GE5 Module 1 Pretest and Lesson 1

Module 1
Title Introduction to Communication
Description This module introduces the basic concepts of contemporary,
modernist, and popular literature
Outcome Describe the nature, elements, and functions of verbal and
non- verbal communication and develop communicative
competence towards a multicultural audience in global and
local settings
Requirement/s
Key Terms  Communication
 Communication models
 Ethical communication
 Globalization
 Multicultural communication
 Language registers

PRETEST
Read each question carefully and choose the best answer among the choices. Write
only the letter on the space before each number. If the answer is not in the choices,
write E. Do not cheat on this test by reading the lessons or searching for answers
online.

1. Which among the following is the main feature of Aristotle’s communication model?
A. It is interactive and transactional in nature.
B. Speakers must adjust speech according to audience to achieve an effect.
C. Both the speaker and receiver are actively involved in the exchange of info.
D. There is a provision for the feedback as an important element.
2. What is the correct order of Aristotle’s communication model?
A. effect-speech-audience-speaker
B. speaker-message-audience-occasion
C. speaker-speech-effect-audience
D. speaker-speech-audience-effect
3. What is the other term for Shannon-Weaver’s communication model?
A. telephone model C. feedback model
B. transactional model D. tech-based model
4. In Shannon-Weaver’s model, which step is most susceptible to noise?
A. sender B. feedback C. channel D. decoder
5. Which among the following is NOT true about the feedback?
A. It ensures that the message is successfully received.
B. It contributes to the physiological noise facilitating communication.
C. It makes sender check the comprehension of message.
D. Receiver can tell or show if he/she understood.

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6. What is true about the field of experience in Osgood-Schramm’s model?

A. For better delivery of message, participants must have dissimilar fields of
experience.
B. Language is not an example of the field of experience.
C. It tells of the place and time of communication.
D. Culture or beliefs common to the participants
7. What is the correct order of White’s oral communication model?
A. symbolizing-expressing-monitoring-decoding-transmitting
B. monitoring-thinking-expressing-symbolizing-receiving
C. thinking-expressing-feedbacking-decoding-monitoring
D. None of the above
8. Which among the following is a characteristic of White’s model?
A. Communication can begin at any step.
B. There is an absence of feedback.
C. It is linear.
D. Receivers are passive.
9. Which principle in the credo is violated when a local celebrity denies and does not
apologize for his/her racist comments in the past?
A. Truthfulness, accuracy, honesty and reason
B. Freedom of expression, diversity of perspective, and tolerance of dissent
C. Condemnation of communication that degrades humanity and individuals
D. The acceptance of consequences of our own communication
10. Which principle is violated when the president declares martial law?
A. Truthfulness, accuracy, honesty and reason
B. Freedom of expression, diversity of perspective, and tolerance of dissent
C. Condemnation of communication that degrades humanity and individuals
D. The acceptance of consequences of our own communication
11. Which principle is violated by this statement: If you’re gay, you’re going to hell!
A. Truthfulness, accuracy, honesty and reason
B. Freedom of expression, diversity of perspective, and tolerance of dissent
C. Condemnation of communication that degrades humanity and individuals
D. The acceptance of consequences of our own communication
12. Which among the following situations violate the principle of honesty, accuracy,
and reason?
A. A barangay chairman does not consult his constituents when deciding on
policies
B. President Duterte is criticized for not fulfilling his promises during election.
C. The killing of farmers who tried to protest
D. A news agency is biased towards a political party as evidence by their news
reports.
13. Which among the following is NOT an indication of globalization?
A. Airfare has become cheaper
B. Snail mail as the only means of communication
C. The free trade of goods and services all over the world
D. The internet has changed the way we communicate

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14. Which among the following is NOT true about World Englishes?
A. There is only one English variety.
B. Some varieties are stigmatized like the g-dropping of the African-American.
C. All varieties are equal in their functions.
D. British English is better than Filipino English.
For numbers 15-19, tell if the following statements/situations are A. British, B.
American, or C. Filipino English.
15. We will organise the Colour Fun Run.
16. Did you take out my pants from the laundry?
17. For while I will just call my manager.
18. I walked out of the lift soaking wet.
19. I will go ahead. Bye!
20. What is the standard English?
A. Contains regional or colloquial terms
B. Punctuation and spelling system vary.
C. Makes use of local idioms or expressions.
D. Does not include slangs and vulgarisms.
21. Which among these sentences follow the standard form?
A. What the actual f**k?
B. Excuse me, I will go to the comfort room.
C. I ain’t perfect. You ain’t perfect.
D. May I go now?
22. Which among the following statements is politically correct?
A. My sister is an AIDS victim.
B. Jojo is confined to a wheelchair.
C. This park is a synthetic ecosystem.
D. A bunch of squatters live in this barangay.
For numbers 23-26, in what ways are these statements not politically correct or
insensitive? Write A for race and ethnicity, B for gender and sexual orientation, C for
social class, D for age, and E for disability.
23. Students in that school are so jologs.
24. The autistic child was bullied in school.
25. My dad cut ties with me because I’m a faggot.
26. Asians have such small eyes.
For numbers 27-30, identify the register used in the following statements by writing A
for frozen, B for formal, C for consultative, D for casual, and E for intimate.
27. You're so good. I'm crazy about you, Honey.
28. Thank you for applying for this position. We'll let you know within a week if you
have been chosen for an interview.
29. Hey, Jack. What's up?
30. A provider of relevant and quality education to a society where citizens are
competent, skilled, dignified, and community-oriented.’

End of Pre-Test

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Lesson 1:
Communication Processes and Ethics
Lesson Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
 Understand the importance of communication in society;
 Relate the communication models to their experiences and apply
them to their own communication processes; and
 Discuss the principles and relevance of ethical communication
and detect examples and non-examples of such.


Introduction
In this lesson, you will be exposed to the different ways of looking at
communication. It should give you a good understanding of why communication
should be studied at the tertiary level, and the potential of such a course in helping
you transition yourselves and your society. You will also be introduced to the different
guidelines in communicating in an ethical manner.

LET’S GET STARTED!

I. Answer the following:
1. Why is communication important to you and the society?
2. Why do you think communication skills are considered to be essential in being
a good citizen?
3. Why do you think should there be ethics in communication?
4. What problems can arise when people are not ethical in their communication
practices?

LET’S READ!
I. Introduction (Santos & Uychoco, 2018)
It is a mistake to believe that communication is a simple process. Although people
communicate with one another every day, the real question is whether the ideas one
has expressed are truly understood by another. Communication breakdowns happen
in every part of the globe, and these have led to a plethora of problems. Effective
communication can breach peace, spark revolutions, and affect change in
government. However, to communicate properly, one cannot simply strive to express
oneself and leave understanding to fate; one must also learn to organize one’s
thoughts, control one’s emotions, use one’s words to articulate concepts and
arguments, and express oneself in the best way possible.
The art of one’s communication reflects the art of one’s thinking. According to
James Berlin (1982), one of the proponents of The New Rhetoric, “In teaching writing,
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we are not only offering training in a useful technical skill that is meant as a simple
complement to the more important studies of other areas. We are teaching a way of
experiencing the world, a way of ordering and making a sense of it.”
This is also true when it comes to all the language skills essential in
communication, whether this is in writing, reading, listening, or speaking. They are
tools that help us analyze, critique, and negotiate with the world. To construct ideas
and bring people to believe in one’s vision, it is important to be able to communicate
in an effective, articulate manner. On a personal level, honing one’s communication
skills, can also bring about success to one’s personal and professional life.
To lead nations or corporations, communication skills are essential. To work
smoothly as a team, communication is indispensable. And to create a vision that
people will believe in, one needs to learn how to communicate purposeful in today’s
society.

II. Communication Models

A model is widely used to depict any idea, thought or a concept in a simpler way
through diagrams, pictorial representations etc. Models go a long way in making the
understanding of any concept easy and clear. Through a model one can easily
understand a process and draw conclusions from it. In simpler words a model makes
the learning simple.
A. Aristotle’s Model of Communication

The earliest model comes from Aristotle at around 5 B.C. In this model, Aristotle
explain that speakers should adjust their messages accordingly to their audience and
the occasion to achieve a particular effect. Let us apply this to a modern example.
After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, then US President
Franklin Roosevelt delivered a stirring speech to declare war on Japan on December
9 (National Geographic, 2017). The speaker, in this case, was US President Franklin
Roosevelt and his speech was crafted especially for the occasion, filled with strong
words that were crisp and straight to the point. The occasion was the US President’s
response to the attack on Pearl Harbor; the main audience was the US Congress; and
the effect was to persuade members of Congress to declare war on Japan, which they
did, with only one dissenting vote. These components of speaker, speech, occasion,
audience, and effect should be considered when communicating one’s message.

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B. Shannon-Weaver’s Model of Communication

The Shannon-Weaver model was created by Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver
(Flores, 2016). According to the website, CommunicationTheory.org, in 1948,
Shannon and Weaver wrote an article in the Bell System Technological Journal titled
“A Mathematical Theory of Communication.” According to Flores (2016), this is also
often called the “Telephone Model,” since it was developed because of the technology
of the telephone and the experience of “noise” coming from the switchboard.
The sender would be the person giving the message, while the encoder would be
the transmitter which converts the message into signals. Let us use the modern
example of the mobile phone. With our modern example, the encoder would be the
cellphone, and the sender, of course, would be the person calling. The decoder, on
the other hand, would be the reception place of the signal which converts signals into
message, which is why in modern parlance, when there is “no signal,” there is difficulty
in decoding the message. The receiver would be the destination of the message by
sender which would be the person being called- and when there are problems, or
“noise,” that interferes with the message, then the receiver would give feedback, which
is usually phrased as “choppy,” when the message cannot be heard because of the
signal. The messages are transferred through the use of a channel; in the case of the
telephone, the channel would be the cables, while in the case of the of the cellphone,
the channel would be the radio frequencies.
This model can also be used in other situations, and can tell us how the message
may sometimes get lost because of the noise, which can be physical of psychological,
and how feedback is an essential component of communication to ensure that the
message is successfully received.
C. Osgood-Schramm Model of Communication
On the other hand, when it comes to Schramm’s model of communication, there
are two primary models involved. The first one is built on the theories of Osgood, which
is why this is also known as the Osgood-Schramm model.

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In this model, pay attention to the role of the interpreter. Encoding and decoding
are not automatic processes both go through the filter of the interpreter. Therefore, the
message may succeed or fail, based on the interpreter’s appreciation of the message.
There are times when the sender and receiver may apply different meanings to the
same message, and this is termed “semantic noise.” His second model, on the other
hand, builds this theory about the interpreter into the different fields of experience of
the seder and the receiver.

For the message to reach the receiver, there must be a common field of experience
between the sender and the receiver. Although the receiver might not fully appreciate
the nuances of the message, as there are parts of the sender’s experience that the
receiver has no knowledge of, the receiver may still understand the core meaning of
the message. According to Snesha Mishra (2017), this field of experience may
constitute “culture, social backgrounds, beliefs, experiences, values, and rules.”
D. White’s Stages of Oral Communication
According to Eugene White, it is possible to begin at any of the stages outlined in
his model. People are under the mistaken impression that when we communicate, we
usually we start with thinking, but that is not necessarily the case. Since it is s circular
model, it means that oral communication is a continuous process with no real
beginning or end. The most important contribution from Eugene White’s model is the
concept of feedback, which can only be processed by the speaker if he or she has
been monitoring the audience or the listener. Hence, the speaker must also pay
attention to the listener’s verbal and non-verbal cues.

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Thinking Symbolizing Expressing

Monitoring Transmittin
g

Feedbacking Decoding Receiving

I. Communication Ethics
In 1999, the National Communication Association, NCA, officially adopted the
Credo for Ethical Communication. The organization updated the credo in 2017.
Ultimately, the NCA Credo for Ethical Communication is a set of beliefs communication
scholars have about the ethics of human communication.
Questions of right and wrong arise whenever people communicate. Ethical
communication is fundamental to responsible thinking, decision making, and the
development of relationships and communities within and across contexts, cultures,
channels, and media. Moreover, ethical communication enhances human worth and
dignity by fostering truthfulness, fairness, responsibility, personal integrity, and respect
for self and others. We believe that unethical communication threatens the quality of
all communication and consequently the well-being of individuals and the society in
which we live. Therefore we, the members of the National Communication Association,
endorse and are committed to practicing the following principles of ethical
communication:
1. We advocate truthfulness, accuracy, honesty, and reason as essential to
the integrity of communication. Example: Students should accurately quote
and cite the sources of researched information they use in written and oral
reports.
2. We endorse freedom of expression, diversity of perspective, and
tolerance of dissent to achieve the informed and responsible decision
making fundamental to a civil society. Example: Work groups should create
a supportive climate in which members feel free to express their ideas,
opinions, values, and feelings.
3. We strive to understand and respect other communicators before
evaluating and responding to their messages. Example: When arguing with
someone, you should try to understand that person’s beliefs and values before
making a judgment.
4. We promote access to communication resources and opportunities as
necessary to fulfill human potential and contribute to the well-being of
individuals, families, communities, and society. Example: When working in
virtual group contexts, members should have access to similar software and
equipment
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5. We promote communication climates of caring and mutual understanding

that respect the unique needs and characteristics of individual
communicators. Example: You and your friends should respect and adapt to
people whose cultural backgrounds are different from yours.
6. We condemn communication that degrades individuals and humanity
through distortion, intimidation, coercion, and violence, and through the
expression of intolerance and hatred. Example: You should stand up and
criticize statements that belittle or stereotype other people.
7. We are committed to the courageous expression of personal convictions
in pursuit of fairness and justice. Example: People who oppose a country’s
policies and actions abroad should be allowed to express their well-reasoned
opinions without being labeled unpatriotic.
8. We advocate sharing information, opinions, and feelings when facing
significant choices while also respecting privacy and confidentiality.
Example: At work, managers/supervisors should keep employees informed
about their individual progress in private and in confidence.
9. We accept responsibility for the short- and long-term consequences of
our own communication and expect the same of others. Example: If you
upset or anger family members, you should accept the consequences of your
actions.

LET’S REMEMBER!
In conclusion, communication is not a simple process that starts with the speaker
and ends with the listener- there are many factors that should be considered. When it
comes to the message, how the message is organized and what field of experience it
comes from should be taken into consideration. When it comes to the sender, the best
communication is the one that involves a feedback. Furthermore, there are several
kinds of “noise” that may severely affect the reception of the message and thus, should
be considered and avoided. Cultural differences, technology, and interpretation need
to be considered as well. To be good communicators, one needs to pay attention to
how people are responding to the message, and adjust accordingly, rather than being
preoccupied with simply expressing oneself.
In addition, we should also consider the consequences of our actions every time
we communicate. If people were more responsible in their use of communication, there
would be less conflict in this world. The credo for ethical communication are important
because they help us discern the difference between ethical and unethical
communicators.

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LET’S DO THIS!
I. Answer the following:
1. Think of any communication situation you’ve had in the past and explain it using
one of the communication models discussed.
2. Watch this video (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=691366991792278) of
Cebu Mayor Gwen Garcia and explain the credo/s violated. Explain.

Sources/ References:
 Miller, J., Lawler-Mcdonough, M., Orcholski, M., Woodward, K., Roth, L.,
& Mueller, E. (2017, August 24). Understanding the Ethics of Public
Speaking. Retrieved August 16, 2020, from
https://uwm.pressbooks.pub/uwmpublicspeaking/chapter/understanding-the-
ethics-of-public-speaking/
 Santos & Uychoco (2018). Communication for society. Manile: Rex Book
Store, Inc.

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