The homework assignment is attached below under 'What to do'. The reading is also down below under 'chapter 4'. Explain the concept rather than reading the same explanation in the book.
Description of the assignment based on syllabus:
Students will create 5 journal entries regarding the interpersonal and intra-personal concepts covered over the semester. The journal responses are designed for students to explore their own experiences regarding course concepts.
• Department Goal: Analysis of Communication • Learning Outcome: Critical Thinking (AACU) and Critically Analyze Messages
(NCA LOC5)
Dear class,
Your journal response is going to have three parts.
In the first part of your paper, you are going to identify(select) AND define (in your own words) minimum of 3 and no more than 5 concepts/aspects/perspectives/theories that you have learned from chapter 3 (Communicating, Perceiving, and Understanding) of our book, and you deem these newly learned concepts/theories to be intriguing and/or useful in your future professional and personal lives.
In the second part of your paper, you`re going to explain why you believe these newly learned concepts are useful in your personal and professional lives. In other words, what makes these concepts/theories important in your life.
In the third part of your paper, you are going to explain how learning these concepts will impact your personal and professional lives from this point onward. In other words, what aspects of your interpersonal and intrapersonal communication do you think (and want to) improve based on the newly learned concepts that you discussed in the first part of the paper.
This assignment has 10 Points.
The criteria that I will use to evaluate your paper is as follows:
– At least three and no more than five concepts/theories are selected, defined, explained and used in the paper. ( —–/ 2 pts)
– The length of the paper is 600 words long. (——-/ 2 pts)
– Paper does not have grave grammatical errors, and is free of typos (——–/1 pt)
– Paper CLEARLY AND CONCISELY explains why you believe these newly learned concepts are useful in your personal and professional lives. In other words, what makes these concepts/theories important in your life. (———/ 2 pts)
– Paper CLEARLY AND CONCISELY explains how learning these concepts will impact your personal and professional lives from this point onward. In other words, what aspects of your interpersonal and intrapersonal communication do you think (and want
to) improve based on the newly learned concepts that you discussed in the first part of the paper. (———/ 3 pts)
Total: 10 pts
,
The Importance of Verbal Communication
4. 1 Identify three reasons for learning about verbal communication.
Although the nonverbal aspects of communication are important, the verbal elements of communication
are the foundation on which meaning is created. If you doubt that this is the case, try this simple test.
Using only nonverbal communication, convey this message to a friend or roommate: "I failed my exam
because I locked my keys in my car and couldn't get my textbook until well after midnight." How well was
your nonverbal message understood? If you have ever traveled in a country where you didn't speak the
language, no doubt you already knew before trying this experiment that nonverbal communication can
only get you so far. Similarly, although you may try to incorporate emotions or other devices to mimic
nonverbals, the verbal elements of messages are vital in texting, email, and many social networking
sites. We will touch on the importance of nonverbal communication here and discuss it in depth in
Chapter 5. In this section we propose that to be a highly effective communicator you need to understand
the verbal elements of communication. Verbal communication is also important because of the role it
plays in identity and relationship development. As you might remember from our discussion in Chapter
2, Individuals develop a sense of self through communication with others. More specifically, the labels
used to describe individuals can influence their self-concepts and increase or decrease their self-esteem.
People's verbal communication practices also can impede or improve their relationships, which is a topic
we will discuss further in Chapter 8. Research by four psychology professors at Emory University
supports our claims about the relationship between verbal communication and an individual's identity
development and relationship skills. These scholars found that families that converse and eat meals
together on a regular basis have children who not only are more familiar with their family histories but
also tend to have higher self-esteem, interact better with their peers, and are better able to recover from
tragedy and negative events (Duke et al., 2003). Some research has shown the importance of family
dinners and the role of parents in asking and listening to their children. Conversations between parents
and children can build self-esteem in children by parents demonstrating they value what the children
think and feel ("Why the family meal is important," 2020). In addition, the very language people speak is
tied to their identities. Studies of bilingual and multilingual speakers show that their perceptions,
behaviors, and even personalities alter when they change languages (Ramírez-Esparza et al., 2006). Why
does this occur? The answer is that every language is embedded in a specific cultural context, and when
people learn a language, they also learn the beliefs, values, and norms of its culture (Edwards, 2004). So
speaking a language evokes its culture as well as a sense of who we are within that culture. Thus the
language you use to communicate verbally shapes who you are, as you will see in It Happened to Me:
Cristina.
What Is Verbal Communication? Functions and Components of Language
4.2 Describe the functions and components of language.
Verbal communication generally refers to the written or oral words we exchange; however, as our
opening example shows, verbal communication has to do with more than just the words people speak. It
includes pronunciation or accent, the meanings of the words used, and a range of variations in the way
people speak a language, which depend on their regional backgrounds and other factors. Language, of
course, plays a central role in communication. Some argue that it is our use of language that makes us
human. Unlike other mammals, humans use symbols that they can string together to create new words
and with which they can form infinite sets of never-before-heard thought, or read sentences. This ability
allows people to be creative and expressive, such as when they take ordinary words and use them in
new ways. For example, the word robo sapiens —nominated by the American Dialect Society as one of
the most creative words for 2013— refers to a class of robots with human intelligence. This is a play on
the words homo sapiens for humans and robo for robot. Even small children who are unschooled in
grammar create their own rules of language by using innate linguistic ability together with linguistic
information they glean from the people around them. For example, young children often say "mouses"
instead of "mice" because they first learn, and apply broadly, the most common rule for pluralizing –
adding an s. To help you better understand the role of language in the communication process, the next
section explores seven communicative functions of language as well as four components of language
use.
The Individual and Verbal Communication: Influences
4.3 Identify examples of several major influences on verbal communication.
As we saw in Chapter 2, Our communication is influenced by our identities and the various cultures to
which we belong. In turn, our communication helps shape these identities. When identities influence
several aspects of language, we say that speakers have a distinct dialect, a variation of a language
distinguished by its lexical choice (vocabulary), grammar, and pronunciation. In other instances, the
influence of identity is less dramatic, and speakers vary only in some pronunciations or word choices. In
this section we examine how identities related to gender, age, regionality, ethnicity and race, and
education and occupation shape language use.
The Individual, Verbal Communication, and Society: Language, Perception, and Power
4.4 Describe the relationships between language, perception, and power.
How do societal forces influence verbal communication? Culture and power are two of the most
important influences. Culture impacts verbal communication primarily through its influence on language
and perception. As we saw in Chapter 3, Perception plays a key role in communication. Power is
connected to verbal communication because within society, some language styles are viewed as more
powerful, with consequences for both the powerful and the powerless.
Ethics and Verbal Communication
4.5 Identify examples of confirming communication, disconfirming communication, and hate speech.
We have already discussed a number of ethical issues related to verbal communication in this book. In
Chapter 1, we argued that Ethical communicators consider the benefit and/or harm associated with their
messages. In this section, we examine one specific type of language whose use may harm individuals or
relationships.
