同济大学跨文化交流课文 第二课 Communication

1、2. CommunicationText AA Wide-Angle View of CommunicationFrom birth to death, all types of communication play an integral part in your life. Whatever your occupation or leisure-time activities, communication of one form or another has a role. In fact, if people were asked to analyze how they spend mo

2、st of their waking day, the prime responses would be “communicating or “being communicated to. In reality, communication is our link to the rest of humanity,But what is communication? And what is it we seek to accomplish with it? Let us begin to answer these questions by examining what we consider t

3、o be the essential ingredients of communication.Senders and ReceiversCommunication involves people who send and receive messages, sometimes simultaneously. This means that the role of sender or receiver is not restricted to any one party to the communication process; instead, we play both roles.Ther

4、e are times when it seems as if communication is predominantly one way: receivers of messages fail to react; senders of messages fail to consider the reactions of the receiver before sending another message. But for communication to be effective, the messages people send to others should, at least i

5、n part, be determined by the messages received from them.Field of ExperienceWe each carry our field of experience with us wherever we go. When the people communicating have had similar life experiences, chances are they will be able to relate to each other in an effective way. However, to the extent

6、 that their life experiences have been different, they will probably have difficulty interacting with or understanding each other. As our storehouses of experience diverge, it becomes harder for us to share meaning. Conversely, as storehouses of experience converge, the sharing of meaning becomes ea

7、sier.MessagesThe message is the content of a communicative act. People communicate a wide variety of messages. Some of these messages are private (a smile accompanied by an “I love you), while others are directed at millions (a network television show, a mass-market paperback). Some messages are sen

8、t intentionally (I want you to know), while others are sent accidentally ( I didnt realize you were watching me). But as long as someone is there to interpret the results of a sender s efforts, a message is being sent. Thus, we can say that everything a sender does or says has potential message valu

9、e.Consequently, whether you smile, listen, renew a magazine subscription, watch a particular TV program, or turn away from a person, you are communicating some message, and your message is having some effect.ChannelsWe may send our messages to receivers through a variety of sensory channels. We may

10、use sound, sight, smell, taste, touch, or any combination of these to carry a message. Some channels are more effective at communicating messages than others, and the nature of the channel selected affects the way a message will be processed. The impact of a message changes as the channel used to tr

11、ansmit it changes. Experience shows that most of us have channel preferences; that is, we prefer to rely on one or more channels while disregarding others. Which channels are you most attuned to? Why? Adept communicators are channel switchers who recognize that human communication today is an ever-e

12、xpanding, multichanneled event.NoiseNoise is anything that interferes with the ability to send and/or receive messages. Thus, while noise could be sound, it does not necessarily have to be sound. It could also be physical discomfort (a headache), psychological makeup (a poor self-concept, an inflate

13、d ego, or a high level of defensiveness), semantic misunderstandings (as when people give different meanings to words and phrases or use different words and phrases to mean the same thing), or the environment (a sparsely furnished room, a dimly lit office).The important point to remember is that noi

14、se can function as a communication barrier. As noise increases, the chances for effective communication usually decrease, and as noise decreases, the chances for effective communication usually rise.FeedbackFeedback returns information to the sender of a message, thereby enabling the sender to deter

15、mine whether the message was received or correctly understood. There are at least three ways of looking at feedback.First, it can be positive or negative. Positive feedback encourages sources to continue sending similar messages; In contrast, negative feedback discourages sources from encoding simil

16、ar messages.Second, feedback can be immediate or delayed; and third, it can be free or limited. In an immediate and free feedback condition, the reactions of the receiver are directly and freely communicated to and perceived by the source. At a political rally a speaker knows immediately whether the

17、 audience in the hall is friendly or unfriendly. In contrast, if you want to communicate your opinion of a newspaper article to the editor, before your views are received by the intended party, and printed, several days or perhaps even weeks might elapse.Feedback serves useful functions for both sen

18、ders and receivers: it provides senders with the opportunity to measure how they are coming across, and it provides receivers with the opportunity to exert some influence over the communication process.EffectEvery communication has an outcome; that is, it has some effect on the persons who are a party to it, though the effect may not always be immediately observable. The consequence may be monetary, cognitive, physical, or emotional. For example, people may profit from the communication, or learn something,