chapter 2 page 1

THE AMERICAN ENGLISH EXPRESS Chapter 2 page 1

Chapter II

The Communication Process

or

Why you need to learn to read, write and speak standard English to succeed at college and in life.

It is your task to learn how to communicate effectively (‘successfully’) in the English language: to read, write and speak college-level American English.

Let us first understand (‘recognize’) that communication among human beings is a tricky process that is made all the more difficult because all people think differently.

For example, some people think in a fashion (manner, way in which) one might consider to be very logical. This could be illustrated by

This thought pattern can be called a ‘sequence’ (or ‘series’ or ‘progression’), and I am using this example to represent ‘sequential’ thinking. In this case, for example, it could represent thinking about one thing at a time, in order, and then thinking about the next thing. This can be a slow way of thinking, but also can be an accurate way to proceed.

Another, different, sequential way of thinking could be represented as, for example,

2, 4, 6, 8, 10…

This is also a ‘logical’ sequence. Both of these are understandable (‘recognizable’ or ‘discernable’ or ‘identifiable’) as simple patterns.

The idea is that almost anyone could follow such thought patterns.

However, suppose a ‘thought pattern’ looked like this:

23, 67, 98, 168…

Might it not be more difficult to follow?

The thought process of still other individuals might be represented as:

or even:

*&^%@ >8$

Neither of which do I understand (‘conceptualize’ or ‘visualize’).

Our different ways of thinking are related to our different ways of ‘perceiving’ (‘sensing’, distinguishing’ or ‘observing’). Through our five senses (which are sight, sound, touch, taste, smell), each of us interprets the experiences we have in our own way.

One representation of this, offered by the British philosopher John Locke (who was born in 1632 and died in 1704; this is commonly written 1632-1704), was that the human mind was similar to a blank slate (tabula raza in Latin) or chalkboard upon which the experiences of life are written.

After reading Locke’s essays, another philosopher, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), called the senses “the spectacles through which we view the world” (‘spectacles’ are eyeglasses). He meant that the unique (‘one of a kind’) experiences each one of us has changes our view of reality and forms our unique (‘the only one of its kind’) perspective on our experiences and on the world. This is what makes each of us an individual with our own thoughts, feelings, decisions, judgments and dreams.

An earlier, Italian philosopher, Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), wrote that, when he finally left the isolated (‘remote’, ‘cut-off’, ‘inaccessible’) valley of his youth, and glanced around at the outside world, he realized how one’s visual horizon (how far and wide one can see from where one is standing) influences (has an effect on) one’s perspective on the world. For the first time in his life he realized that the world was much bigger than he had imagined. The visual (seen through the eye) image he saw, of many other mountains and valleys, made him realize how much more there was to the world. When his eyes were opened in this way, his mind and thoughts followed and he became an independent thinker. (Bruno went on in life to write of multiple universes, other inhabited planets and perfect societies. He was burnt at the stake as a heretic (an unbeliever) by the Catholic Church for these views.)