Objective: recognizing communication styles

Business: board, seating, attendance, greeting

Warm up: story

Schemata: Ask Ss. To express yourself in a second language environment, what things do you need to
learn?

Language systems: Phonological system (sounds), lexical system (meanings of words), syntactical system
(order of words within sentences), functional system (using words in particular situations), discourse
system (the way that communication makes sense, or how sentences relate or don’t relate to each
other.) + culture

What’s an effective communication?

An effective communication allows both the speaker and the listener to give and receive information in
useful and supportive ways. And it is essential to a happy and productive environment. For example, you
can ask someone for using their pen in different ways (politely ‘do you mind if use you pen?’ or
impolitely/aggressively/in a rude way ‘give your pen’).

In direct communication, you say exactly what you mean to convey clear messages. It is used when
there is no room for discussion/compromise or when the listener is not allowed to respond with an
opinion like in giving orders. For example, when your supervisor say to you, ‘you must get to work on
time every day. You must not be late again.’ This is pretty clear.

In indirect (vague) communication, you say something in a way that doesn’t convey an absolutely clear
message to understand. For example, suppose your supervisor says to you, ‘please be mindful of your
arrival time every day.’ On one hand, you are aware of the fact that you’re sometimes 15 min late to
work and your supervisor’s words may indicate that this time is okay to come. On the other hand, his
words may indicate that he doesn’t like you being late.

Which communication style is more accurate?

Depending on situation and context, either one is accurate. The indirect message from the supervisor (as
mentioned above) may be more pleasant to receive, but it doesn’t convey a clear message to
understand while the direct message may be more aggressive, but it conveys a clear understandable
message.

Questions page 28.

1. I know someone is being direct with me when they:

want me to understand clearly.
are giving me an order.
are rude or aggressive.
2. If I want to say something that may hurt someone’s feelings, I:
 I will say it directly and clearly.
3. I think English is more/less direct than my native language because:
It includes a lot of idioms or figurative expressions.