Communication Flashcards
What does Socialisation refer to?
The process by which we learn to become members of society both by internalising the norms and values of society and also by learning to perform our social roles
What did Chomsky (1968) propose?
- Believed in the Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
- Language is INNATE, there is a predisposition to language
- Everyone has a ‘black box’ inside them that was hard wired for language
- Believed people are genetically predisposed to learn universal grammar, so children learned language naturally
- Assumed that there was universal rules that allowed people to distinguish grammatical from ungrammatical sentences
What did Bruner (1983) propose?
- Believed in Language Acquisition Support System (LASS)
- Believed language is LEARNT
- Children learn language through interaction with caregivers, who guide and support a child’s emerging language
- Believed language was developed through routines by: scaffolding (explains routines such as bath time), referencing (gestures and words - pointing to objects) and book reading
What does Scaffolding refer to?
Allows parents to raise expectations about language development
What does Referencing refer to?
How people manage and direct eachothers attention by linguistic means e.g. joint attention and book reading
What does Communication Styles refer to?
- Examines cultural and social aspects of language
- Learning to speak depends on culture, socio economic background and gender
- Style involves accents, vocabulary, grammar and the type of ideas we try to express
- Forms part of our identity
- Theorists include: Berstein and Labov
Who was Basil Bernstein (1971) and what did he he believe?
- A linguistic and researcher
- Believed the working class spoke an informal a ‘restricted code’ as contrasted with middle class who spoke a formal ‘elaborate code’
- He was interested in the relationship between language style and social class
What are Features of a ‘Restricted Code’
- Short and Simple sentences are used with much information conveyed non verbally
- Few descriptive words are used
- Much of the meaning only makes sense if the context is known e.g. he put it over there
- Stresses on the here and now
What are some Features of an ‘Elaborate Code’
- Complex, precise sentences are used
- More use of descriptive words
- The meaning us clear from the sentence alone (e.g. he out the spade in the shed)
- Events of the past are often referred to
What did Labov (1970) believe?
- Opposed Bernstein’s ideas
- Labov’s ideas were based around his work with black children from New York who spoke Black English Vernacular (BEV)
- Labov believed BEV was just as complex and rule governed as standard English and should be considered different not deficient
Which theorist specialised in Gender Differences within communication?
Deborah Tannen (1990) suggested there is a breakdown in communication due to different communication styles within genders e.g. Men use ‘Report Talk’ and Women use ‘Rapport Talk’
How do men talk?
- Men use ‘report talk’
e. g. public speaking; talk is used as a way of gaining and holding attention, and to negotiate and maintain status
How do women talk?
- Women use ‘rapport talk’
e. g. based on establishing relationships, developing understanding and negotiating differences - Women also shown to use more confirmatory tones ‘mmm’ and ‘yeah’ which indicates listening
- It is said women use ‘Hedge’ which is used to soften a request
What is Persuasive Communication?
Persuasive Communication involves trying to change beliefs, feelings and behaviours of another
What does Persuasive Communication involve?
- Source of the Message
- Nature of the Communication
- Characteristics of the Audience
