Lauryn Williams

  

 Speech Communications 

    In this course our first objective is to communicate effectively using listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. During these group presentations we were able to learn the importance of communication in cultures, identifying characteristics of a healthy group, and explain how leadership functions in teams. These key factors are used daily in order to maintain healthy communication skills. 

     

 Intercultural Communication

    In chapter three, we were able to learn the significance of culture and its profound impact on perception and communication. Culture is transmitted and modified through communication; and developed as people endure similar life experiences. Every culture has their own values to share whether they are real or ideal values. Real culture values are guides which help with forming behavior and ideal values are basic goals formed within a specific cultural group. Many cultures have overcome differences and were combined using intercultural communication. For example, the 1988 romantic comedy ‘Coming to America’ is a great example for depicting cultural differences between the United States and African culture. It shows how differences in cultures may affect the lives of people through the main character of Prince Akeem played by Eddie Murphy. In this movie Prince Akeem is given a woman to marry that he is not fond of so he ventures off to the U.S. willing to leave his luxurious life behind. Prince Akeem takes cover pretending to be a foriegn exchange student to earn the heart of Lisa, an American woman he met in Queens, New york. Thankfully the United States is a multicultural society so when she was presented with the offer to become a princess in Africa, it was not considered an unfamiliar place. However, upon her arrival to Africa cultural shock took over for the independent American woman when she found out she’ll be pampered and spoiled every day being a princess. 

My peers were able to break down the meaning of dominant cultures, cultural identity, and co-cultures by providing pictures and graphs to differentiate the three. These terms all play a part in influential communication. These terms help distinguish people based on status and specific cultural beliefs. 

Communicating in Groups

In chapter nine, I was able to take part in a group presentation regarding different groups and healthy ways to communicate in them. Personally, I think my group did well! From punctuality to group communications everything was top tier. We were able to teach our classmates the characteristics of a healthy group, stages at which groups developed and strategies on handling group conflict. We began by defining the nature and types of different groups such as: family, social groups, interest groups, support groups, service groups and healthy groups. Cohesiveness is the force that brings groups together. We are taught cohesiveness through group building activities like this class presentation, it helped build trust and a common goal among my peers. Using the 2004 movie reference ‘Mean Girls’, I went on by giving an example of norms when Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, and Karen Smith, the most popular girls of their high school, gave the new bee Cady Heron the rundown of ground rules for their specific social group the “plastics”. Moreover, in “mean girls” there are several different social class groups, such as the Plastic, the group of Janis and Damian, the mathletes and so on which also display the different types of communication groups.