A comparison study of teacher self-efficiency beliefs of Korean and Native teachers of English

Communication is one factor in human relations that could not be removed from existing within the community of humans. This is primarily because of the fact that it is something that keeps the relationship of people from all over the world intact in creating one particular community.

Communication is indeed one of the oldest procedures of humans in connecting with each other. Within the ancient years, people utilized sounds to be able to connect to each other. Later on, the sounds developed into words, words into phrases and now, people are already capable of expressing themselves through speaking different languages.

This fact leads to the proof that one of the most important needs of people is to communicate. It is the particular factor that separates humans from other creations, since they are able to connect to others through the use of words, or body language, they have the means by which they are able to express their innermost thoughts through communicating their minds to others.

Larry Alan Nadig further describes communication in the following manner:

“Expressing our wants, feelings, thoughts, and opinions clearly and effectively is only half of the communication process needed for interpersonal effectiveness. The other half is listening and understanding what others communicate to us. When a person decides to communicate with another person, he/she does so to fulfill a need.

The person wants something, feels discomfort, and/or has feelings or thoughts about something. In deciding to communicate, the person selects the method or code which he/she believes will effectively deliver the message to the other person. The code used to send the message can be either verbal or nonverbal.

When the other person receives the coded message, they go through the process of decoding or interpreting it into understanding and meaning. Effective communication exists between two people when the receiver interprets and understands the sender’s message in the same way the sender intended it.” (TEL, 2001, Internet)

However, through the years, the development of the artistic and strategic way of using communication as a link towards other people has been continuously improving.

Now, at the brink of globalization, more and more people are having the capability of connecting to others of different races from their own through communication, yet they are lacking the skills of doing so. How then are humans supposed to face this particular challenge of social progress? The book of Rudolph and Kathleen Verderber discusses the four major ways by which human society could gain the right skills to communicate.

The Four Keys of Successful Communication

According to the Verderber[s], successful speech communication with others could only be attained through constant practice. This practice does not only involve one’s own effort of attaining the skills of rightful speech. In a concise discussion within the four chapters of their book, Kathleen and Rudolph gave the four basic steps by which people could gain good and considerably practical communication skills.

Foundations of Communication

This section includes some topics such as verbal and nonverbal communication, plus the perception of self and others. The said topic primarily focuses on the ability of the person to use all the possible ways to be able to connect with others in the society, making certain stress on the fact that people do need to communicate with others because it is innate in them to do so. Using this as the main foundation of learning the skills for speech is certainly a fine start for someone wanting to gain the right knowledge needed to converse with others.

Interpersonal Communication

 This part of the book includes several topics ranging from listening and job interviews to communicating in relationships. Most likely, the focus of this part is to show the reader how communication skills are practically applied in real life. The aim of the authors is primarily to encourage the readers to believe the fact that they cannot do away with the fact that communication is a regular part of human living and they could not do away with it.

Group Communication

This particular section tells the reader how to participate in groups as well as how to apply leadership within groups through the use of fine communicating skills on the part of the one creating the conversation.

Public Speaking

The Final chapter discusses how to pick a topic, research it, adapting to an audience. It also gives a clear description of the differences between informative vs. persuasive speaking. This part mainly focuses on the capability of the readers to develop their skills in expressing themselves in front of a crowd as they hold their attention through the discussions that they are addressing them.

Through the discussion of the four major chapters of the book Communicate!, it could be noted that the authors of the book wanted to stress on the importance of an individual’s ability in expressing himself whether personally or publicly. The constant recognition of the fact that people are indeed capable and are responsible for communicating themselves with others has particularly made this reading material a must read.

It could not be denied that through the discussions that the authors presented, the importance of listening is given ample focus. The authors even noted: “Listening is one part of communication that cannot be denied of attention; there is certainly a non-existent communication if the art of listening is not applied by the parties that are having a particular conversation.” (Verderber, 25)