Topic 1: Verbal Communication

Let’s Begin 

Verbal communication refers to the reception, storage, retrieval, manipulation, and generation of linguistic symbols. Communicative misunderstanding, which is defined as “a potential breakdown point in conversation, or at least a kind of communicative turbulence” by Mauranen (2006, p. 128), is usually perceived as a problem in verbal communication and more specifically, in the interpretation of what is said by one or the other party. According to Bremer (1996), a problem in communication arises when “the listener achieves an interpretation, which makes sense to him or her — but it wasn’t the one the speaker meant” (Bremer, 1996, p. 40). This mismatch between the speaker’s meaning and the hearer’s interpretation is attributed by Hua (2014) to two factors: inadequate linguistic proficiency and pragmatic mismatch which results in pragmatic failure. 

Read

1. https://www.wellspanphilhaven.org/Portals/0/Docs/Nonverbal%20Communication.pdf

2.  Communication styles. (n.d.). From    

     https://moniviestin.jyu.fi/ohjelmat/hum/viesti/en/ics/20   

Think  

1. What is individualism and/or collectivism? What is the difference between individualism and

    collectivism? 

2. What are self-construals? What are examples of self-construals? 

3. How does individualism-collectivism impact on behavior? 

4. What did the authors hypothesize and find out about the relationship between individualism-

     collectivism, self-construals, and communication styles? 

5. What practical applications might these results have for cultural groups who are not mentioned in

     the study?