Communication

Competence
 After defining communication and discussing
communication process, you probably know that to be
competent at something means you know what you’re
doing. When we combine these terms, we get the
following term—communication competence. .
 Communication competence is “the knowledge
of effective and appropriate communication patterns
and the ability to use and adapt that knowledge in
various contexts.” Cooley and Roach (1985).

To better understand this definition, the following

components are discussed:

✓ Knowledge
✓ Ability to Use
✓ Ability to Adapt to Various Contexts
1. Knowledge.

The cognitive elements of competence include

knowing how to do something and understanding why
things are done the way they are.

According to Hargie (2011), “people can develop

cognitive competence by observing and evaluating the
actions of others and can also be developed through
instruction.”
2. Ability to Use.
Cooley and Roach (1985) believed that
individual factors affect our ability to do anything. Not
everyone has the same ability because everyone has
different physiological and psychological abilities that
can affect their competence.
 include age, maturity, and ability
to communicate and they affect competence.

include a person’s mood, stress

level, personality, and level of communication
apprehension. When you apply your knowledge in
communicating, your individual abilities can either
help or hinder your competence.
3. Ability to Adapt to Various Contexts.
Context refers to the setting in which
communication takes place.

According to Cooley and Roach (1984) “What is

competent or not varies based on social and cultural
contexts, which make it impossible to have only one
standard for what counts as communication
competence.” A social variable refers to a set of
characteristics of people such as status and power.
 On the other hand, cultural variables are
differences in behavior, outlook and values between a
group of people from varied societies such as race
and nationality.

In other words, although we have a clear

definition of communication competence, we have no
exact definitions how to be competent in a particular
situation because competence varies at the individual,
social, and cultural levels.
The Concept of Globalization
in Communication
 refers to the integration of the
world-wide interconnectedness in terms of ideas,
practices, economies, cultures, and populations,
brought about by exchange of goods, services,
technology, flows of investment, people, and
information across the border.
 Global communication is directly affected by
the process of globalization. It helps to increase
business opportunities, remove cultural barriers and
develop a global village.

Both globalization and global communication

have changed the environmental, cultural, political and
economic elements of the world.
The lmpact of Globalization on Communication

Globalization has greatly affected the paradigm

of communication process.

Communicating effectively across the globe with

different gender preference, color, age, religion,
ethnicity, education, social and economic status and
political beliefs is very important in economic
development.
 The influence of globalization and cross-cultural
interaction, more language interactions happened making
communication more challenging.

Gone were the days that people can afford to simply

communicate well within their own homogenous cultures.

Nowadays, we need to understand the importance

of building global alliance, the implications of spoken and
body language to a group’s culture and how technology
changed the way we communicate with other people on the
other side of the globe.
 In the article The Impact of Globalization on
Communication Skills Development, Ingram (2018)
discussed the four impacts of globalization on
communication:

✓ Virtual Interactions
✓ Cultural Awareness in Speech
✓ Cultural Awareness in Body Language
✓ Time Differences
1. Virtual Interactions

Globalization has introduced virtual communication and

collaboration as a major part of workplace dynamics.

For example, communicating via email to distant team members

requires a certain etiquette and nuance not necessarily required in
face-to-face interactions. Holding virtual meetings requires a
similar change in approach, and people who are unaccustomed to
communicating in groups in virtual settings can find themselves
lost, confused or unable to share their input.
2. Cultural Awareness in Speech

The need for cultural awareness is a major impact of

globalization on the required skillset of effective communicators,
resulting in the evolution of communication skills development
programs. Modern entrepreneurs and employees need the ability
to catch subtle nuances of people's manner of speech when
communicating across cultures. Even when two people are
speaking the same language, cultural differences can affect
vocabulary, colloquial expressions, voice tone and taboo topics.
 In Japanese business culture, for example, it
can be considered rude to ask personal questions in
an initial business meeting.

In the U.S., on the other hand, asking personal

questions and sharing personal information can
display warmth and openness.

American and Japanese business people who

understand this about each other can communicate
in ways that resonate more effectively with each other.
3. Cultural Awareness in Body Language

Modern training programs teach students to

understand acceptable speaking distances, conflict
styles, eye contact and posture in different cultures,
accepting that the physical expressions of their own
culture are not universally accepted.
4. Time Differences

When people collaborate with others on the other

side of the globe, their counterparts are usually at home
asleep while they themselves are at work. Today's
communication skills development programs should
address the nuances of overcoming this challenge by
teaching people to understand the information needs of
their colleagues, according to the communication styles of
different countries or cultures. Being able to effectively
share information between shifts can make or break the
productivity of a geographically dispersed team, making
this an important issue for many companies.
Who we are: CULTURE
CULTURE

In every community, there are distinct

customs, traditions, beliefs and culture that people
observe and practice which make them unique from
one another. The culture that people practice
encompasses their ideas, religion, art, language and
their social behavior and makes it their identity.
 Nano, and Turano (2018), defined as the
overall learned behavior of a group of people that are
generally considered to be tradition and are handed
from generation to generation.

It is a complex frame of reference that consists

of a pattern of traditions, beliefs, values, norms,
symbols, and meanings that are shared to varying
degrees by interacting members of an identity group.
Because of this, cultural understanding is
becoming even more important because of
the call to interact with many individuals from
other countries and other cultures (Lee, 2006
cited in Lebron, 2013).
Bodley (1999) added three basics components of culture,
namely:
✓ ,
✓ and
✓ .

All forms of culture exhibit unique ways and value

systems that aid and affect individuals in their
perception and reaction to different life circumstances.
The figure below shows the elements that comprise culture that molds
the identity of an individual. Each element strengthens the
characteristics of every individual, the way they live, act, do things and
think may differ but it is through its differences that will give them a
strong identity.
 Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism is the practice of giving equal

attention to many different backgrounds in a particular
setting. Multiculturalism is a community with people
belonging from different groups and having different
traditions and practices live together and embrace the
uniqueness of one another.

Multiculturalism is defined as “the view that

cultures, races, and ethnicities, particularly those of
minority groups, deserve special acknowledgement of
their differences within a dominant political culture”
(Eagan, n. d.).
Such practice of multiculturalism is evident in every
society through where the
husband/wife belongs to another culture.

Another good example of this is in , where

students belong to different families with different
attitudes, traditions, practices and language too but
the teacher finds a way on how to link each student
despite their differences.
 With the advent of globalization (exchanges of
goods, easy access to information, learning different
cultures and languages around the world), different
varieties of the English language were also introduced.
In some ways, human beings are becoming globalized
in lifestyle, business, factories, music, fashion, and
even food, however the other elements of culture such
as language, philosophy, religion, and the value system
remain diverse and varied.
 and are inseparable. An
individual creates his identity through the culture that
he practices and observes as he grows older.
Likewise, the language that he learned is basically
rooted from his background, culture and tradition.
Without culture, an individual has no identity and
cannot be distinguished.
CONCEPT OF WORLD ENGLISHES
World Englishes are varieties of the English language
spoken by non-native English speakers who created
their own version of the said language as if they
owned it.
Since English is the international language of
countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, Singapore,
Philippines, and many more, these countries made
their own flavor of the English language that is
somehow spoken and understood by their own
citizens (Putri, 2017).
The pronunciation and enunciation vary as well as the
meaning of the words, example in America, the term
“robot” means a machine capable of carrying out a
complex series of actions automatically, especially
one programmable by a computer. However, in South
Africa the term “robot” means traffic light. South Africa
created 10,000 English words that only people from
South Africa can fully understand their meanings
(Crystal, 2013 in British Council Serbia, 2013). This
new variety of English is basically influenced by the
culture of the people.
For further understanding about World Englishes, watch
the YouTube videos of

David Crystal on World Englishes created by British

Council Serbia (2013)
(https//:www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_q9b9YqGRY)
and

Putri (2017) on World Englishes

(https//:www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b7hY8yrT0s).
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