MODULE 1

Lesson 1

1. Overview
2. The nature of Language
3. Characteristics: Elements & Function of Language
4. Communication Principles & Ethics towards effective Communication
5. Verbal language in communication
6. Nonverbal language in communication

Overview

In this module you will have a background about language and its significance in
communication. Some basic information that you need to be an effective communicator such as
the principles and ethics of communication as well as the rules about the written language
registers.

Study Guide

To carefully understand this module, you are instructed to read thoroughly this module and the
suggested readings to understand and be enlightened more of the discussion. An activity and
assessment are provided at the end of this module to assess your learning.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the lesson, you are expected to:

● Demonstrate an understanding of the key ideas in language and communication.

● Enumerate and discuss the characteristics, elements and function of language.
● Conceptualize the significance of effective communication.
 ● Identity and explain the various forms of noise in communication. Identity and explain the
principles of communication.
● Internalize the real essence of the ethical standards of communication.
● Know the various ways of becoming an effective communicator

Topic Presentation

Language

Modern Linguistics, summarized by Carroll (1973:289) teaches that a language is a

structured system of arbitrary vocal sounds and sequences of sounds which are used in
interpersonal communication and which rather exhaustively catalogues the things, events and
processes of human experiences.

“From the social scientist point of view, language is an open system interacting with,
changed by, and changing its environment as part of culture. The humanness of language and its
place in human society is one of the most necessary and complex of all social skills.

The transformationalists spear headed by Chomsky view language as a system which

relates meaning to substance. Language is a mental phenomenon. It is innate. Man has the
genetically imparted ability for language learning.

Language is a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of

conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures or marks having understood meanings. (Websters New
International Dictionary of the English Language 1961:1270)

Here are the important points worth considering in relation to the various definitions of language:

1. Language is used for communication.

2. Language is essentially human, although possibly not limited to humans.
3. Language is a set of arbitrary symbols.
4. Those symbols are primarily vocal, but may also be visual.
5. The symbols have conventionalized meaning to which they refer.
6. Language is systematic and generative.
7. Language operates in a speech community or culture.
Characteristics: Elements and Functions of Language

Language gives man, in addition to his biological heredity, another line of continuity which
makes culture and the accumulation of knowledge possible. The use of simple tools and the
occurrence of socially determined behaviour- which used to be cited as marks of humanity- are
phylogenitically prior to man, but the great complexity of human social organization and the
extensive development of technology do presuppose language.

An important characteristic of language is recursion. This means sentences may be

produced with other sentences inside them. This may be done, for example, by a process known
as relativization (the use of relative clauses).

Also, language is arbitrary. The relation between a word and its meaning is a matter of
convention: the animal called dog in English is called perro in Spanish, anjing in Bahasa Malaysia
and aso in Filipino. That is, there is no necessary connection between the sounds people use and
the objects to which these sounds refer. Words have the meaning they do have and occur in the
order they do, just because the native speakers of the language agree to accept them as such.

Another feature of human languages is that it is productive or creative. This refers to the
ability of the native speakers to understand and produce any number of sentences in their mother
tongue.

Language is a social phenomenon. It is a means of communication between individuals.

It also brings them into relationship with their environment. Language is therefore a socially
learned behavior, a skill that is required as we grow up in society.

Last but not the least, all languages are equally complex. Each language is part of the
culture that produces it and is adequate for the needs of the people who use it. Any language
therefore is as good as any other in that it serves the purposes of the particular culture. Words
may be created or borrowed as the need arises. No language is intrinsically better or worse than
any other.
After going through the features of language, I hope you are now ready for another related topic
very much needed by language teachers – the elements of language.

Language has four elements:

1. Phonology – the study of sounds

2. Lexis/Lexicon – the study of words and their meanings
3. Grammar – subdivided into 3 essential components:
3.1 Morphology – refers to word formation
3.2 Syntax – refers to the arrangement of words in a sentence
3.3 Semantics – refers to meaning

4. Cultural load – refers to the cultural component of a particular utterance, sentence or

discourse in a language

In relation to phonology, you should remember the term phoneme. It is the smallest unit
of sound that makes a difference in meaning in a language. In linguistics, we have two kinds of
phonemes-segmental and suprasegmental. For the segmental phonemes, we have the vowels,
consonants, consonant clusters and
diphthongs.
In addition to finding thee consonant and vowel segments, the linguist must also identify
the suprasegmental phonemes, in a language system. They include things like pitch, stress,
intonation and juncture.
A phoneme is to phonology as a morpheme is to morphology. What then is a morpheme?
It can be defined as the smallest meaningful units of language. There are two classes of
morphemes. A free morpheme is one which can meaningfully occur alone, e.g. book, pencil, love,
give, happy. There are also morphemes that must always occur with a base, e. g. the “plural”
morpheme in books cannot occur alone as s but in the word “books” where s express plurality.
Such morphemes are called bound morphemes.
Important Terms to remember

When people use language, they can understand each other because they belong to the
same speech community. They can understand each other because in their speech community,
people share the same set of rules in the language system. While growing up, people acquire the
languages used by those in the community. This is the process of language acquisition. The
languages acquired while growing up are known as mother tongues, which may also be referred
to as a first languages. People discover later on that other languages are needed for various
reasons. These other languages may be referred to as second languages. People learn these
languages by studying formally in school or informally on their own. This is the process of
language learning.

What happen if you, for example, who speak a mother tongue and English, go to work in
China where the residents speak Putonghua (Mandarin) and a little bit of English? Will you be
able to communicate with the Chinese? The answer is yes. Though it will be a challenge for you
and your Chinese friends to try to understand each other, eventually you will be able to
communicate as you slowly learn each other's languages. What is happening here is called
language contact. The result of such contact may be a new form of language. It is possible that
in your attempt to communicate with each other, you and your Chinese friend will produce a new
language form that is understandable to both of you. Your own languages may also change as
you constantly interact and communicate with each other. Thus, language change is the result
of language contact.

Language is indeed a complex human capacity. It is, therefore, important to be aware of

its features and behavior to be able to use language more effectively and productively in
communicating with others.

WHAT IS COMMUNICATION?

You interconnect every day, and if you are like most people, you take the process of
communication for granted. However, to communicate more accurately, you need to internalize
how the communication process works. Communication is both an art and a science.
 It often encompasses acts of speaking and listening, reading and writing, but it also goes
beyond these and incorporates the transmission of non-verbal language, sign language, codes
transmitted electronically (e.g., Morse code), and physically (touch; hormones; muscles, tendons,
nerves), and messages communicated through music and by other means. The act of
communicating verbally obliges to convey how we feel and how we think to others. It is also the
basis of how we communicate with others, using language as its channel.

Effective communication may involve the transfer of morals, principles ad judgments from
one person to another. To transfer a spoken message, it is obvious that speakers and listeners
are involved, with technique used for speedy dissemination of information. Speakers utilize verbal
and body language to convey messages, looking towards listeners. Listeners reply by looking
towards speakers, with words and movements and attention to timing and turn taking.

The Communication Process

The communication process is relatively simple and is divided into three basis
components: a sender, a channel and a receiver. The sender will initiate the communication
process by developing an idea into a message. This is also known as encoding. The sender will
then convey the message through a channel or medium, or scheme of delivery; think of things
like email, telephone conversations, direct messages, personal discussion or even a text
message. The message then is interchanges through the channel to the receiver, who finalizes
the communication process by interpreting and assigning meaning to the message, which is also
known as decoding.

Since most communication exchanges involve a continued discourse between senders

and receivers, feedback is supplemented to the communication process. Feedback is a critical
component in the communication process because it ensures that the message is properly
established and interpreted by the other party concerned.

Nowadays, communication process starts to get complicated. There are many reasons why a
message flops to create a collective comprehension or meaning, one of which is noise. Noise is
defined as any interference/hindrance that causes a disturbance between the sender and receiver
in the communication process.
 Noise can be categorized as follows:

1. Psychological noise- refers to things that are going on in your head as you engage in
the communication process. It can be any personal opinions, typecasts or standpoints that
get in the way of you accepting what the sender is saying.
2. Physical noise- pertains to the physical sounds that make it difficult to hear someone's
message such as the uncontrolled sounds of an air-conditioning unit, sounds of the
moving vehicles, etc.
3. Physiological noise- refers to things like hunger, fatigue, headache, stress or really
anything that prevents you from giving your full attention to someone sharing his thoughts.
4. Semantic noise- occurs when the communicator finds a hard time to sympathetically
understand the words, language, dialects, vernaculars and or even grammatical structure
of a message.
5. Factual noise- form of interference caused by efforts to recall small details and in the
process, missing and omitting the main points of the information shared during the
discussion.
Principles of Communication

Communicating helps people from various cultures to feel better about themselves and
about their world. Even a simple greeting they receive from people around them gives them
immeasurable pleasure and makes them feel like they are part of the mobile and ever challenging
world. Communication stimulates social interconnection and closeness. Communication is a two-
way process of openhandedly giving and receiving pieces of information through a number of
channels. Whether a person speaks offhandedly to another person, conducting lecture to a
conference or meeting, writing an article or preparing an official report, the following basic
principles are deemed necessary to consider:

1. Know your target audience.

2. Know the purpose of your engagement in communication;
3. Know your topic very well;
4. Anticipate objections from your listeners.
5. Present your viewpoints to your listeners well;
6. Achieve credibility with your audience;
7. Follow through on what you say;
 8. Communicate a little at a time;
9. Present pieces of information in various ways;
10. Develop a real and useful ways to get feedback from the receivers;
11. Utilize varied or multiple communication techniques.

Ethical standards of Communication

Communication ethics refers to an idea that the person's or group’s behavior is governed
by their principles and norms which in turn affects communication. At the onset, communication
ethics pertains to the moral good present in any form of social communication. This embraces
interpersonal communication; mass media mediated communication, and digital communication
and the like. Communication ethics concerns not only the individual, but is of great concern to
business, corporations and professional entities. A business with unethical communication
practices is not as effective as one with ethical communication practices. According to Laserna
(2012), to purposely comprehend the communication ethics, the following principles of ethical
communication should be stressed:

1. Advocate truthfulness, accuracy, honesty and reason as essential to the integrity of

communication;
2. Endorse freedom of expression, diversity of perspective, and tolerance of decency to
achieving the informed and responsible decision making fundamental to a civil society;
3. Strive to understand and respect other communicators before evaluating and responding
to their messages;
4. Promote access to communication resources and opportunities as needed to fulfill human
potentials and contribute to the well-being of families, communities and society;
5. Promote communication climates of caring and mutual understanding that respect the
unique needs and characteristics of individual communicator;
6. Condemn communication that degrades individuals and humanity through distortion,
intimidation, coercion and violence an through expression of intolerance and hatred;
7. Being committed to the courageous expression of personal conviction in pursuit of fairness
and justice;
8. Advocate sharing information, opinions and feelings when facing significant choices while
also respecting privacy and confidentiality; and
9. Accept responsibility for short- and long-term consequences for our own communication
and expect the same of others.
Guidelines for Effective Communication

For the speaker to communicate well with his listeners, the following guidelines in communication
should be thought of:

● Identity and explain the principles of communication

● Internalize the real essence of the ethical standards of communication.
● Know the various ways of becoming an effective communicator.
● Follow the basic guidelines for effective communicating.

Depending on what is being considered, communication as a term takes on different

contexts resulting in people having different views on communication types. Since communication
is generally defined as exchange of thoughts, ideas, concepts and views between or among two
or more people, various contexts come into play. Context is the circumstance or environment in
which communication takes place. Such circumstances may include the physical or actual setting,
the value positions of a speaker /listener, and the relevance or appropriateness of a message
conveyed. It focuses on certain communication processes and even groupings of people that
constitute a communication situation. We have two types of Communication: the verbal and non-
verbal.

Additional Readings:

https://www.elcomblus.com/the-8-functions-of-communication/

References

Africa, A. (2018). Purposive Communication in the NOW. Mandaluyong City: Books Atbp.
Publishing Corp.

Bermudo, P. et al. (2018). Purposive Communication. Muntinlupa City: Panday-Lahi Publishing

House, Inc.

Orillos, L. (1998). Language Acquisition, Theories, Principles and Research. UP Diliman Quezon
City