1 What is communication?
Activity _unit2.1.1 Activity 1
Have a look at these images. What do all these things have in common?
| image | image | image | image |
|---|---|---|---|
Figure 1 What do they have in common?
Look again, and make a note of what you think each of them is communicating.
Discussion
- a.Bird singing – could be trying to defend its territory or attract a mate.
- b.Ambulance with flashing lights and siren – get out of the way, I’m in a hurry.
- c.Phone with incoming text message – someone wants to ask or tell another person something.
- d.Cat winding itself around its owner’s feet and purring loudly – this usually means that it wants its dinner!
- e.Person holding another’s hand – offering comfort or kindness.
- f.Baby crying – its only way to tell you that something is wrong.
- g.Phone ringing and person answering – someone wants to ask or tell another person something.
- h.Radio/TV with news coming on – information about what’s going on in the world.
They are all communicating in some way – they all have something to tell you.
We communicate all the time, sometimes without realising it. Something as simple as a raise of the eyebrow, a smile or a frown can convey a clearly understood message from one person to another. In fact, everything we do is communication. We can show people what mood we are in just by the way we walk down the street or by the way we answer the phone. The next activity asks you to think about the ways people communicate.
Activity _unit2.1.2 Activity 2
As you just saw, there are many ways to communicate. See if you can write down at least ten of them here.
Discussion
Here are just some of them:
- blog
- body language
- eye contact
- letters
- physical gestures
- pictures
- podcast
- radio
- sign language
- Skype
- speech
- telephone
- text
- touch
- TV
- voice-simulator
and many more.