U33 1704 Task 2 77077 XU Jiayi (Arianna)
The Theory of Communication Accommodation
Everyone has a unique speech style of their own and it would change depending on infinite numbers of variables such as the surroundings, the topic, the person you are talking to and other factors. Communication accommodation theory is an evolution of speech accommodation theory which developed by Howard Giles in 1973. This essay will explain the theory of communication accommodation and describe its applications in our daily life. It will then evaluate both strengths and shortcomings of this theory.
Howard Giles, the professor of Communication, developed speech accommodation theory in 1973. Speech accommodation theory first appeared in the journal ‘Accent …show more content…
There are some features as follows: People’s tend to cooperate with the way listener talks and behaves; the behaviour can either be conscious or unconscious; all of accent, speed, vocabulary, cadence and gestures have own their functions; the accommodation is for the purpose of social status; it presents belonging and affinity; positive sides of people shown in communication; it is affected by other concepts such as counter accommodation, under accommodation and over-accommodation; it can be beneficial or distasteful; it evolves psychological, social and linguistic behaviour of …show more content…
The theory is supported by a majority of expects from diverse authors. It has been incorporated into "the mass media (Bell, 1991), with families (Fox, 1999), with Chinese students (Hornsey and Gallois, 1998), with elderly (Harwood, 2002), on the job (McCroskey and Richmond, 2000), in interviews (Willemyns, Gallois, Callan, and Pittam, 1997), and even with telephone answering machines (Buzzanell, Burrell, Stafford, and Berkowitz, 1996)". However, communication accommodation theory was criticized by three experts, Judee Burgon, Leesa Dillman and Lesa Stern. These experts thought conversations are very complicated activities and questioned the frame of convergence and divergence. These scholars asked that ‘what occurs if people both converge and diverge in conversations, are there consequences to the speaker, the listener, is there an influence if race or ethnicity is played in the process?’ (McGraw, 2004) Whether people have rational thinking has not been considered as a variable factor in this theory which is strongly criticized by these
The Theory of Communication Accommodation
Everyone has a unique speech style of their own and it would change depending on infinite numbers of variables such as the surroundings, the topic, the person you are talking to and other factors. Communication accommodation theory is an evolution of speech accommodation theory which developed by Howard Giles in 1973. This essay will explain the theory of communication accommodation and describe its applications in our daily life. It will then evaluate both strengths and shortcomings of this theory.
Howard Giles, the professor of Communication, developed speech accommodation theory in 1973. Speech accommodation theory first appeared in the journal ‘Accent …show more content…
There are some features as follows: People’s tend to cooperate with the way listener talks and behaves; the behaviour can either be conscious or unconscious; all of accent, speed, vocabulary, cadence and gestures have own their functions; the accommodation is for the purpose of social status; it presents belonging and affinity; positive sides of people shown in communication; it is affected by other concepts such as counter accommodation, under accommodation and over-accommodation; it can be beneficial or distasteful; it evolves psychological, social and linguistic behaviour of …show more content…
The theory is supported by a majority of expects from diverse authors. It has been incorporated into "the mass media (Bell, 1991), with families (Fox, 1999), with Chinese students (Hornsey and Gallois, 1998), with elderly (Harwood, 2002), on the job (McCroskey and Richmond, 2000), in interviews (Willemyns, Gallois, Callan, and Pittam, 1997), and even with telephone answering machines (Buzzanell, Burrell, Stafford, and Berkowitz, 1996)". However, communication accommodation theory was criticized by three experts, Judee Burgon, Leesa Dillman and Lesa Stern. These experts thought conversations are very complicated activities and questioned the frame of convergence and divergence. These scholars asked that ‘what occurs if people both converge and diverge in conversations, are there consequences to the speaker, the listener, is there an influence if race or ethnicity is played in the process?’ (McGraw, 2004) Whether people have rational thinking has not been considered as a variable factor in this theory which is strongly criticized by these