Oral Communication
in Context
Quarter 1 – Module 1:
Functions, Nature and Process of
Communication
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What I Need to Know
This module was designed and written with you in mind. It is here to help you
master the nature, process and function of communication. The scope of this
module permits it to be used in many different learning situations. The language
used recognizes the diverse vocabulary level of students. The lessons are
arranged to follow the standard sequence of the course.
This module consists of one lesson, namely:
• The Functions, Nature and Process of Communication
After going through this module, you are expected to:
1. explain the nature and process of communication;
2. understand the relationship of the functions of communication to everyday
life; and
3. illustrate the process of communication.
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Lesso
The Nature and Process of
n 1 Communication
Communication comes in various forms. From the simple nodding of your
head, stretching of hands, raising your eyebrows up to your daily conversations
with your friends over the phone, constant exchange of text messages, and
regular browsing in social networking sites, these are but some examples of how
humans communicate their thoughts, feelings, ideas, and insights. These only
signify that humans really engage in communication.
What’s In
How will you react to the following picture?
Believe it or not, your coming to your family is a great joy! Your first cry
immediately after birth announced your arrival into this world. Afterwards, your
mother understood that when you cry, you were hungry and gave you milk in
response. Your face also expressed your feelings. As years passed by, you
started pronouncing short words and responded by waving your hands or
nodding your head and most of the times, laughing out loud. Today, you can
act out, speak, and write to tell everyone what you think and feel. These are
the ways you communicate.
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What’s New
When you exchange ideas with someone or you send information to
others, you do it in two ways. You either use words to say what you want to say
or you express yourself through gestures and facial expressions. Since then,
people have the inherent need to communicate. Humans are social beings.
They live to interact regularly with others. In fact, their endurance is due to their
ability to express themselves and connect to one another and the world they live
in.
When you look back in the history of humankind, you will find that early
man could not speak as you do today. Records show that people have used
various communication techniques such as the use of symbols, gestures, sounds,
drawings, and sign languages (Littlejohn, 2002 as cited in Amudavalli, n.d.).
Words and languages developed much later in human history.
Over the years, communication has progressed tremendously. Language
developed side by side with technology. Now in the 21st century, we realize the
power of communication in building relationships and the community at large.
Hence, we see the importance of communication.
What is It
What is communication and why do we communicate?
NATURE OF COMMUNICATION
Communication is a two-way process of connecting to both living and
nonliving things. It is also a means of sharing and exchanging messages,
information, ideas, and feelings for mutual understanding (Gregoriom, J.C.,
2015).
Communication connects people and the world they live in. It is through
communication that people are able to express their thoughts and ideas or
convey information and messages through word of mouth, gestures and signals,
signs, and others. People have always communicated with one another in
various forms.
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Let us further define communication using the two key terms stated above,
“message” and “understand”.
1. Communication is a message understood.
Unless a message is understood, we cannot say that communication has
taken place. Let us send a message to someone and say, “where came first”.
The person who gets this message would wonder what it means, for the
arrangement of the words does not make any sense. The message is sent but
the receiver does not understand it. Therefore, for communication to take place,
we have to consider two conditions. First, there should be a clear message.
Second, the message must be understood by the receiver for whom it is meant.
Communication is social interaction through messages.
Think of someone telling, “It is very warm today.” In this case, we are
communicating what ‘we experience’. The weather being warm is what we feel or
experience physically. In this scenario, we are sharing our feeling or experience
with someone else. Thus, we may say that “communication is a sharing of
experience.” In our society, we all interact with messages. Without interactions,
a society cannot survive. Social interaction is always through messages.
We discuss problems and arrive at solutions. We exchange ideas and
interact with others. We transact, and then we negotiate. In doing all these, we
use communication. Imagine a situation where we are not able to speak and
interact with others or think of a family living in the same house without speaking
to each other or relating any form of message to one another. Such situation can
be very lonely and problematic. Without communication, all forms of human
relationships will vanish and die. Communication is therefore crucial in building
and maintaining relationships.
PROCESS OF COMMUNICATION
There are also times when we fail to communicate effectively which results
to misunderstanding or miscommunication. Why do you think this thing happens?
What are the ways to avoid them?
We are sometimes misunderstood due to the level of speech we use during
conversation - by the volume of our voice or the rate of our speech when we talk
with our friends or acquaintances. Sometimes, we are misunderstood due to the
nonverbal actions that we project or incorporate in our speech during face-to-
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face communication. Also, when we send text or chat messages, we are
misinterpreted because those messages are often brief and devoid of emotion.
Let us now try to consider the process of communication. How does
communication take place? Who are involved? What processes are considered?
By understanding the communication process, we can also duly avoid
misunderstandings and / or miscommunication.
Our everyday transactions with people follow the communication process.
Our everyday transactions with people follow the communication process.
As seen in the illustration, communication begins when the speaker or
source of communication responds to a stimulus and decides to encode or
transmit it in the form of a message (or a “code”) through a particular channel or
means of communication.
The receiver decodes or interprets the message sent and responds
accordingly based on his interpretation of the message. This response comes in
the form of a feedback sent to the original source of communication (sender).
As the communication transaction continues, the sender and receiver may
exchange roles until understanding is achieved. Barriers to communication
sometimes block the transmission of the message thereby creating
misunderstanding.
Through this process, we are able to understand that communication is
systematic. In the advent of technology, the exchange of information and
messages in society has advanced and has been a subject of many studies.
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FUNCTIONS OF COMMUNICATION
Why do we communicate?
Since communication is certain in our lives, it comes naturally and unknowingly.
Communication serves many purposes. The following are some of the many
reasons why we communicate:
Inform Inspire Counsel Sell
Clarify Question Express Promote
Buy Understand Confirm Advise
Teach Learn Persuade Reveal
Accept Affirm Clarify Motivate
Criticize Deny Conceal And many others
From the above table, we realize that communication serves many purposes.
Whether we are at home, in school, at work, or at play, we engage in
communication.
We will discuss these functions in detail in Module 4.
Activity 2: Reflections
Explain what you have learned and realized in this module and how you will be
able to apply your learnings in your life. Write your reflections using the following
paragraph starters.
