Elements of Communication

A concept that was discussed in the reading that I found really interesting was the Elements of Communication model that was developed by Dell Hymes. This model attempts to explain how different cultures communicate and in which context communication occurs. The model also talks about individual ‘speech communities’. When I started to think about it I realized that I belong to several speech communities. I am a student here at San Jose State so I have the speech community within my peers. I am also apart of a football speech community. Many of us adapt to different speech communities depending on the context of communication so I found that to be an interesting point. The Elements of Communication model was a good example of how to better understand communication by breaking it down in order to make it easier to understand where people come from-especially in an intercultural context. There is an acronym for this model and it is:

S ituations

P articipants

E nds

A ct sequences

K eyes

I unstrumentalities

N orms

G enres

 

This idea of breaking down such a massive process like communication makes understanding this phenomena less challenging for scholars like me. I like the way this model explains the specifics.