Seton Hall University    College of Arts and Sciences    ~ Dr. E. Plummer ~ Course Coordinator for COST1600
	Department of Communication

This Page is a list-in-progress. It is not intended to be a comprehensive glossary. The purpose here is to provide a list of terms/concepts that someone taking everyone in Oral Communication would be expected to know and understand by the completion of the course.

 In order to look up definitions, refer to your notes/text for COST1600. Alternate and supplemental definitions can also be accessed via such websites as   : ITP  (Publisher of Communicate!)

                                                                             Allyn & Bacon Publisher 

                                                                            Happy Fun Communication Land

A  Model of the Basic (oral) Communcation Process:

Some Basic  (oral) Communication Terms:

Within the various field that study Human Communication studies, specific terminology can vary from school to school and discipline to discipline. Nevertheless, the concepts are very consistent and there are a few terms which derive from the original transmission theories developed in the early Twentieth century  and can be found  rather consistently in most all textbooks/material on Oral Communication. 

related to the basic Communication Process:

MESSAGE                    

FEEDBACK 

ENCODER (Sender / Speaker / Source)

DECODER (Receiver / Listener ) 

CHANNEL  (Medium) 

CONTEXT (Environment)

"NOISE"

related to the various types of Communication settings: 

INTERPERSONAL

PUBLIC SPEAKING

GROUP DISCUSSION

MASS COMMUNICATION

related to the various Communication Skills/Techniques: 

LISTENING vs. HEARING

NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION (Proxemics / Kinesics / Chronemics / Paralanguage|Vocalics /  

related to Speech Organization: 

INTRODUCTION

BODY

CONCLUSION

TRANSITIONS

ORDER-OF-ORGANIZATION (Topical / Spatial / Cause-Effect[Causal] / Chronological)

© 2000