ACCOMMODATION COMMUNICATION THEORY

ACCOMMODATION COMMUNICATION THEORY

Introduction

Communication theory, just like the known communication discipline seems to have a long history, but when evaluated and analyzed, it has a little past. Through Checking on communication as a discipline, it is traced to date from the year 1950s, whereby it started in the US. In this case, it incarnates several cognate fields such as the German Zeitungswissechaft also named the newspaper science. Considering on US communication field, it is clear that the first readers that involved using textbooks can be based and referenced on the communication theory. Through analyzing the history of social sciences, communication theory seems to have an account and thus was used during the early period by collage and on other media-related activities.  However, the communication theory was first claimed to be used in a speech by the rhetoric scholars in the year 1960. During this period, the different campus started using the communication theory as based on the social sciences as an organized filed though it was an infant subject. Meanwhile, to comprehend and disintegrate communication as a theory, the research involves handling communication accommodation theory to critically analyze communication as a field and making it easy to understand the whole communication concept.

Communication accommodation theory also abbreviated as (CAT) is a significant communication theory which was developed and introduced by Howard Giles. The approach mainly dealt with the concerns needed and the behavioural changes which people tend to make when communicating as they attune and give their communication to partners. Notably, the communication theory is much useful when getting perception and the feedback which one can get when tries to accommodate a partner. In this case, the theory claims that people tend to change and adjust their communication styles, idea and message when communicating with another. Through regulating on the news and purposes, it helps the sender to gain approval from the receiver and thus help in increasing the efficiency during the process of communication in between the two involved parties. Considerably, this helps the sender to be accountable on the message to be delivered to the receiver by maintaining positive, profound social identity (Astrid et al. 2011). The theory mainly deals with both the involved intergroup and can also be used on interpersonal factors which influences the act of accommodation and even marinating a well-designed macro and the micro contest which may affect individual communication skills and behaviours..

Through analyzing the accommodation communication by taxonomic classification by using the traditions paradigms and other analysis, It is clear that the theory was first used by theorist in to focus and understand on the patterns which are involved during the convergence and in divergence form of the communication behaviours. Through this, the theory seems to have been particularly and mainly used by people as they relate to other people goals such as social approval, identity and communication efficiency. By addressing the word convergence, it becomes easy to understand the whole concept behind the theory. The terms refer to the strategies which an individual may tend to use and adapt due to other people communicative behaviours so as to help in reducing social differences which may arise during the communication process. On the other hand, the theory also handles the divergence concept, which mainly aims at any form of instance which may occur when individuals involve in accentuating the speech and during the non-verbal kind of differences in between the individual and their interlocutors.

Through classifying the accommodation theory on the aspect of human communication, the approach seems to have been developed to demonstrate all the needed values used during the social psychological concept. The method plays a crucial role in making an individual understand the key concepts and the involved dynamic of speech. The theory mainly tends to seek and even explains motivation factors which underlie an inevitable shift used by people when delivering different types of statements. Notably, it helps by applying different kinds of styles as one encounters various people and other forms of social consequences which may arise from the people. Through this, the theory mainly concentrates and focuses on the cognitive aspect and how they can affect other communication processes which underlie other people in the society through handling both the convergence and the divergence type of speech approaches.

In the modern context, the communication accommodation theory is in a way broadened and thus is used in many concepts and not only on speech delivery but also when handling the non-verbal, and even during the discursive dimension during the act of social interactions. The theory has also developed to a situation whereby it has different species when compared to the research language and another form of communication fields which generally focuses on ether the intergroup or other communication approaches.

Notably, when addressing the concept of human communication, accommodation communication theory seems to rely upon and draw more attention to social psychology deeply. In this case, it deeply analyses the four social psychology concepts theories.  Through this, it has much to deal with similar attraction theory, the causal attribution theory, intergroup distinctiveness theory and the social exchange theory (Pardon, Jay & Krauss, 2010). These theories are mainly oriented in giving the reason why a speaker may tend to change and thus seek to use the converge or the diverging type of languages, accent behaviour and dialects. On the other hand, the theory also relies much on the social identity theory, which mainly focuses on the concept of self-identity and also in social identity.  Considerably, this primarily focuses on comparing people and even analyzing any form of the difference between people in groups and even out of the groups.

Conversely, the theory helps in identifying people either through checking on the existence and how they strive in making a positive impact in the society through either joining them in areas where they comfortable and where they can make a positive impact to the community due to their experience of belonging to such groups they already belonged to in the past.  Through the use of speech, the theory is capable of adopting people through their divergence and convergence in communication and thus able to signal and give a salient to the group distinctiveness to help in reinforcing their social identity.  Furthermore, the communication accommodation theory acts as a tool which emphasizes on the group distinctiveness and thus allowing them to relate positively as it strengthens the social status and other individuals social classification.

Accommodation communication theory has been used in many physical applications in society.  The approach has played a significant role in developing the learning processes when one is taking a second language. Through this, the students and the educators need to come up with proficient methods through which they can apply to make it simple and able to accommodate the student in learning the language. The process involves activities such as language switching which is a significant concept of accommodation theory. Notably, bilingual individuals need also to come up with a specific language which they can use when they are in a particular location with other bilingual individuals. For example, the word which one uses when doing business should be much different from the literature that one can use when delivering a speech. This helps in preventing incorrect judgment, which may arise and thus avoiding the act of triggering the unwittingly adverse reaction from other parties.

Addition, the theory is also used when dealing with people who have disabilities to help in giving them aid and even in promoting them to the act of fulfilling their needs and even in accomplishing their communicative potentials. In this case, through the use of, theory it is possible to motivate them and thus to release their full potential by focusing on their situation which makes them different from others and therefore capable of triggering their full potential towards communication through interaction.

In the field of immigration, the theory plays a significant role since it can help in actively interacting with those on the immigration departments to accept and feel accommodated on the host country. This involves instances such as over accommodation which may be a result of on unintentionally damaging those in the host country sense of oneness and individuality which creates a profound divergence from these immigration individuals due to the presence of host cultures and other social norms (Zhong-lian, 2010). Through having in-depth knowledge on the accommodation communication theory, it becomes simple to balance in between these culture by attracting affection and a sense of togetherness which is triggered by a positive reaction and the image that one has presented on the host country. Notably, it helps one in accessing services such as food and accommodation since one can quickly shift from occasion to the other and able to maintain the average needed qualities on the host countries. Accommodation communication theory plays a significant role in social cohesion by triggering the act of sustaining individual difference which may arise due to language barriers and other issues.

References page

Astrid, M., Hoffmann, L., Klatt, J., & Krämer, N. C. (2011, September). Quid pro quo? Reciprocal self-disclosure and communicative accommodation towards a virtual interviewer. In International Workshop on Intelligent Virtual Agents (pp. 183-194). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Pardo, J. S., Jay, I. C., & Krauss, R. M. (2010). Conversational role influences speech imitation. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 72(8), 2254-2264.

Zhong-lian, H. (2010). A Dialectic View on Translation: Accommodation and Transformation. Foreign Language Research, 6.