Key Communication Terms Defined
Values – Beliefs that are long-lasting; they dictate attitudes towards people.
Beliefs – A conviction.
Attitude – Causes us to act in a positive and negative way.
Interpersonal Communication – Communication involving at least two people.
Intrapersonal Communication – Communication within oneself.
Small Group Communication – Communication involving at least three people.
Public Communication – Transmission of a message from a single person to numerous people.
Mass Communication – A single sender sends a message to unseen receivers.
Noise – Anything that interrupts a message.
Nonverbal Communication – The use of facial expressions and body language.
Rules of Communication – Dynamic, starts with you, never happens the same way twice, irreversible.
Phonetic Level of Language – Basic sounds and the first level of language.
Semantic Level of Language – The second level of language, focused on words and their meanings.
Pony Express – Preceded the telegraph system (established 1860, ended 1861).
Telephone – Alexander Graham Bell’s first successful telephone transmission (March 10, 1876).
Radio – Guglielmo Marconi’s transatlantic radio transmission (1901), often considered the “father of radio.”
ARPANET – Predecessor to the internet, developed by the U.S. military.
Work Group – Groups we belong to to complete a specific task.
Emergent Work Groups – Evolve spontaneously for a specific purpose.
Social Groups – Groups that shape our self-esteem and personality.
Additive Work Groups – Group members are all responsible for the same task.
Conjunctive Work Group – Members perform different but related tasks.
Disjunctive Work Group – Members solve a problem.
Groupthink – Members agree on a solution, often suppressing dissenting views.
Extemporaneous Delivery – A speech that has been researched and planned, delivered conversationally.
Library of Congress Classification – A system using letters and numbers to organize library collections, commonly used in academic libraries.
Attention Getter – A technique used to engage the audience at the beginning of a speech.
Credibility Statement – A part of the introduction where the speaker establishes their credibility on the topic.
Preview Statement – Gives the audience a glimpse of the main points to be covered in a speech.
Concrete Words – Refer to specific people, places, or things that can be perceived by the senses.
Abstract Words – Make general references to ideas, concepts, or qualities that cannot be perceived by the senses.
Proposition of Fact – A statement about an aspect of life that can be proved or disproved.
Proposition of Value – A statement about the worth, rightness, or morality of something, often reflecting personal preference.
Proposition of Policy – A statement proposing a change in a rule, law, or procedure.
Hearing – The physical reception of sound waves by the ears.
Listening – The brain’s reception and interpretation of sounds and messages.
Passive Listening – Listening without being fully engaged or actively processing the message.
Active Listening – Fully engaged in the listening process, paying close attention and responding.
Empathetic Listening – Listening to understand and share the feelings of another person.
Critical Listening – Listening to evaluate or judge the message.
Discriminative Listening – Listening to distinguish between different sounds and signs.
Sympathetic Listening – Listening with genuine concern for the other person’s situation.
Dialogic Listening – Listening as part of a dialogue, focusing on the exchange of thoughts and ideas.
Biased Listening – Listening in a way that filters messages to confirm existing biases or hear only what one wants to hear.
Appreciative Listening – Listening for pleasure or enjoyment, satisfying one’s own needs.
Listening for Comprehension – Listening to make sense of and understand the message being sent.
Kinesics – The study of how bodily movements communicate messages.
Chronemics – The study of how people organize and use time in communication.
Haptics – The study of how physical touch affects communication.
Self-Disclosure – The process of revealing personal information about oneself that others do not know.
Repetition – Using the same message with both verbal and nonverbal codes.
Substitution – Nonverbal codes are used in place of verbal codes.
Regulation – Using nonverbal codes to monitor and control interactions.
Dedication Speech – A speech given to commit something (like a building or monument) to a special, honored use.
Edward Everett – The featured speaker at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, preceding Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.