II. Communication Skills
This can be divided into three parts:
1. Definition of Communication
Generally, communication can be defined as a process of
exchanging information from the person who gives the information, either
through a verbal or non-verbal method, to
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Chapter I: Review of the Literature
the person who receives it. Baker (2010: 01) defines
communication as «the act of transmitting and receiving
information». In addition; it is defined as «a process of
passing information and understanding from one person to another»
(Davis, 1967 cited in Singla, 2008: 236). This means that communication is
transmitting understanding too, not only information. Based on these
definitions, the main elements of communication can be distinguished: the
sender, the information and feedback by the receiver. The sender is the person
who sends the idea to another person or to a group of people like a teacher who
informs his students about the date of an exam, the information is the message
or the idea being communicated and this example, it is the date of the exam,
the receiver is the person or the group of people who receives the information
or the message like the students in the given example and the feedback whichis
the response by the receiver and it marks the completion of the communication
process.
2. Types of Communication Skills
Three types of communication skills have been encountered.
First, the verbal communication in which, the message or the information is
communicated through words. Verbal communication may be of two types: Written
and oral. Oral communication refers to any type of interaction between
individuals through the use of words. It includes both speaking and listening
skills. The sender and receiver exchange information and ideas verbally through
face-to-face conversations or any technological device like telephone or video
calls through social media. It takes place through face-to-face interaction,
group discussions, interviews, radio, television, calls, letters, reports,
notes, emails, etc. Whereas, the written communication refers to communication
that uses a written form of language which means letters, words, and syntax to
transmit meanings and ideas. It occurs through the use of papers, computers or
phones.
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Chapter I: Review of the Literature
Verbal communication takes place in a number of different
situations. It can be during face to face conversation or by telephone. It may
take place on a one to one basis, or in a group or lecture stetting. It
involves the use of words or sounds and languages. Verbal communication usually
involves two aspects: one person speaking and another listening. (H.Baston,
J.Hall and A.H.Enion, 2009: 12)
That means that verbal communication may be between two
persons in the same place and at the same time or between two people through a
telephone call. It can also between one person and a group of people like
between a teacher and his students during a lecture. It involves the use of
words and sounds when speaking and it can be through any human language .it
have two aspects or two essential elements, the speaker and the listener.
Second, the non-verbal communication, where the message or the
information is communicated through gestures, facial expressions and eye
contact. «Nonverbal messages include facial expressions, eye contact
or lack of eye contact, proximity, and closeness, hand gestures, and body
language» (Miller, 2005 cited in Barmaki, 2014: 441).
Third, the visual communication is defined as «all
the ways that writers and readers interact through the look of pages and
screens.»(Hilligos, 1999:01) .In other words, it is
where the message or the information, is transmitted through visualisation.
Visual communication can be anything like eye contact, map, chart, facial
expression, signals, and poster. It also includes graphics, books, animation,
illustration, painting, interactive web design, advertising, and short
films.
3. Communicative Competence
According to Troike (2006: 100), the concept of communicative
competence was adopted by many specialists. It involves the knowledge when to
speak, what to say, to whom, and how to say it in an appropriate way in any
given situation. According to Brown (2000: 245), «Communicative
competence is related to the knowledge that allows a person to communicate
functionally and interactively». It means that communicative
competence involves what allows people to communicate either to interact or for
different purposes, to use
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Chapter I: Review of the Literature
the language with its different functions. (Canal and Swain,
1980 cited in Tavakoli, 2012: 6869) have identified four components of
communicative competence namely grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and
strategic competence.
First, the Grammatical Competence, which includes knowledge of
grammar, and vocabulary, is related to speech sounds (phonetics), how words are
formed (morphology), in addition to the rules governing the combination of
words to form sentences (syntax) and the way meanings are conveyed
(semantics).Second, Sociolinguistic Competence, which includes knowledge of
socio-cultural rules of use, is to know how to use language appropriately
according to the context, the setting, the topic and the relationships among
people. Besides, it is to know how to use language taking into consideration
cultural differences, taboos, etc; because what is correct and appropriate in
one culture or society, may be incorrect and inappropriate to say in another.
For example, if a person asks you about your age, it is worth considering that
such a question might be acceptable or even desirable in his or her culture
while in yours it is not.
Third, the Discourse Competence; it is related to the
learners' ability to produce and comprehend oral and written texts. It is the
knowledge of how to organise words and sentences to create conversations,
poetry, articles, speeches, etc. It deals with cohesion by knowing how to use
cohesive devices like conjunctions and adverbial phrases and also coherence
between ideas in different types of texts. For instance, to know the main parts
of a formal letter and being able to write each one of them including its
necessary elements.
The fourth component is the Strategic Competence which refers
to strategies to be used in case of grammatical, sociolinguistic or discourse
difficulties such as the use of reference sources, paraphrasing, repetition,
clarification, guessing, etc. A speaker may be unfamiliar with or may
misunderstand the topic being discussed and in this case, there is a need for
certain strategies to overcome and repair these difficulties. For instance, a
native
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Chapter I: Review of the Literature
speaker of English with a non native speaker, the native
speaker may find difficulties to transmit the message they want to the non
native speaker because the level of the language mastery differs and here they
explain and clarify each time what they say, they repeat, they even translate
when necessary in order to be better understood.
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