations.

Animal communication

• Any behaviour on the part of one animal has an effect on the current or future behaviour of another animal.

• The study of animal communication is called zoo-semiotics (distinguishable from anthropo-semiotics, the study of human communication)

• rapidly growing field

Plant communication

• (a) within the plant organism, i.e. within plant cells and between plant cells,

• (b) between plants of the same or related species and

• (c) between plants and non-plant organisms, especially in the rootzone.

• Plant roots communicate in parallel with fungi and with insects in the soil.

Bacteria communication

• between different species of bacteria and between bacteria and non bacterial life

• There are three classes of signalling molecules for different purposes:

- signalling within the organism to coordinate gene expressions

- to generate adequate response behaviour

- signalling between same or related and different species.

Fungal communication

• coordinate and organize their own growth and development

• fungi communicate with same and related species as well as with nonfungal organisms in a great variety of symbiotic interactions

Language

• a syntactically organized system of signals, such as

- voice sounds,

- intonations or pitch,

- gestures or

- written symbols which communicate thoughts or feelings

• Animals do not have a written form of a language, but use a language to communicate with each another.

In that sense, an animal communication can be considered as a separated language.

• Human spoken and written languages can be described as a system of symbols (sometimes known as lexemes)

and the grammar by which the symbols are manipulated.

The word "language" is also used to refer to common properties of languages.

• Language learning is normal in human childhood.

• Most human languages use patterns of sound or

gesture for symbols which enable communication with others around them.

There are thousands of human languages, and these seem to share certain properties,

even though many shared properties have exceptions.

Media

• The beginning of human communication through artificial channels, (i.e. not vocalization or gestures),

goes back to ancient cave painting, drawn maps, and writing.

• Historians have folded civilization into "ages" according to the medium most widely used.

• A book titled "Five Epochs of Civilization" by William McGaughey (Thistlerose, 2000) divides history into the following stages:

- ideographic writing produced the first civilization;

- alphabetic writing, the second;

- printing, the third;

- electronic recording and broadcasting, the fourth;

- computer communication, the fifth.

• The media affects what people think about themselves and how they perceive people as well. What we think about self image and what others should look like comes from the media.

• Digital and computer communication shows concrete evidence of changing the way humans organize.

• The latest trend in communication, termed smartmobbing,

• involves ad-hoc organization through mobile devices,

• allowing for effective many-to-many communication and social networking.

Electronic media

• In the last century, a revolution in telecommunications has greatly altered communication by providing new media for long distance communication.

The first transatlantic two-way radio broadcast occurred in 1906 and led to common communication via analogue and digital media:

• Analog telecommunications include traditional telephone, radio and TV broadcasts.

• Digital telecommunications allow for computer-mediated communication, telegraphy and computer networks.

• Modern communication media now

allow for intense long-distance exchanges between larger numbers of people

• (many-to-many communication via e-mail. Internet forums).

On the other hand, many traditional broadcast media and mass media favour one-to-many communication (television, cinema, radio, newspaper, magazines).

Metacommunication

• the process of communicating about communication,

e.g. to discuss a past conversation and to determine the meanings behind certain words, phrases, etc…

• It can be used as a tool for sense making, or

for better understanding events, places, people, relationships, etc..

The ability to communicate on the meta-level requires introspection and, more specifically what is called metacommunicative competence.

Sources

• Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin 117, 497-529.

• Severin, Werner J., Tankard, James W., Jr., (1979). Communication Theories: Origins, Methods, Uses. New York: Hastings House