Communicative Language Abilities

Introduction

As is often the case with other psychological functions, most people think they know the meaning of communication. Problems arise, however, when experts try to define communication, specify what it consists of, and determine its limits. Definitions can range from very broad concepts, where the simple transmission of information is considered to constitute valid communication, to more restrictive ones that imply both intent and awareness of the communicative act. Below we briefly describe the basic skills needed to communicate, as well as ways of assessing them.

Basic Communication Skills

Although linguistic abilities used to be considered sufficient for good communication, language and communication are now seen as two different functional systems. However, the relationship between them is not clear.

Among the communicative skills attributed to the speaker, the message has always had a privileged position and has been seen as responsible for the success or failure of the communicative exchange. To formulate good messages, speakers have to know what they want to communicate, identify and select the information to be transmitted, and produce unambiguous messages. However, it is not easy, even for adults, to provide unambiguous messages, nor to detect ambiguous or incomplete ones.

In order to produce and above all to restructure messages, speakers or listeners have to articulate knowledge about the message itself (meaning), about the partner (status, age, linguistic and cognitive skills, etc.) and about the context (its characteristics and the extent to which context is shared by interlocutors).

Knowledge of the roles and rules governing the communicative exchange should also be taken into account (turn-taking, topic maintenance or change, etc). Furthermore, the distinction between what is meant (communicative intention and message representation) and what is said has to be made (Bonitatibus, 1988; Robinson & Mitchell, 1992).

Messages are directed to others (social language), but sometimes they can be directed inward (private speech) (see Table 1). To formulate social messages the speaker has to be skilled in role taking, taking into account the partner's characteristics and adapting the message accordingly. Likewise, the listener also has to understand messages from the speaker's perspective. Any lack of ability in role taking has a negative effect on the negotiation process.

Even though communicative responsibility is shared, a skilled listener can change the course of communication (Patterson & Kister, 1981). The listener's most powerful skill for disambiguating messages is asking questions, and then contributing any relevant information held. A well-formed query exercises two functions: a selective one with respect to the previous message (indicating the confusing terms, pointing out potential new information, etc.), and a determining function regarding the requested response (repetition, confirmation, specification, etc.) (Garvey, 1979).

Communicative exchange is not limited solely to the sharing of information. Partners, throughout communicative exchange, actively and deliberately attempt to control their own behaviour (self-regulation) and that of their partner (interlocutor regulation) through verbal utterances of different regulatory force (strong or weak). Regulation can also be carried out by a more capable outside agent such as a tutorial support system.

Private speech or internal regulation is a dialogic form of internal language linked to the egocentric developmental stage. It reappears [Page 255](through lip movement, muttering, murmuring, etc.) when the subject has to deal with a difficult task.

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