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COMMUNICATION IN LANGUAGE

COMMUNICATION IN LANGUAGE AND LINKS TO RELATED PRACTICES

"Communication refers to the transmission of information (a 'Message') between a source and a receiver using a signalling system" (Crystal 64). Theoretically, communication is said to have taken place when the information received is identical to that sent. But it never is--at least between people. Practically, indeed, the message is polluted by all sorts of interferences (noises): the medium or channel distorts the message. Moreover, the sender may not have formulated the message in terms semantically and physically fully understandable by the receiver. The receiver may lack the capacity--physical, intellectual, affective, or cultural--to comprehend the intended meaning of the message.

Teachers, among communicators, are concerned with transferring communicative competence and/or linguistic competence to their students. If the goal of teaching is essentially to help students pass formal examinations of the traditional school type, the stress will be on linguistic competence--on the how rather than on the what; for instance, on being able to translate words or texts or in reciting grammatical paradigms, or, at best, in proving reading competence. If the goal is primarily to assist students to communicate verbally, and hopefully also in writing, with natives of the target language, then communicative competence will play center stage. Which is better is not an appropriate consideration; which is more appropriate to the learning process's behavioral objectives is the key element.

In a communicative mode of learning, the question arises as to how strict one should be with regards to enforcing linguistic competence even at the cost of communicative competence. If the message gets through, should one worry whether what the sender said was : "Su amiga estß enferma" or "Su amiga es enferma"? The position of a native Spanish speaker is that indeed it does matter, because th...

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COMMUNICATION IN LANGUAGE. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 00:41, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1701176.html