Is communication Much More than Language Skills?

Communication and language are two sides of the same coin and are very important for all beings. Language defines as a group of written and sound symbols while communication considers as a process of sending and receiving those symbols through verbal or nonverbal means. When people want to communicate, they can do that by using various means, for example, they can have a communicate through talking, writing, and drawing.

We have all been taught that language and communication have the same value and that both can affect our lives. Therefore, someone who claims that there is no importance of communication in our daily life and it is just a language skill and they do not need to communicate to get what they want will be heavily criticized. Such controversial ideas exist among people who do not have any contact with others, while some people feel that they cannot get their messages across by just using words even if they speak with people who speak the same language. Such a common idea is introduced by the professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University Deborah Tannen, in her books That's not what I meant! And You just don't understand! These books consider as bestsellers on this subject, and primarily intended for Americans who communicating with other Americans in English. The question is whether is communication so much more than just language skills? And if there is enough scientific evidence to support it.

Firstly, communication is one of the important means which help to transfer information and creating relationships between people and it’s have been defined by the media critic and theorist James Carey as “a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired and transformed” in his book Communication as Culture. In addition, he has maintained that communication is not just a transmission of information and reminded the reader of the link between these two words community and communication. James Carey seeks to reform the goal of communication studies and “to enlarge the human conversation by comprehending what others are saying.” (p.47).

Secondly, over time have been many studies showings that our communication does not depend on the words we speak. One of these studies contains a percentage known as the 7-38-55% rule from the research of Albert Mehrabian. That percentage shows that the import of our communication is 55% body language, 38% cent voice, and 7% words only. According to Allie Edwardson, the concept of this percentage is congruence between these percentages will give more effective communication.

Lastly, not only does Edwardson believe that communication is a match between these three percentages, she also has identified that five areas that need to be sufficiently developed for us to succeed with our international communication thus one or two of them are not enough. She believes that we need all five and in the right combination to form an integrated and effective communication. The five areas are language skills, intercultural skills, communication skills, personal skills, and small talk skills.

In conclusion, Edwardson evidently believes that communication is much more than language skills and if we want to have effective communication, we need to enforce these five areas not only one or two of them.  As we have seen, she has several proofs to support her thoughts and has many supporters who support his beliefs. She has based her views on communication on the scientific evidence, for example, the 7-38-55% rule and some ideas introduced by the professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University Deborah Tannen in her books.

Fortunately, Allie Edwardson is an expert in communication and stress management, and all she provides is recognized and will be accepted by the public which will help them to understand that communication is more than language skills. I think we all agree, that it would be nice to rely on the ideas that were introduced by all supporters of the idea that communication is a group of five areas that we can't abandon any one of them.

Source:

Carey, James W. Communication as Culture, Revised Edition. Routledge, 2008.

Edwardson, Allie. Cracking the code of international communication: the intercultural fluency

handbook. Liber, 2013.

Eva Hedencrona, Karin Smed-Gerdin, Peter Watcyn-Jones. Solid Gold 2. Studentlitteratur AB, 2015.