Chapter 1 Review Questions

  1. What is the purpose of a definition?
  2. How do the different definitions of communication listed in the text differ from one another? Which is the broadest? Which define communication as occurring in the receiver? Which define communication as occurring in the sender? Which define communication as cooperation between sender and receiver?
  3. According to your text how do you determine if a definition is right or wrong?
  4. How do the authors of your text define communication?
  5. What does it mean to say communication is a process?
  6. What has been the result of attempts to teach animals to communicate? What can chimps do and what can they not do? Does Stephen Walker think that there is still a fundamental difference between animal and human communication, or does he think the gap between animal and human communication has been closed?
  7. The text quotes Aldous Huxley. Does Huxley think that the ways we humans communicate is always better than the way animals communicate? What does he point out about human communication?
  8. When we say that communication is collective, what do we mean?
  9. When we say communication allows us to create social reality, what do we mean?
  10. How is communication regulatory?
  11. What four implications do your authors draw from their definition?
  12. What is communicative competence?
  13. In the model presented in the text, there are two levels of competence. One is internal and is called process competence. The other is external and is called performative competence. What is the difference between them?
  14. What is implicit knowledge?
  15. What are the five types of internal competence diagrammed in the competence model? What is their relationship to one another?
  16. What is message competence?
  17. What is interpretive competence? What might happen if a person lacks interpretive competence?
  18. What is role competence? What might happen if a person lacks role competence?
  19. What is self competence? What might happen if a person lacks self competence?
  20. What is goal competence? What might happen if a person lacks goal competence?
  21. What four factors contextualize competence? What are some examples of ways culture, history, technology, and relationships affect competence?
  22. How do new technologies affect competence? 
  23. What is “aproximeeting”?
  24. How does the fictional character Greg Focker attempt to compensate for communicative incompetence? 
  25. What is "insulting the meat"? What are its social functions? How is it different from the way we treat achievement and accomplishment? What social function are accomplished by our method of responding to achievement?
  26. Your book urges you to take a "process perspective." What does this mean?
  27. What skills, according to Frymier, make someone an effective student? 
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