Accuracy Four Positive Results of Active Workplace Communication:

1. Active communication resolves conflict. You know that there is a conflict

affecting workflow when the management calls for communication training.
Conflict is attributed to the following:
a. Misunderstanding. It cankers the good relations among the employees,
resulting in the of being intentionally offended. Sometimes you may think
that you are saying your idea accurately, but the way your co-employees
communicate with you about it can trigger misunderstanding. Determining
their communication patterns and strategies to be able to adjust to them can
come a long way. You have to convey the information clearly and is easily
understood. Encourage your co-employees to ask and give you feed back.
b. Imposition. This happens when you impose your communication habits
and patterns upon that of others, not understanding and ignoring how others
communicate. Encourage respect and diversity even in communication
habits.
c. Indifference. You ignore the emotional needs of the people at your place
of work when you communicate with them. This ruffles feathers and drives
in resentment. Good communication increases employee engagement
2. Communicating can connect people of various career trajectory. Employees
focus on their job role while they earnestly support the company goals. These
connection and focus create shared emotional, social, personal, and professional
contexts. How can you make these contexts productive in long term basis?
Communication creates effective working environment in the following ways:

• Provide you resources to be aware of the needs and goals of employees.

• Open access to the motivations, intentions, and goals of your co
employees.
• Give a more critical assessment of the other employees’ talents and skills
that remain untapped.
• Promote talents and skills in a way that realize company goals.
• Result in healthy relationship with managers and leaders.
3. Active communication makes serviced people satisfied and happy because it
brings the following:
 • Management of conflict.
• Meeting and fulfilling needs.
• Providing feedback.

4. Active communication builds efficient and effective workforce resulting in

innovative thinking. A workplace that has an active communication environment is
conducive to creative and critical minds You are more comfortable in facing
challenges and managing a project.
in Words
The limitation of your memory and the urgency to express yourself can diminish
the likelihood you are exact in your diction. Malicsi (2010) presented information
essential in being precise in your choice of words. This information may be proven
essential here, and below are some of them:
1. Lexical Change – Some words unacceptable or non-existent before are
part of the daily vocabulary now.
 Prepositions farther and further can be used interchangeably.
 The verb consult can also mean to function as a consultant.
 Some words have been replaced already, e.g., mentally retarded >
mentally challenged, general health > well, Burman > Myanmar, Saigon
> Ho Chi Minh City, Central Bank of the Philippines > Bangkol Sentral
ng Pilipinas.

2. Lexical Variation – Filipinos are taught to speak Standard American

English. You have to know which words to say.

American British

dinner [=heavy supper] dinner [=heavy lunch or supper]

elevator lift
no overtaking no passing
scratch paper scrap paper
truck lorry

3. Homophonous and Homographic Words – Homophonous words

sound identical, whereas homographic words are spelled the same. You
have to draw the context to convey your idea correctly.
 Homographic Words

assumption – ascension to heavy, conjecture, appointment to an office

bore – past tense of bear, uninteresting, drill a hole
dish – cooked menu, plates
glasses – drinking cup, spectacle
novel – literary genre, innovative
overlook – ignore, in charge, stare
prompt – quick, urging, cause, direction
purchase – buy, firm hold
sewer – water waste drainage system, a tailor
ventilate – air circulation, to express

Homophonous Words

aisle isle
all ready already
bare bear
born borne
canvas canvass
cue queue
device devise
disassemble dissemble
esoteric exoteric
site sight

4. Words Related in Meanings – These are words which are pronounced

or spelled almost in the same manner, but whose meanings are different.

advance – to send early vs advanced – modern

consent – permitted vs assent – responded positively
continual – repeated vs continuous – without stop
deny – not admit vs refute – prove otherwise
mature – responsible vs matured – ripe or ready for consumption

4. Words of Indistinct Morphology – These are words whose meanings do

not depend on the morphemes that comprise them.
 catnip – attractive
inflammable – combustible
meteorology – study of weather
priceless – immeasurable in value
unnatural – beyond normal or expectation

5. Ambiguous Words – These are words that have two or more distinct
meanings.

sanction – approve, punish

relieve – replace, feel better
diction – choice of words, pronunciation
matchless – incomparable, without a pair
bimonthly – twice a month, every two months

1. Explicitness – These are words whose meanings have to be made clear in

the context.

 The Branch Manager will correct the audited data.* > The Branch
Manager will correct the errors in the audited data.

 I recommend three or five applicants.* > I recommend from three to five

applicants.

2. Neologism – These words that are already in currency but have not been
listed yet in reputable dictionaries.

3. Officespeak –These are words used at place of work. Malicsi (2011)

identified some of them.

wireframe – simple pictures used by business analysts to communicate

expectations to users and developers

boil the ocean – to do a project whose scope is too huge

used case – a situation in which a particular has been or will be used

 greenfield instance- new installation of an application without
customization, configuration

running in parallel – processing normal operating data through a new

system and the old system simultaneously to compare performance and
output

Accuracy in Pronunciation

You have to agree that a speech sound should be pronounced correctly. You will
find phonetics valuable. Through it you can describe and record the speech sounds
of language objectively. Phonetics makes us aware of the speech sounds in their
written forms. On the other hand, phonology deals with the patterns, systems, and
principles that distinguish words from each other through the articulation of speech
sounds.

In this book, the International Phonetics Association (IPA) transcription

symbols for these speech sounds will be used. Abelos (2006) commented that the
most accurate method of representing sounds is through the International Phonetic
Alphabet, commonly called IPA. It is a universal system. It indicates
pronunciation of speech sounds in all languages. The same symbol always stands
for the same sound; and the same sound always is represented by the same symbol,
whether it be in English, French, Spanish, Italian, etc.

When you refer to letters as sounds phonetic symbols are used, enclosing
them in square slashes, // and when you want to indicate that the letters are to be
interpreted as letters from an ordinary spelling system, you enclose them in angled
brackets, < >. People who speak the same language pronounce indigenously certain
speech sounds differently. With regard to these sounds, there are regional, social
and individual differences. The pronunciation of many words usually changes quite
gradually and dramatically over time. What makes a type of pronunciation distinct
is called an accent. Others’ regional origin and experience might result in accents
different from your own with more or less precision.

Every language is spoken differently from one place to another. These

varieties are called dialects (Dalton and Seidlhofer, 1994). People grouped
according to age, education, and economic status speak differently; these ways of
speaking are known as social dialects or sociolects. You speak the dialect of a local
language. In fact, it may not be possible to speak a language without using some
dialect. Informally, you call dialect a speech variety which is distinct from your
own, or which is lacking in prestige. In linguistics dialect is a variety of language.
What is standard language then? A standard language is considered the
prestigious dialect of a language, one which has been codified in dictionary,
grammatical rules, and conventions, published in prominent textbooks which are
used in school.
Language has various purposes. It is more than communication. It has
diverse functions, and a few of them can be communicative. To wit, these are some
of the functions:
1. Transmission of information

2. Rhetoric (To convince people to do the speaker’s intention.)

3. Entertainment

4. Social membership

5. Identity construction

6. Express of moods and emotions.

7. Establishment of good (or bad) relations

8. Representing mental projections of the world

Language systems likewise have components. The most commonly cited

ones are:

• phonetics/phonology – the speech sounds

• morphology – the meaningful sounds

• vocabulary - the knowledge of words

• orthography/spelling/writing – the writing conventions

• syntax - the structure and order of words

 • semantics – the word meanings

• pragmatics – the meanings from language use

• discourse – the long stretch of language use and meanings

Phonetics and phonology are concerned with the sounds of language,

morphology with the structure of words, vocabulary with your storage of words,
orthography with the spelling system, syntax with the principles of sentence
structure, semantics with the literal meanings of words and sentences, pragmatics
with the meanings that arise when expressions are used in specific contexts, and
discourse with the linguistic and rhetorical patterns in texts of various kinds. As
you proceed, you will learn the intricate ways in which the system operates.

Speaking speed influences how you articulate speech sounds. Rapid speech
conveys strong emotion. You can also increase the speed of speaking to tell an
interesting story, and reduce speed to explain a difficult idea. Correct and clear
pronunciation suggests that the speaker is conscientious and respects his audience.
Imitating American or British accent does not convey a good impression. Rather it
is better if you speak clearly so that others understand what you say. Be natural
with your accent no matter how you sound. Pay attention to your intonation.
Intonation is the sound pattern of utterances. Each language has its intonation, and
you somewhat reflect your mother tongue intonation in the other language you
speak. (See Appendix O: Intonation Patterns.)

Placement of stress on a word, phrase, or sentence can alter the meaning and
implication of what you are saying. Try reading the sentence, "Were you there last
night?" by stressing a different word each time, and note the difference in the
implied meaning. You also have hesitations and non-fluencies in our speech.
Sounds like er-er, hmmmm- may suggest you are not too sure on what you are
saying or cannot find the next word to say. On the other hand, to convey various
ideas or emotions you may utter ahem!, huh! Ah-ha! Ouch! Oh-ok!
Silence is a potent aspect of communication. It is gap in speech that suggests
disfluency, a positive and deliberate attempt to communicate something. Silence is
ponderous as a tool of communication; it takes a good deal of self-control and self-
confidence to be able to hold one's tongue. Short silences or pauses can be used to
accentuate a point in an utterance. You pause after a word to make known you
have said something essential. A skillful use of pause has the power to make the
listener more alert. In presentations, silence can be used effectively to emphasize a
point; it is often far more effective than any other non-verbal communicative
behaviors.
In various situations, silence may suggest unexpected meanings. These
meanings can be retrieved more in facial expression and posture. Silence can mean
some hesitation on what you want to say or a feeling that seems to swarm you that
you can barely utter a word. It can express the sincerity of your expression, such as
condolence or empathy. You hold still in silence because of anger or being upset.
You do it because you do not want to say something you would regret later.
Expressions like "dead silence", "stony silence", and "embarrassing silence" prove
that silence can communicate meaning by themselves.
You feel the tinge of embarrassment if you come short in grasping why a
person you are talking with becomes silent. It is uncomfortable, especially if it
lingers on. On the telephone, you find yourself staring blankly at something,
wondering if it is time to hang up.
When people converse, they observe turn taking. Silence is a trigger that the
ball to speak is on the other shoes. But when it prolongs than what is normal,
interlocutors feel something is not right. When no response to what they have said
is forthcoming, they may start to doubt on the clarity and substance of what they
said. Restatement may help. Restatement can be a paraphrase or interpretation of
what has been said. It is possible that speakers may give additional information,
soften what they said, or try to explain more to make it acceptable to others.