Speech development.

Plan:

1. Psychological & linguistic characteristics of speech.

2. Verbal communication.

Psychological & linguistic characteristics of speech

Contemporary psychologists have, since World War II, shown considerable interest in the ways in which communications occur. Behaviourists have been prone to view communication in terms of stimulus–response relationships between sources of communications and individuals or groups that receive them. Those who subscribe to Freud's analysis of group psychology and ego theory tend to regard interactions in communication as reverberations of family group dynamics experienced early in life.

By the middle 1950s, psychological interest settled largely on the persuasive aspects of various types of messages. Psychologists have attempted to discover whether a general factor of personality called “persuasibility” might be identified in people at large. It would appear, though with qualifications, that individuals are indeed variably persuasible and that, at times, factors of personality are related to this quality.

Other psychologists have studied the recipients of communication, evolving concepts of “selective perception, ” “selective attention, ” and “selective retention” in order to explain not only the ways in which communication changed attitudes but also the reasons for resistance to change. Among their interests were the dynamics of the communication of rumours, the effects of “scare messages, ” the degree of credulity that sources of prestige value provide, and the pressure of group consensus upon individual perceptions of communications.

Some of the suggestions that emerged from the work of certain modern psychologists may be subsumed under a theory of what is called “cognitive dissonance, ” which is based upon the observation that most people cannot tolerate more than a specific degree of inconsistency in the environments they perceive. An example of cognitive dissonance may involve a person who considers himself a superb bowler but who on one occasion earns an extremely low score. The dissonant or inconsistent elements include the bowler's knowledge of his skill and the fact of his poor score. This produces tension. To reduce this tension—dissonance—the bowler may change his behaviour or misinterpret or reinterpret the dissonant elements in order to lessen the difference between the facts. For example, he may blame his performance on the bowling ball, the alley, or the temperature of the room. Thus he seeks a psychological equilibrium.

This modification of an individual's perception of reality is of fundamental interest to the psychologist of communications. Because the agreement or disagreement of a communication with an individual's cognitive structure not only affects his behaviour but his perception as well, the major criterion for the psychological analysis of communication is neither the message nor the medium but the expectation of the person receiving the message.

It must not be assumed that any of the theories of audience psychology offered to date (including those of Gestaltists, Freudians, Behaviourists, and others) lack relevance to an understanding of communication processes. None, however, seems to account fully for all of the effects of communications upon people. The many facets of communication offer substantial problems for future psychological experimentation and theorizing.

Verbal communication occurs mainly by means of language. Language remains, however, a still partially understood phenomenon used to transact several types of discourse. Language has been classified on the basis of several criteria. One scheme established four categories on the basis of informative, dynamic, emotive, and aesthetic functions. Informative communication deals largely with narrative aspects of meaning; dynamic discourse concerns the transaction of dispositions such as opinions and attitudes; the emotive employment of language involves the evocation of feeling states in others in order to pursue them to action; and aesthetic discourse, usually regarded as a poetic quality in speech, conveys stylistic aspects of expression.
The main characteristic of oral communication is redundancy—the repetition of elements within a message that prevents the failure of communication of information—is the greatest antidote to entropy. Most written and spoken languages, for example, are roughly half-redundant. One-half of the words of a radio news commentator are heard, the broadcast can usually be understood. Redundancy is apparently involved in most human activities, and, because it helps to overcome the various forms of impediments that tend to turn intelligible messages into unintelligible ones (including psychological entropy on the part of the receiver), it is an indispensable element for effective communication.

Notion “verbal communication”

In 1928 the English literary critic and author I.A. Richards offered one of the first—and in some ways still the best—definitions of communication as a discrete aspect of human enterprise:

Communication takes place when one mind so acts upon its environment that another mind is influenced, and in that other mind an experience occurs which is like the experience in the first mind, and is caused in part by that experience.
Most speculation on these matters admits, in one way or another, that the communication theorist's task is to answer as clearly as possible the question, “ Who says what to whom with what effect? ” (This query was originally posed by the U.S. political scientist Harold D. Lasswell.)

One of the most productive schematic models of a communications system that has been proposed as an answer to Lasswell's question emerged in the late 1940s, largely from the speculations of two U.S. mathematicians, Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver. The simplicity of their model, its clarity, and its surface generality proved attractive to many students of communication in a number of disciplines, although it is neither the only model of the communication process extant nor is it universally accepted. As originally conceived, the model contained five elements—an information source, a transmitter, a channel of transmission, a receiver, and a destination—all arranged in linear order. Messages (electronic messages, initially) were supposed to travel along this path, to be changed into electric energy by the transmitter, and to be reconstituted into intelligible language by the receiver. In time, the five elements of the model were renamed so as to specify components for other types of communication transmitted in various manners. The information source was split into its components (both source and message) to provide a wider range of applicability. The six constituents of the revised model are: (1) a source, (2) an encoder, (3) a message, (4) a channel, (5) a decoder, and (6) a receiver. For some communication systems, the components are as simple to specify as, for instance, (1) a man on the telephone, (2) the mouthpiece of the telephone, (3) the words the man speaks, (4) the electrical wires along which the words (now electrical impulses) travel, (5) the earpiece of another telephone, and (6) the mind of the listener.

Spoken human language is composed of sounds that do not in themselves have meaning, but that can be combined with other sounds to create entities that do have meaning. Thus p, e, and n do not in themselves have any meaning, but the combination pen does have a meaning. Language also is characterized by complex syntax whereby elements, usually words, are combined into more complex constructions, called phrases, and these constructions in turn play a major role in the structures of sentences.

Communication, the process of sharing ideas, information, and messages with others in a particular time and place. Communication includes writing and talking, as well as nonverbal communication (such as facial expressions, body language, or gestures), visual communication (the use of images or pictures, such as painting, photography, video, or film), and electronic communication (telephone calls, electronic mail, cable television, or satellite broadcasts). Communication is a vital part of personal life and is also important in business, education, and any other situation where people encounter each other. The most common form of daily communication is interpersonal—that is, face-to-face, at the same time and in the same place.

The communication first is presented; the person pays attention to it, and he comprehends its contents (including the basic conclusion being urged and perhaps also the evidence offered in its support). For persuasion to be effected, the individual must yield to, or agree with, the point being urged; and, unless only the most immediate impact is of interest, he must retain this new position until opportunity arises to act on it. Finally, if the fruits of the persuasive process are to be reaped, he must carry out the behaviour implied by his new attitudinal position; e.g., he enlists in the army or becomes a Buddhist monk or begins to eat cornflakes for breakfast.

Humans have developed complex systems of language that are used to ensure survival, to express ideas and emotions, to tell stories and remember the past, and to negotiate with one another. Oral (spoken) language is a feature of every human society or culture. Anthropologists studying ancient cultures have several theories about how human language began and developed. The earliest language systems probably combined vocal sounds with hand or body signals to express messages. Some words may be imitative of natural sounds. Others may have come from expressions of emotion, such as laughter or crying. Language, some theorists believe, is an outgrowth of group activities, such as working together or dancing.

The most basic form of interpersonal communication is an encounter or conversation between two or more people. Some types of communication exist over a long period of time, as in a marriage or partnership. Communicating well requires good conversational skills. Communicators must know how to start and end the conversation, how to make themselves understood, how to respond to the partner's statements, how to be sensitive to their partner's concerns, how to take turns, and how to listen. Together, these abilities are called communication competence. Shyness or reluctance to interact is called communication apprehension. Persuasion is the process of convincing others that one's ideas or views are valuable or important.

Communication may also occur in small groups, such as families, clubs, religious groups, friendship groups, or work groups. Most small-group interaction involves fewer than ten people, and the communicators need the same communication skills as in a dyadic conversation. However, additional factors called group dynamics come into play in a small group. A group may try to work toward a consensus, a general sense of understanding or agreement with others in the group. Groupthink may occur, in which a group reaches consensus so quickly that its members mistakenly ignore other good ideas. Small-group members may experience disagreement or even conflict. Some members may be more persuasive than others and form sides, or cliques, within the group.

A special case of small-group interaction occurs in organizations where there is work to do or a task for the group to perform. Or several small groups may need to interact among each other within a single organization. In these cases, the groups must communicate well, both among themselves and with other groups, so that their members can perform their work effectively and make good decisions. Problems sometimes arise in organizational communication between supervisors and workers, or between different groups of workers who are responsible for different parts of a task. Therefore, small-group communication skills can be as necessary as conversation skills in the workplace or other organizational activities.

Interpersonal communication occurs with larger groups as well, such as when a speaker gives a talk to a large crowd (a political candidate giving a speech at a campaign rally, or a teacher lecturing to a large class). However, the audience can respond in only limited ways (such as with applause, nodding, whistles, boos, or silence). The speaker usually wants to be persuasive or informative, so the words chosen and the style of delivery or performance are very important. A speaker who wants to reach an even larger audience than the people who can physically hear the speech in one place must use communication technology or media to get the message across distance and even time.

Control questions:

1. What psychological and linguistic characteristics of speech do you know?

2. What’s Verbal communication?

Recommended literature:

1. Педагогическая психология. И.А.Зимняя, М., 1997

2. Психологические основы формирования личности в педагогическом коллективе. А.Коссаковски, М., 1961

3. Психологический справочник учителя. Л.М.Фридман, 1991