UNIT 3 1.

INTRODUCTION
THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS. FUNCTIONS OF Communication has many purposes, including the
LANGUAGE. LANGUAGE IN USE. THE NEGOTIATION exchange of information, the creation and maintainance of social
OF MEANING. relationships such as friendship, the negotiation of status and
social roles, as well as deciding on and carrying out joint actions.
Throughout all of these functions though, we can say that the
primary purpose of communication in our own language is
1. INTRODUCTION probably social. In this unit we are going to define
communication, look at the functions of language, language in
2. THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS. use and the negotiation of meaning. The information that we will
2.1. Characteristics of communication be using is taken from a variety of sources, including Quirk,
2.2. Elements in the communication process. Greenbaum, Baugh and Cable. Let us begin with a brief definition
of communication.
3. FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE.
3.1. Malinowki. 2. THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS.
3.2. Bühler
3.3. Jackobson‟s model 2.1. Characteristics of communication
3.4. Riffaterre. There is more to communication than just one person
3.5. Halliday‟s model. speaking and another one listening. Communication process is
quite complex. We differentiate verbal and non-verbal, oral and
4. LANGUAGE IN USE AND THE NEGOTIATION OF written, formal and informal, intentional and unintentional
MEANING. communication. In addition, there is human and animal
4.1. Language in use. communication, and nowadays we may also refer to human-
4.2. The negotiation of meaning. computer communication. From most of its history, the concept
of communication has always been approached from different
5. CONCLUSION disciplines, such as linguistics, anthropology, psychology, or
5.1. Implications for second language learning. sociology among others, in order to provide an appropriate
definition for the term. Still, communication is traditionally
understood as the exchange and negotiation of information
between at least two individuals through the use of verbal and
non-verbal symbols, oral and written, and production and
comprehension processes (Halliday 1973). From this definition
we conclude that the main features of the communication process
are as follows. First, it is a form of social interaction, and
therefore it is normally acquired and used in such an interaction.
Secondly, it always has a purpose, that is, to communicate, to
transmit information. Thirdly, it involves a high degree of
unpredictability and creativity, and therefore, a successful and
authentic communication should involve a reduction of
uncertainty on behalf of the participants. Finally, the
communication process involves both verbal and non-verbal
language, such as gestures or body language.
2.2. Elements in the communication process.
One of the most productive schematic models of a
communication system emerged from the speculations of the
Russian linguist R. Jakobson (1960) who extended other
linguists‟ models to his theory as we will see later. Its clarity has
made it become the best-known model to be followed on
language theory. Jakobson states that all acts of communication,
be they written or oral, are based on six constituent elements
associated with one of the six functions of language he proposed,
to be broadly examined in the next section. So according to him,
any particular act of communication takes place in a situational
contex, and it involves a sender (or addresser) and a receiver (or
addressee). It further involves a message which the sender
transmits and which the receiver interprets. The message is
formulated in a particular code, and for the whole thing to work,
sender and receiver must be connected by a channel through
which the message is sent. In acoustic communication it consists
of air, in written communication of paper or other writing
materials.
3. FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE.
It is now common in the study of language to recognize
that, as a system of communication, language has many functions,
and that is part of our competence as speakers not only to know
how to produce utterances, but also how to use them in different
situations of our social life. There have been many attempts to
categorize the functions of language, the number of categories
varying according to perspective or discipline. Historically
speaking, Plato was said to be the first to discuss and
instrumentalist definition of language, and according to his
definition, language primarily serves the purpose of
communication, as it is a linguistic tool. Some centuries later, and
anthropological perspective, brought about by B. Malinowski in
his book The problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages (1923),
states that language has only two main purposes: pragmatic and
ritual. For him, the pragmatic function refers to the practical use
of language, either active by means of speech or narrative by
means of written text. The ritual function is concerned with the
use of language associate to ceremonies, and also referred as
magic. Further instances of linguistic and semantic purposes are
broadly overviewed below within other linguists‟ models.
From Plato‟s distinction of first, second and third or
general person (related to the Rhetorical Grammar: the speaker,
the addressee and everything else), Psychologist Karl Bühler
(1923) distinguished three language functions: the expressive
function refers to the speaker‟s attitude towards the message, the
referent and the context of communication. By means of the
conative function, the message attempts to modify the receptive
subject‟s behaviour, attitude… and it is mainly represented by
imperatives and vocatives. The representational function relates
the message to the reality that the subjects share.
Bühler‟s scheme was adopted by the Prague School and
later extended by Roman Jakobson. As we have stated before,
Jakobson considers that all acts of communication, be they
written or oral, are based on six constituent elements. In his
model, each element being primarily associated with one of the
six functions of language he proposed. So apart from the 3
functions mention by Bühler (being emotive, conative and
referntial, referring to addresser, addreesee and context,
respectively), he added 3 more: The Phatic, which helps to
establish contact between addresser and addressee and it often
conveys ritualised formulae, eg. Hello, how do you do? Nice
weather, isn‟t it? or, to check the channel, Can you hear me?
The Metalingualinguistic deals with the verbal code itself. The
speaker and the receiver need to check whether they are using the
same code. eg: Do you understand? Or Sorry, what did you say?
The Poetic function: This focuses on the message for its own
sake. It deals with the message as a signifier within a decorative
or aesthetic function. This is achieved by means of rhetorical
figures, pitch or loudness.
Jakobson‟s notion of poetic language was developed by
Riffaterre, He based his theory on the distinction between mere
communication and literary communication, expressing that the
complexities of expressive and affective connotations must be
regarded to ensure understanding. For Riffaterre, the process of
decoding a message by the receiver is more important than
encoding it on the part of the speaker. It doesn‟t matter what
message is being sent, it is how it is received that is important. He
also believed that the message was a subjective reality apart from
any scientific or linguistic analysis, therefore stating a criticism in
relation to those who insisted on studying the language in a
scientific way, such as Jakobson.
In 1985, Halliday emphasizes the functions of language in
use by giving prominence to a social mode of expression, as
register influences the selection from a language‟s system.
Meaning was considered as a product of the relationship between
the system and its environment,. Messages combine an
organization of content according to the receptive needs of the
speaker and listener, and the meaning they are expressing. For
Halliday, there are three macro-functions that, in combination,
provide the basic functions on learning a foreign language: the
ideational, which refers to the expression of content: speaker‟s
experience of the world; the interpersonal: establishing and
maintaining social relations; and the textual. Establishing
cohesive relations in the sentences of the discourse: linking words
and relating meaning to context.
4. LANGUAGE IN USE AND THE NEGOTIATION OF
MEANING.
4.1. Language in use.
In relation to all of these functions of language that we
have just studied we have to say that initially L2 learners will use
the language for the communicative function. As speech is a
social event, it can be learned only through experience with
language in use. Rivers (1981) states that we have to distinguish
between language usage and language use. We may understand a
language system and be able to combine its linguistic elements to
express specific meanings, but we may still not understand a
word or feel unable to say what we really want to say. From the
1980s on, the term “use” was to be defined within the framework
of a foreign-language situation for students to use their
knowledge and ability in genuine communication. In an act of
communication, we are influenced by environmental factors as
well as by our own intentions, and therefore, the speakers will
select, according to the circumstances, a set of linguistic means in
order to express their own purposes. They needed to know which
levels of the language they should use in different circumstances
and how to negotiate meaning by means of asking acceptable
questions. This selection reflects the complexity of the use of
human language, as there are infinite aspects of meaning both
within language and in the relation between language and world.
4.2. The negotiation of meaning.
When communicating, speakers often experience
considerable difficulty when their resources in their foreign or
native language are limited. This effort to overcome
communicative difficulties in order to secure a mutual
understanding is known as the „negotiation of meaning‟. This is a
major feature of conversations concerning second language
acquisition, as strategies and tactics are involved in this process
on the part of the native speaker and the learner. Since Selinker
(1972) coined the term „communication strategy‟, there has been
a steady increase of interest in the learner‟s communication
process. Two main features characterize strategies: first, to be
potentially conscious and secondly, to be problem-oriented, that
is, that they are employed to overcome a communication
problem. Strategies and tactics can help to expand resources as
their main contribution is to keep the channel open, facilitation
the acquisition of new lexis and grammatical rules. Among the
main conversational devices the speaker uses to avoid problems,
within strategies we may mention checking understanding,
predicting, and selecting a topic. Within the tactics used to solve
the problem, we mainly mention asking for clarification and
repetition, speed reduction and topic switching. Other factors that
may affect the process of negotiation are the cooperative
principle, which points out the importance of being brief, true,
relevant and clear: or the turn-taking norms and conventions that
govern the distribution of talking among the participants in a
conversation: they differ according to the type of speech event,
e.g. raising a hand, the chairman… and they must be generally
negotiated in conversation, i.e., the topic nomination, expanding
information, using adjacency pairs, indicating comprehension…
acquire a communicative competence, where their knowledge and
ability in the foreign language will help them get the meaning of a
sentence, even if the different functions of language make it
difficult. Finally, students are provided with strategies and
techniques to overcome their communicative problems in an
attempt to make communication as real as possible in a formal
setting. As the study of the culture is an important aspect of
foreign language teaching, the students need opportunities to
interact with native speakers in natural settings through different
activities such as exchange and study abroad programs. At
present, this authentic communicative interaction is approached
within our current educational system through projects such as
“Comenius” and “Socrates”, intended to promote international
exchanges within the European Community, and projects such as
“Plumier” , designed to promote the use of new technologies to
communicate with other students worldwide. These three projects
are designed for student to practice and increase their learning in
the foreign language.

5.CONCLUSION
Since we are dealing with a communicative approach, it is
relevant to conclude mentioning the objectives that our current
educational system searches for. First, a focus on fluency to
promote an interactive group work in the classroom. Secondly, to
provide students with genuine interactions in order to increase
their learning in the foreign language. The aims is for students to