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CAPE-Communication Studies

CAPE COMMUNICATION STUDIES

Knowledge can be communicated, but wisdom cannot. A man can find it, he can live it, he can be filled and sustained by it, but he cannot utter or teach it. -Hermann Hesse

SATURDAY, 22 OCTOBER 2011

Facilitators & Barriers of Communication


Selecting appropriate mediums, channels and technologies This takes place at the level of conceptualization. When a sender decides to encode a message, he or she must take two main things into consideration during this stage the context and the audience (receiver). These factors influence both choice of medium and choice of channel. The key word here is appropriateness. Choice of medium and channel are directly influenced by the purpose of the message and the intended audience. Ask yourself the following questions when determining levels of appropriateness: i. Who is my receiver? ii. How best can my message be conveyed? iii. Where is the communication act taking place? iv. What is the situation surrounding the communication act? v. Is my audience one person or several? vi. What medium should I use, oral or written? vii. Should I use technology? If so, which technology would most appropriate? Scenario 1 Read the scenario below and answer the questions that follow. Greg is ill and has to be away from school for two weeks. His mother encodes a letter to the school principal and sends it out in the mail. In the above situation, 1. How else could Gregs mother have gotten the message to the Principal? 2. Why do you think she chose to write a letter? Answer: The telephone or email could have been used. She chose the letter because a letter is a more formal medium of communication and can serve as a permanent record. Facilitators &; Barriers to Communication Noise is anything that interrupts or blocks the flow of information. Whenever the understanding of a message is affected, the obstruction is considered a barrier to communication.

Some common barriers to communication are: i. A language barrier ii. A channel that is inaccessible to the receiver iii. The message is ineffectively encoded or the meaning is ambiguous iv. The medium is inappropriate to the message Some common facilitators to communication are: i. Choosing a familiar language ii. Using an accessible channel iii. Ensuring that the medium is appropriate to the message iv. Using audio/visual aids to enhance the encoding of the message
Posted by Danique W at 18:39 No comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook Labels: approriateness, barriers of communication, communication process, Facilitators of communication, noise

The Communication Process & The Elements of Communication

Systematic=Step by Step=Process Communication as a Process Human communication is interpersonal, it is purposive and it is a process. Question: What do we mean by process? Answer: By process we mean that steps have to be taken and in a set/particular order to achieve a desired result/goal. These are the important elements of the communication process: 1. SENDER/ENCODER The sender also known as the encoder decides on the message to be sent, the best/most effective way that it can be sent. All of this is done bearing the receiver in mind. In a word, it is his/her job to conceptualize. The sender may want to ask him/herself questions like: What words will I use? Do I need signs or pictures? 2. MEDIUM The medium is the immediate form which a message takes. For example, a message may be communicated in the form of a letter, in the form of an email or face to face in the form of a

speech. 3. CHANNEL The channel is that which is responsible for the delivery of the chosen message form. For example post office, internet, radio. 4. RECEIVER The receiver or the decoder is responsible for extracting/decoding meaning from the message. The receiver is also responsible for providing feedback to the sender. In a word, it is his/her job to INTERPRET. 5. FEEDBACK This is important as it determines whether or not the decoder grasped the intended meaning and whether communication was successful. 6. CONTEXT Communication does not take place in a vacuum. The context of any communication act is the environment surrounding it. This includes, among other things, place, time, event, and attitudes of sender and receiver. 7. NOISE (also called interference) This is any factor that inhibits the conveyance of a message. That is, anything that gets in the way of the message being accurately received, interpreted and responded to. Noise may be internal or external. A student worrying about an incomplete assignment may not be attentive in class (internal noise) or the sounds of heavy rain on a galvanized roof may inhibit the reading of a storybook to second graders (external noise). The communication process is dynamic, continuous, irreversible, and contextual. It is not possible to participate in any element of the process without acknowledging the existence and functioning of the other elements.

Posted by Danique W at 18:36 No comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook Labels: channel, communication process, context, elements of communication, feedback, medium, noise, receiver, sender
SUNDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER 2011

Language as A Subset of Communication: The Case of Wild Children

In a previous post, Introduction to Communication Studies, the point was made that humans are not the only beings with a system of Communication and also that 'Language' is the name given to the human system of Communication. Therefore, though babies are born with the ability to communicate, they must be placed in an environment where they are able to acquire language inputs from older humans, otherwise they will not acquire Language. Below is a you tube clip on feral (wild) children, which emphasizes this point.

Posted by Danique W at 23:22 No comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook Labels: Communication, Feral Children, Language, Wild Children
FRIDAY, 12 AUGUST 2011

Linguistic Features of Jamaican Creole (Patois)

MODULE TWO (2) : LANGUAGE & COMMUNITY Jamaican Creole is considered a language like any other for two basic reasons: 1. It possesses the characteristic features of a language AND 2. It performs the functions of a language. Below is a brief outline of some of these linguistic features: PHONOLOGY: the sound system of a language. Patois has a sound system independent of English.

Jamaican Creole does not use the 'th' sound but substitutes two other sounds: the 't' sounds as in 'tik' for the English 'thick' and the 'd' sounds as in 'dem' for the English 'them'. Jamaican Creole does not pronounce the 'h' sound at the beginning of English words. Therefore English 'hour' becomes 'our'. Similarly there is the tendency to hypercorrect and pronounce the 'h' sound at the beginning of words that do not require it, therefore English 'egg' becomes 'hegg' and 'exam' becomes 'hexam' and so on.

LEXICON: the vocabulary of a language. Although the lexical items of Patois are English based, many are used in non-English ways.

Some Patois words that appear to be similar to English words do not carry the same meaning, e.g. 'Ignorant' in Patois means easily angered, very upset and not lacking knowledge (which is the English definition). Another example is 'Belly' that in patois can refer to pregnancy. Some English words are compounded to create nouns not present in English for example 'Foot bottom' for the sole of the feet and 'Eye water' for tears. Some Creole words are formed by reduplication (base words are repeated to form new words). For example friedi friedi to mean fearful or timid, chati chati to mean talks excessively or out of turn. Some Creole words are adopted from other non-English languages, eg, maroonSpanish, pikni-Portuguese, unu, (you plural) -Igbo

GRAMMAR: rules governing the correct use of language


Pluralization is signalled by the addition of the 'dem' after the noun eg. The people dem. Or to emphasize the numerical marker- 'de two book dem'. Possession is not signaled, as in English, with the apostrophe 's' suffix but by the word 'fi' as in 'A fi mi handout' Zero Copular construction. A Copular links the subject to the predicate. It is derived from the verb 'to be'. Creole can have a zero copular structure eg. Jane sick for Mary is sick in Englich or Jane de home for Jane is at home.

SYNTAX: the proper agreement of words in a sentence

Patois mainly uses syntax to highlight certain elements within a sentence while English often uses pronunciation by verbally stressing that which is to be emphasized. For example Creole: Is Susan eat di chicken? versus English Susan ate the chicken? Creole: Is di chicken Susan eat ? versus Susan ate the chicken?

Posted by Danique W at 02:13 6 comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook Labels: Communication Studies, Creole Language, CXC Past Papers, Features of Creole, Jamaican, Jamaican language, Language and Community, Patois
MONDAY, 25 JULY 2011

Main Point vs Purpose


MODULE ONE (1): Gathering & Processing Information The purpose of this post is to clear up a mistake that is often made on the exam. The main point of this post is that there is a marked difference between the main point (main idea) of a piece and the purpose for writing a piece and you will be tested on whether you can make that distinction. The main point can never be the same as the purpose and vice-versa. Hence, your responses should reflect that you recognize this fact. Main Point/Idea The main point of a piece is the same as the topic/thesis statement. It refers to those words/sentences that capture the essence of the overall piece of writing. The thesis/topic statement is generally found in the first or last sentences of the introductory

paragraph.However, sometimes it is not stated and has to be inferred from the passage A good thesis statement does two (2) things. First, it tells about an essay's topic. Second, it presents the writer's attitude, opinion, idea or point about that topic. Let us look at some examples: Example One: 'From King Leopold's Ghost, by Adam Hochschild, 1998' When the Atlantic slave trade began decimating the Kongo, that nation was under the reign of a ManiKongo named Nzinga Mbemba Affonso, who had gained the throne in 1506 and ruled as Affonso I for nearly forty years. Affonso's life spanned a crucial period. When he was born, no one in the kingdom knew that Europeans existed. When he died, his entire realm was threatened by the slave-selling fever they had caused. He was a man of tragic self awareness, and he left his mark. Some three hundred years later, a missionary said, "A native of the Kongo knows the name of three kings: that of the present, that of his predecessor , and that of Affonso." Ask yourself: a. Who/what do you think the paragraph is about? (Topic) b. What is the writer's attitude, opinion etc about it? Discussion: Even though this is an excerpt of the piece, already you should be able to tell that that the main point/idea of the piece is that 'When the Atlantic slave trade began decimating the Kongo, that nation was under the reign of a ManiKongo named Nzinga Mbemba Affonso, who had gained the throne in 1506 and ruled as Affonso I for nearly forty years.' Let us try another one: Example Two: 'Adapted from Daniel Pendick, Courtesy of WNET.ORG (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageearth/tsunami/index.html) Though it's true that tsunamis are ocean waves, calling them by the same name as the ordinary wind-driven variety is a bit like referring to firecrackers and atomic warheads both as "explosives." Triggered by volcanic eruptions, landslides, earthquakes, and even impacts by asteroids or comets, a tsunami represents a vast volume of seawater in motion -- the source of its destructive power. On the open ocean, tsunami waves approach speeds of 500 mph, almost fast enough to keep pace with a jetliner. But gazing out the window of a 747, you wouldn't be able to pick it out from the wind-driven swells. In deep water, the waves spread out and hunch down, with hundreds of miles between crests that may be just a few feet high. A passenger on a passing ship would scarcely detect their passing. But in fact the tsunami crest is just the very tip of a vast mass of water in motion, as a tsunami can travel great distances with little loss of energy. The 1960 earthquake off the coast of Chile generated a tsunami that had enough force to kill 150 people in Japan after a journey of 22 hours and 10,000 miles. As the waves in the tsunami reach shore, they slow down due to the shallowing sea floor, and the loss in speed is often accompanied by a dramatic increase in wave height. Tsunamis also flood in suddenly without warning. Tsunami waves usually don't curve over and break, like Hawaiian surf waves. Survivors of tsunami attacks describe them as dark "walls" of water. Impelled by the mass of water behind them, the waves bulldoze onto the shore and inundate the coast, snapping trees like twigs, toppling stone walls and lighthouses, and smashing houses and buildings into kindling. The contours of the seafloor and coastline have a profound influence on the height of the waves -- sometimes with surprising and dangerous results. During the 1993 tsunami attack on Okushiri, Japan, the wave "runup" on the coast averaged about 15 to 20 meters (50 - 65

feet). But in one particular spot, the waves pushed into a V-shaped valley open to the sea, concentrating the water in a tighter and tighter space. In the end, the water ran up to 32 meters (90 feet) above sea level, about the height of an 8-story office building. Discussion: In this example taken from the May 2011 CAPE Paper 2, the main point may actually be located in the last sentence of the introductory paragraph. Therefore, the main point is that 'a tsunami represents a vast volume of seawater in motion - the source of its destructive power.' Purpose The purpose of a piece of writing is generally evidenced by the type of discourse used (See post on Evaluating types of discourse. )The second example, speaking about tsunamis) evidences mixed discourse types. It utilizes elements of exposition, description and narrative. Readers receive indepth information about tsunami wave formation as well as true to life accounts or anecdotes of tsunami attack. This combination of discourse types aids the writer's purpose which is to alert or educate readers about the destructive power of tsunamis. Further Reading on 'Purpose': Chapter 10, Writing in English -Hazel Simmonds-McDonald et al Mistakes to Avoid on Examinations Avoid stating the main point and the purpose as the same thing. They may be similar in content but how you state it in your responses should be clearly different: The main point is that.... The purpose is to.... NOT the main point and the purpose is to... You will score 0 marks if you respond in this way. The examiner will not be able to tell whether or not you recognize the difference between the two concepts.
Posted by Danique W at 13:51 No comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook Labels: Cape, Examination, Gathering and Processing Information, Main Point, Module 1, Paper 2, Past Paper 2011, Purpose, Topic Sentence
WEDNESDAY, 4 MAY 2011

Communication Studies Exam 2011


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THURSDAY, 24 FEBRUARY 2011

All the best to the Communication Students of 2011 who are currently sitting their first two (2) papers today!

Expository Speech Checklist (Oral Exam)


Conduct an Audience Analysis
Ask yourself:

What do they have in common? Age? Interests? Ethnicity? Gender?

Do they know as much about your topic as you, or will you be introducing them to new ideas? Why are these people listening to you? What are they looking for? What amount of detail will be effective for them? What tone will be most effective in conveying your message? (E.g. neutral, animated/comedic, assertive, serious etc?) What might offend or distance them?

Practice the Speech before a friend or in front of the mirror


After you have completed the task, ask yourself the following questions:

Which pieces of information are clearest? Where did I connect with the audience? Where may listeners be confused about my description or explanation? Where may the listeners become bored? Where did I have trouble speaking clearly? Did I stay within my time limit? (5 MINUTES)

Complete speech outline with references

General Tips
1. Practice the Attention Getter (i.e Short story, Quote, Poem etc, related to the topic, used to grab audiences attention before beginning speech) 2. Help audience to listen and stay focused. Avoid lengthy sentences, use humour where appropriate) 3. Use only the most significant and relevant examples when explaining/describing/informing. 4. Utilize transition words (E.g. firstly, secondly, In concluding, In closing etc) 5. Ensure that body language/posture during speech is not distracting and that you are neatly attired

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