Transcript Presentation File

What do we have to
know, to train
communication skills
Metka Kordigel Aberšek
University of Maribor, SLOVENIJA
And:
What do we have to know to train
the communication skills of
children with learning diffuculties
and of children with mental
retardation?
what we do with the language
how to plan the effect of that what we will say
From this point of view it seems reasonable to
base the communication curriculum on
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Austin’s theory of the speech act
Halliday’s functional linguistics
the pragmatic theory.
Why?
Let’s look at all these theories closer!
Austin’s theory of the speech
act:
According to Austin (Austin 1990) a speech act
consists of
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the act of saying.
With the act of saying, we perform the influential
act, that is we ask, answer, inform, criticize,…
actual effect that we achieve with saying get
realized in the addresses’ mind as the act of
efficiency.
Austin:
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The important part of the communication
competence is the awareness that the intended
effect (influential act) and the actual achieved
effect (act of efficiency) that is achieved are not
always congruent with each other. They can even
be the opposite.
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To express the same influential act we have
different possibilities. Which one we chose depends
on our judgment how the chosen expression will
affect the addressee.
the functional linguistics
.
The functional linguistics (Halliday) treats language
as a mean of mutual influence and explores the
important social roles of language activities.
In this context, the sentence has two main functions):
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it communicates the subject (mind) data ( = introductory
role )
it communicates the data about the messengers’
relation to the communicated subject, content and the
addresses’ (= influential role).
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The introductory role of the sentence (“What he
said?”) we can usually understand on first site.
(Expl: He said: “Where donkey lies there he leaves his hair”) .
The actual influential role of the sentence we can
discover only when we describe the social background
of its expression, this is, if we know the
circumstances.
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(Expl: He wants to influence on me, not to throw rabish on the floor!)
To understand the influential
role of the sentence
the message of the sentence is the expression of the
messengers’ motivational viewpoints this is,
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from his relation to the subject of the content,
the desired or undesired act,
the persuasion in the accuracy of one’s own judgments
and
his WISH to transfer his thought, knowledge, viewpoint,
emotions with a sentence to the addressee and persuade
him that he is right, to receive from him wanted data and
prepare him to do something.
viewpoints of the addressee
achieving the message purpose depends on that if
our beliefs about the addressee are correct.
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Beliefs about the addressees’ interests and needs
Beliefs about the addressee’s knowledge
Beliefs about the social relationship between the
messenger and the addressee
Beliefs about the addressees’ interests and
needs
The congruity and incongruity of the messenger
and addressee’s interests influences the
expression of the influential role.
addressee’s knowledge
To enable the communication the messenger
must form the beliefs about the addressee’s
language and
 real knowledge.
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social relationship between the
messenger and the addressee
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The relationship between the messenger and the
addressee also influences the expression of influential
role. This can be
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hierarchical, defined by the social status of the
participants (age, social role) or
democratic.
Speeking undirectly
To achieve the message’s purpose the messenger often does not tell
the addressee what he wants directly but indirectly.
Why the messenger decides to express indirectly.
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Leech (1983) warns that the principle of tact, politeness and
considerateness influences the indirect expression of the
influential role.
With the indirect expression of the influential role the messenger allows
the addressee (often only apparently) greater participation at
decision for the act and this way creates better conditions to achieve
the desired goals.
social relationship between
messenger and addressee
is a crucial factor when deciding upon indirect
expression.
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two estimations
1. The estimation of the social power, social
relationship between himself and the
addressee:
2. The principle of tact, considerateness and
politeness
Message is the mean to achieve
the goal
Each message lies between the motives and the
purpose, that should satisfy the messenger’s
needs.
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the need to get an information TO the addressee and this
way influence his knowledge and viewpoints;
the need to get an information FROM the addressee;
to prevent him to do the unwanted act and
direct him to the desired act,
to apologize for the act, ….
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The speech act in a communication situation is a complex
procedure of constant deciding about the formation of the
message.
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from the luck choice it depends how the addressee will react to
this choice.
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If the messenger builds his message on the false assumptions
about the addressee, he could have missed the opportunity for
successful communication.
If he had hurt, the feelings and values of the addressee with the
chosen possibility (manipulative speech) he could have forever
broke the real social contacts.
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Conclusion?
Or just the beginning?
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Is the knowledge of Austin’s theory and
Hallidays functional linguistics and the
theory of pragmatics really enough?
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Is it possible only with lectures of these
theories to achieve by parents a
significant change in the direction of
adaptation of the necessary level of
communication competence?
The beginning!
We also need knowledge about
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the specific communication forms and
the dynamics of the developmental communication
forms by persons with mental retardation,
as well as the findings about communication didactics.
In the last one we can find the answer to the question
what shall teachers in the role of educators for
parents to become tutors “tell” them about the
communication competence and which methods
shall they use.
On this point
Leonardo project
decided to accept the advice of the Greek
expert partners in the project and lean the
communication curriculum for parents to the
INTECOM model.
Why does INTECOM communication
curriculum works?
We must widen the perspective:
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From the question WHAT DO WE DO WITH
WORDS
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we swich to the question
WHAT IS COMMUNICATION
WHAT IS COMMUNICATION
Communication is not only the act of speech. To
understand what is going on we must consider
other modes of "speaking act". We must think
about types of communication.
Types of communication:
Non vocal and vocal communication
NON VOCAL COMMUNICATION
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pulling or pushing another person to get help or attract
attention, use of gestures, such as nodding for yes,
shaking the head for no
smiles od frowns may be used intentionally to
communicate feelings
More subtle behaviors, such as standing close to another
person when talking, to show intimacy (deliberately or
not consciously intended.)
Sign and graphic languages
Preriquisites for communication and
language
Speaking of intention to teach children / people with learning
difficulties and /or mental retardation how to communicate, we
must know that not everybody can learn to use language.
We must consider prerequisites for communication and language
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Sensory abilities
Motor abilities
Processing skills
Communication and conversational skills
Something to say
Reasons for communication
Means of communication
Communication and conversational
skills.
The individual must know what do we do with
words:
if I do / say x, then he/she will do/say y'.
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The individual must have some appreciation
of cause and effect,
in Piagetian terms, means-end relationships.
Conversational skills
One needs to learn how to converse with other
people:
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how to take turns in conversation,
how to understand what the other person already
knows so that what she says will be meaningful to
them,
how to detect breakdowns in communication
and how to repair these breakdowns.
People with mental retardation
and coversationational skills
people with mental retardation can use these rules
surprisingly well but that whether they demonstrate
their abilities depends on the social
situation in which they find themselves.
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If the person with mental handicap is with her peers she
will show her abilities,
whereas when she is with someone who is more
powerful socially and who controls the conversation, the
abilities will not be shown.
Developing communication skills
in children with mental retardation
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The child or adult with mental retardation may
not be motivated to observe events and
objects around him, or he may have
restricted experience.
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The implication for teaching: we need to
encourage the child or adult with mental
retardation to be more involved and
interested in the world.
Developing communication skills
in children with mental retardation
Not everybody can use language!
The person with mental retardation may need
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to be taught receptive vocabulary,
taught to imitate and
taught an expressive vocabulary,
syntactic rules - both receptively and expressively,
taught to use a medium other than speech.
Developing communication skills
in children with mental retardation
We need to include in our teaching programs
opportunities for the people with mental
retardation to learn to express preferences, elicit
attention, ask questions, and give instructions.
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They need to learn how to interact in a communicative context,
how to decide on a topic for communication, to learn
what the other person knows,
to take turns in interacting about the topics and
to close off the interchange.
Developing communication skills
in children with mental retardation
The creation of a
communication-oriented environment
is crucially important for the learning of
communication skills!!!
How to teach?
At this point we reached our main point:
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the way (the didactics) how to "teach"
communication competence of children with
learning difficulties
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and how to teach their parents to encourage the
development of their communicative
competence and to communicate with them more
successfully.
How to develop contexts for teaching
communication
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we can create teaching communication
environment in an institution
or
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we can teach parents (tutors) to use such
situations in child's every day life,
as the INTECOM
communication curriculum
does.