Communication Accommodation Theory And Social Structure

Different social, professional and cultural contexts may affect relationships and the way people communicate due to of a lack of understanding or knowledge of one another’s background and culture. This could be through their race, religion, ethnicity or where they come from. Each one of these can have similar or very different ways to communicate. For example

Communication involves more than exchanging words between people. Gestures, postures, facial expressions and even eye contacts are important during communication. Both verbal and nonverbal cues are important during communication and can help a person understand the speaker or listener’s emotions, attitudes or status. Understanding the existence of various cultures is necessary since different cultures have varying ways of communication (Lustig & Koester, 2012). Therefore, a communication style that is perceived as bad by a culture may be good in another culture. Besides, characteristics that may be essential for a particular culture may be quite irrelevant for another. In line with this dissimilarity, individuals need to adapt carefully and understand communication preferences and desires among cultures.

Nowadays, people are exposed to more cultures that they are not accustomed to than in the past. As the years go by, more interracial marriages are being accepted exposing future generations to multi-cultures. I am an American teenager with an Hispanic background. My parents, born and raised in Guatemala immigrated to the United States a few years before my birth. Since my birth, I have been exposed to two very different types of cultures. I have lived in the United States all my life while I have visited Guatemala a couple of times for a few weeks each. Being more accustomed to life in the United States, life in Guatemala is very distinctive. Communicating with family in Guatemala was definitely more challenging than communicating with the family back home in the United States. These types of situations have led to “complexities” in communication, a topic that LaRay M. Barna analyzes thoroughly in her article “Intercultural Communication Stumbling Blocks.” The “complexities” in communication that Barna addresses are spread into five stumbling blocks: language, nonverbal signs and symbols, preconceptions and stereotypes, tendency to evaluate, and high anxiety. These five stumbling blocks can occur in any shape or form in communication between two cultures. Language, nonverbal signs and symbols, as well as preconceptions and stereotypes are the stumbling blocks that occurred most when communicating with my family that reside in Guatemala.

From a theoretical standpoint, communication accommodation theory is an important lens to examine to further understand why people feel compelled to change their speaking style. According to communication accommodation theory, individuals accommodate, or adapt, their speaking style because “people tend to mirror each other’s communication styles to display liking and respect” (du Pre, 2017, p. 148). Under communication accommodation theory there are five levels: full convergence, partial convergence, hyperconvergence, speech maintenance, and divergence (Street, 1982). The first, full convergence, occurs when individuals completely mirror another’s speaking style. For example, in intergenerational communication, if a young caregiver modified his or her communication to adopt a slower communication style, they would be exhibiting full convergence. In partial convergence, an individual modifies his or her speaking style, but does not completely mirror their partner’s communication style. When an individual exhibits hyperconvergence, also known as overaccomodation, they display an exaggerated response to their partner’s communication speaking style. An example of this in intergenerational communication would be if a caregiver used “baby talk” when speaking to a patient who was an older adult. As implied, if someone did not adjust their communication style and maintained their own, they would be exhibiting speech maintenance. Finally,

People accommodated their communication while interacting with a person who has higher standards and other characteristics which they believe is better than them. And the divergent exhibits an opposite characteristic as it emphasizes the difference among the close relations with each other. Communication accommodation theory is influenced by social psychology and is guided by four major assumptions. While communicating there will be similarity and difference in the speech and behavior. The characteristics that people exhibit is based on our experiences and the cultural backgrounds that we grew up in. A conversation is evaluated by understanding the perception of the speech and behavior of the other. Through evaluation, people decides to accommodate and fit in. The social status and belonging are determined by language and behaviors. While people communicate, they tend to accommodate the behaviors of those who are in the higher social status than them. This theory guides and defines the behaviors of people the accommodation process which varies in the degree of appropriateness. Norms and they are expected to act

Intercultural communication: A discourse approach attempts to explain the discourse approach and points to the authors ' distinction between cross-cultural communication and intercultural communication. The chapter underlines the authors ' approach and theory to intercultural communication. It covers several explanations and the distinction between cross-cultural communication and intercultural communication. The chapter discusses the many varieties of culture that exist. It also clarifies that intercultural communication can occur in conversations not necessarily when two people are from different countries.

Discourse analysis as described by Paltridge is “An approach to the analysis of language that looks at patterns of language across texts as well as the social and cultural contexts in which the text occurs” (Paltridge, 2012: 1). As a discourse analyst, I will explore and interpret by deconstructing selected texts in a specific way that challenges its meaning. To understand what the text is

This paper is going to show insight and inside knowledge of the communication accommodation theory through convergence, divergence, social identity, and initial orientation. Throughout this paper, evidence will be shown through these four different elements and four studies on how they play an enormous role within communication behavior. Research that I have conducted show studies that have tested and analyzed how participants in each test use these four elements when speaking with a foreigner. I am going to apply these tests and results to my own experiences when I am speaking with a foreigner, specifically for when I am in Sweden each summer when I am communicating with Swedes. Then I will to go through and analyze how I converge, diverge, use initial orientation and social identity while speaking with a Swede.

Social communication is increasingly becoming a subject of scientists’ discussions from different disciplines, as well as ordinary language users. In contemporary social sciences, especially in linguistics, we see a clear shift to discourse. Discourse allows us to talk about use of the language, as well as the language as a socio-cultural activity. In this sense, discourse, on one hand, reflects the social reality, on the other hand, it shapes it, therefore participate in the creation and pass on different values, ideologies and symbolic power. This essay aims to show the definition of Critical Discourse Analysis and also show how useful it is for exploring issues of power and inequality in relation to gender.

In society today, people have friends that belong to numerous diverse cultural groups. When it comes to meeting new people from unique cultural groups, the form of communication are all different. Those that do not use the correct form of communication when encountering new people from different ethnicity, it can lead to misunderstanding and tremendous conflicts. For instance, I am Vietnamese and in our culture, the way people communicate determines their characteristics, personalities, and how educated they are. This is extremely important in my culture since it reveals how we treat adults and if we admire them or not. On the other hand, my friend Yary, who is Cambodian, her way of communicating defines how respectful one is, based on their tone. The Cambodian and the Vietnamese’s lifestyle tends to have multiple similarities, but also have a few differences about certain topics. When it comes to communicating, the situational context, physical appearance, and self presentation all plays a different role in every heritage. To learn extend my knowledge about different cultures and their way of communicating, I interviewed my friend Yary, to compare and contrast our way of communicating through our culture.

As conceptualized by Young Yun Kim, the interethnic communication theory describes the multifaceted layers and factors in communication event. Described as an open system, interethnic communication occurs between communicators and their interactant(s) who possess characteristic similarities or differences in terms of their ethnic or identity markers (Kim, 2005). There are four layers to her theory: behavior, communicator, situation, and environment. All of these layers contribute to how the communicator and their interactant decides to interact, whether it is associative or dissociative. This paper will focus on the situation layer.

Discourse is the written or spoken/verbal communication. Discourse analysis is the study of language in use to expand on the definition discourse analysis is the study of the meanings we give language and the actions* carried out when language is used in specific contexts. Why does on read texts and how do they read texts (Gee, 1989)

Discourse analysis is the analysis of language in use. This goes beyond the use of words or clauses, or even sentences. It has to do with the study of speeches and the analysis of what we see, hear, or even face in everyday life. Discourse analysis has many approaches: for example, we have speech acts, pragmatics, critical discourse analysis, conversational analysis and the ethnography of speaking. I will start by giving brief definitions of each of the approaches. Austin (1962) defined speech acts as the actions performed when saying something, and they are categorized as declarations, representations, commissives, directives, and expressives. Pragmatics consists of four maxims which are essential for a cooperative conversation. Grice (1975) talked about these maxims which are the maxim of quality, quantity, relation, and manner. The maxim of quality is to answer a question by a response you are sure about. This maxim can be flouted to avoid answering a question by using a hyperbole or so. The maxim of quantity is by giving the right amount of information while answering a question or talking. It can be flouted by giving too little or too much information to

It's the investigation of the relationship between form and function in verbal communication (Renkema, 2004, p.1). According to Longman Dictionary, Discourse is a general term for examples of language use, i.e. language which has been used as the result of an act of communication. Discourse refers to larger units of language such as paragraphs, conversation, interviews, sermons, speeches….etc. Discourse can be written or spoken. The study of how sentences in written and spoken language form larger units such as paragraphs is discourse analysis (Longman dictionary, p.147). What makes a sequence of sentences a discourse is cohesion (Renkema, 2004, p.49).

Discourse analysis’s focus “is rooted in three basic tenets: construction, function and variation” (Potter, 1987). The assumption is that discourses are constructed through