1. Communication and Language

2. Introduction to language and communication
What is communication?
transmission of information
evoking understanding, meaning
maintaining social contact
What is language?
a system of human communication using words

3. Issues for today Functions of communication Focus on interviewing
Theoretical approaches to language and communication

4. A conversation A: ‘What’s your name boy?’
B: ‘Dr. Poussaint. I’m a physician’
A: ‘What’s your first name, boy’
B: ‘Alvin’

5. Functions of communication Jacobson (1960)
Addresser
Addressee
Context
Message
Contact
Code

6. Functions of communication (2)
Addresser
Emotive
Addressee
Conative
Context - Referential
Message - Poetic
Contact - Phatic
Code - Metalingual

7. Interviewing

8. Types of interview Advice bureaux At the bank
Tourism and travel services
Opinion polls
Telephone interviews
Selling
Surveys
Parent - teacher
Mass media interviews
Job interviews
Counselling
Police
Welfare services
Clinical interviews
Research interviews

9. Class exercise - a short informal interview about “Being a good communicator”
Divide into pairs
Allocate role - interviewer / interviewee
Plan the questions you will ask
Conduct the interview and take note of answers
Review conclusions
Reverse roles and repeat

10. The interview as conversation
Opening - Establishing rapport
Cognitive, social and emotional factors
Topic
Development - maintaining attention
Closing
Attitudes - empathy, sympathy & judgement
Ethics
Interviewer credentials
Anonymity and confidentiality
Records
Truth - content and purpose

11. ‘True Conversation’
A conversation is a process of two people understanding each other. ….each opens himself to the other person, truly accepts his point of view as worthy of consideration and gets inside the other to such an extent that he understands not a particular individual but what he says.
(Gadamer, 1975)

12. Interview structure Define topic Question formats Leading questions
Open-ended, multiple choice, ranking, probing
Bias, ambiguity, style of language
Leading questions
Source of bias, or test the limits
Question response sequence
Dealing with emotion
Prejudice

13. Qualitative research interviews
Topic: Everyday lived life world
Interpret meaning of central themes
Qualitative
Open nuanced description
Specific situations and action sequences (not general opinions)
Deliberate naivité
Focused - neither structured nor non-directive
Ambiguity
Change and insight
Interviewer sensitivity
Interpersonal interaction
Positive experience

14. Quality criteria for an interview
Extent of spontaneous, rich specific and relevant answers
The shorter the interviewer’s questions and longer the respondents answers the better
Degree to which interviewer follows up, clarifies meanings of answers
The ideal interview is to a large extent interpreted throughout the interview
The interviewer attempts to verify his interpretations of S’s answers in the interview
Interview is ‘self-communicating’ - story contained in itself not needing extra description and elaboration

15. Hamlet’s interview with Polonius Act III Scene 2
H: Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?
P: By th’ mass, and ‘tis like a camel indeed
H: Methinks it is like a weasel
P: It is back’d like a weasel
H: Or like a whale?
P: Very like a whale
H: (aside) They fool me to the top of my bent

16. Interpretation
Unreliable technique? - leading questions, different answers about clouds
Trustworthiness of Polonius - reliable, thrice checked answers. Indirect interview. Speaks for itself before aside
Power relations at a royal court. Courtier can be made to say anything, or ‘play up to’ the prince?
Part of a theme of the play - questioning reality, motives of others, frail nature of reality, pervasive doubt about the appearance of the world
Ethics - deception, no informed consent, but survival, life or death

17. Qualification criteria for the interviewer
Knowledgeable
Structuring
Clear
Gentle / permissive
Sensitive
Open
Steering
Critical
Remembering
Interpreting

18. Class exercise How far did your interview match up to these criteria?
What were the problems?
How could you overcome these problems?
What were your findings?
What credibility do they have?
What can you say about this communication sequence?

19. Contrasting Theories of Communication and Language

20. 5 approaches to language and communication
Language as a formal system of grammar
Language as the processing of information
Communication as understanding
Language as use
Communication as a social skill

21. Language as a formal system
Structural complexity of language
Rules of grammar, esp. syntax
Universal competence underlies performance
Acquisition through biological maturation not learning
Key texts:
Pinker

22. Language as the processing of information
Empirical experimental approach
Information processing system
Generic cognitive processes
Sophisticated computational models
Increasing attention to neurophysiology
Key texts
Harley, Forrester

23. Communication as understanding
Founded on semiotics - theory of signs
Role of reader/listener paramount in analysing signs
Meaning is a cultural production
Discourse and narrative
Key texts:
Forrester, Fiske, Bignell, Barthes

24. Language as use Shared understanding - common ground
Co-operation and joint action
Intentionality of participants is central
Roles, relationships and social action
Key text:
Clark

25. Communication as a social skill
Behavioural / ethnological approach
Includes non-verbal communication
Patterns of interaction (eg turntaking)
Ecological structure of discourse
Interviews, lectures, chatrooms
Key text:
Hargie, Saunders & Dickson