The Language of Learning

The philosopher and pedagogist, John Dewey, once emphasized that for education to be constructive for the society: it must not alienate the student in its processes. That means it must be authentic and grounded on the real-life experiences of the students. Chomsky establishes that language is not limited to the verbal structures, there are other [...]

Climate Change and the Indigenous People: Communicating Adaptation, Impact and Mitigation for Sustainable Sectoral Development*

* A reflective discourse originally presented by the blogger to Dr. R. Guioguio for the requirement in a post-graduate course on Philippine Communication Environment, University of the Philippines-Diliman, 2010. Permission for reprinting is granted as long as proper citation is observed, according to the principle of creative commons’ sharing of online resources. Climate change is a major environmental [...]

The Language Proficiency Crisis: A Matter of Teaching-Learning Perspectives

Spelling errors, problems in choice of words, ineffective styles, wrong use of punctuations, poor coordination of ideas, subject-agreement problems, wrong use of verb tenses… the list of evident problematic language use is a taxonomy of both human inadequacy in the use of langauge and the issues of language curriculum perspectives. There are three dominant concepts [...]

Subliminaly Obvious Ads in Movies

Hermes Birkin, Louise Vitton, Lenovo, Mac Ipad, Pontiac, Ferrari, Chevrolet, Mercedes Benz, Lacoste are just some of the products with obvious subliminal advertising intent in having exposure in the Transformers 3 movie.  To some movie goers and Transformers the other product brands may not be well so obvious more than the popular car brands and models that transform into Autobots. [...]

Using Politically Correct Language

Politics is a sphere that extends in the social world and which affects the psyche of an individual or groups. While politics is exercised in terms of power relations among individuals or groups, language plays in that communication of power and in the position of individuals in a social relationship. The nominative function of language [...]

Elements of the Communication Process

Various elements work together to achieve a desired outcome as communication takes place. The basic components or parts of the communication system are: the communicators (sender and receiver), message channel, feedback, noise, situation, and the interdependence of all the elements in the process.  By that they are interrelated and work systematically. There have been many different attempts [...]

Understanding the Nature of Oral Communication

Defining Communication   The word communication is derived from the Latin terms cum munis [to make common] and communicare [to share]. Hence, communication is defined as the exchange of information, thoughts, ideas, feeling and the like.  Because of its complexity, scholars and experts cast various definitions of communication. Griffin (2006) says that there are around more [...]

Regrettable Invasion of Memories on FB

I have no idea how this advocacy on Facebook started. But there was a campaign that took over the profile pictures of  its users. The campaign ends today. I was surprised last night that most of my friends have changed their profile pictures with cartoon characters from their childhood. I thought “what’s going with the [...]

The “F” with Failure in Education

It was reported in the Washington Post ( Nov. 14, 2010) that West Potomac High School, in Fairfax Country in the United States is dropping the ‘idea’ of putting ‘failing’ mark or ‘F’ on the records of students who are not able to meet the required competency on schedule. Instead of  F students are given [...]

Communication and Social Constructionism

The lectures in our COMM 304 class on Social Constructionism can be viewed as one that is presented in the simplest term that it could be, without the inconvience and discomfort of going through the theoretical rigor. Our professor Dr. J. R. Lacson shares his insights as he synthesizes the various perspectives cast on this [...]