Audience involved: a participatory model of speech production when delivering technical information

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

Department of European Languages Tomsk

AUDIENCE INVOLVED: A PARTICIPATORY MODEL OF SPEECH PRODUCTION WHEN DELIVERING TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Evgeniya Nikolayevna Suntsova

Annotation

speech audience discourse information

The creation of discourse has been viewed historically as an individual activity where a writer or rhetor creates a text of his or her own invention. But in the last decades we observe more and more concentration and research on the characteristics of audience as an actual living and influential figure in the discourse production, especially when considering the process of delivering technical information to non-technical users. It has become evident that the efficiency of speech perception by the audience is greatly influenced by it being involved in the speech production process and by the extent to which its characteristics had been taken into account. In this article, we will examine some of the peculiarities of audience as a discourse active participant and describe its characteristics which influence the processes of speech production and speech perception in the process of technical information transfer.

Key words and phrases: technical information; speech perception; characteristics of audience and its influence on the speech production process.

Аннотация

АКТИВНАЯ РОЛЬ АУДИТОРИИ: КОМПЛЕКСНАЯ МОДЕЛЬ ПОРОЖДЕНИЯ РЕЧИ ПРИ НЕОБХОДИМОСТИ ПЕРЕДАЧИ ТЕХНИЧЕСКОЙ ИНФОРМАЦИИ

Евгения Николаевна Сунцова Кафедра европейских языков Томский политехнический университет

Порождение дискурса всегда рассматривалось как индивидуальная деятельность, в рамках которой писатель или ритор создает текст собственного изобретения. Но в последние десятилетия отмечается всё большее внимание к исследованию характеристик аудитории как постоянно меняющегося и имеющего большое влияние компонента порождения дискурса, особенно при рассмотрении процесса передачи технической информации неспециалистам. Очевидным является тот факт, что на эффективность восприятия речи аудиторией большое влияние оказывает ее вовлеченность в процесс порождения речи, а также та степень, в которой учитываются ее особенности. В данной статье мы исследуем некоторые особенности аудитории как активного участника дискурса и опишем ее характеристики, которые влияют на процессы порождения и восприятия речи в процессе передачи технической информации.

Ключевые слова и фразы: техническая информация; восприятие речи; характеристики аудитории, и ее влияние на процесс порождения речи.

The main text

Refashioning the concept of audience calls for a radical rethinking of what audience is. For the classical rhetorician an audience was a material object - people who were “out there” and who needed to be informed, persuaded, or entertained. As a result of such technologies as the printing press, systems for the mass proliferation of texts, and the rise of the notion of the individual, audience became more an entity of the text - a fictional construct of the author's imagination.

Though the speech production models do not ignore audiences conceptually, still real audiences are left out of the considerations of the discourse production process. Put another way, the audience has been marginalized by a preponderance of scholarship that hegemonically places the receivers of the discourse literary at a distance, rendering them invisible to the author's eye. In addition, because of this act of distancing, members of audiences are not allowed access to the discourse production act; they are only written to or spoken to, not with [2, p. 93].

In any discussion of technical communication, it is important not to interpret the audience as a dumb receiver. Though audiences may have little specialized knowledge of the topic matter but, nevertheless, have much to contribute to the discourse production process. Audience theory historically has been central to technical communication, the very nature of which begs for conceptions of audience because it is always a critical responsibility of technical people and communicators to translate information from one context to another. So the audience is not just for the author's imagination and its refiguring has ripple effects. It changes the role and power of authors as it encourages a reciprocal and participatory model of speech production - a modified model that has implications for speech production processes, notions of community, and even agency.

The discussion of audience when delivering technical information of any kind should be grounded in a theoretical framework that draws from two sources: rhetoric and technology. The reason for choosing these two points of reference is twofold. First, people who perceive technical information by definition are using some form of technology. Second, it is imperative to demonstrate how the audiences receive and produce knowledge if they are to be made viable participants in the discourse production process.

The quality of communicating technical information is judged by the accuracy of the information transferred to individuals or groups of people. Communication is ineffective if the message is not accurately comprehended by all receivers. Accurate comprehension should not be confused with agreement. Communication effectiveness encompasses mutual understanding; it does not necessarily result in mutual agreement.

In addition to the author's skill in presenting the message, three major factors influence the accurate transfer of information [1, p. 45]:

1. The ability of the audience to process the message.

2. The willingness of the audience to process the information.

3. The audience's accurate comprehension of the message.

Ability includes the receiver's reading and listening skills, overall knowledge, relevant experience, intellect, and possession of a realistic frame of reference. In truth, the receiver's ability to process a message can be hardly influenced. It is not the receivers' responsibility to process information the way it is presented; it is the author's responsibility to deliver information in a method compatible with their ability to process it.

The willingness of the audience to accept, process, and comprehend the message is an area over which the author can wield considerable influence. All communication is a consensual activity. No one can be forced to listen, communicate, or absorb information as it was intended.

Every individual is in total control of his or her willingness to listen or to read, and the authors who are the most effective communicators strive to encourage and cultivate the willingness of their communication partners [Ibid., p. 46].

The third major factor that influences the transfer of information is the receiver's accurate comprehension of the message. The message has been communicated effectively if the audience has correctly understood the indented meaning of the message. There are many things that can impact receiver's comprehension of the message. Even when their ability and willingness to process the message is very high, the information must run the gauntlet of multiple comprehension barriers.

The following comprehension barriers can be distinguished:

Education and experience. The author should take into consideration if the training and the experiences of the audience offer reference points that will help them understand the message or if they are significantly different from his or her own. If the author does not know exactly who is or will be perceiving the text he or she produces, the audience can be made angry with the complexity of the text, it can wary of the simplifications, be puzzled by the author's assumptions about what they do, and, ultimately, frustrated in their efforts to find what they need. Knowing the audience means, an author can write or say about what they want to know and what interests them, cut material they can find irrelevant, set the his or her viewpoint at their eye level and the level of detail to match their needs.

Age. Age is a significant factor for communicating in today's science- and technology driven world. Undeniably, generation barriers exist. It is extremely important to consider weather the context of the message, along with any references and analogies, is appropriate for the receiver's age. It is also important to assess and delete any aspects of communication that may somehow provoke or imply negative judgments of members of different age groups. The communication must convey a consistent blend of wisdom and openness to others.

Culture. Cultural values vary considerably. A message may take on an entirely different meaning to the audience when there are cultural differences between it and the author. Words and gestures can have vastly different meanings and create varied reactions, especially when used in cross-cultural contexts. Nonverbal aspects of communication such as eye contact and even physical positioning can also be barriers to the accurate transmission and reception of the message.

Gender. Men and women are very different in their patterns of communication. When it comes to professional communication, men often interpret situations to reflect a more competitive and formally hierarchical point of view, whereas women may perceive the same situation from a more collegial and participative perspective. Men tend to focus on sharing information objectively, emphasizing the transmission of facts, observations, experiences or events. With women, developing interaction or rapport is often given equal weight to imparting information as the reason for their communication, which involves a greater tendency to discuss feelings, share thoughts, or validate emotion [Ibid., p. 60-63].

After discussing assumptions and controversies about the influence of audience on the speech production process, let me present some general recommendations on how to create the audience profile, in which all groups in the audience can be described. It characterizes individuals and groups, their work and problems, explains how the technical information should meet the needs of each group, and it points out what concepts about the subject of the speech produced will be especially important for these audiences. The profile consists of four categories of information [3, p. 32]:

* General characteristics of the audience - who they are, the titles that identify them, their roles in the work context, their level of experience.

* Key concepts - subjects that some people in the audience need to know more about in order to understand the message completely and adequately.

* Tasks - the jobs people do, easy or difficult, frequent or infrequent.

* Problems - the ones people face in using the product in their work, including the questions they ask in order to solve them.

After so many descriptions of audiences are made, the author needs to draw thoughtful and detailed conclusions without generalizations and simplifications. If necessary it is advised to interview some typical representatives of the audience involved so that to get a better understanding of their needs and level of readiness to perceive technical information.

As you see there are a number of ways to recognize audiences as equal participants of the speech production process. It is quite evident that the efficiency of speech perception is greatly influenced by the extent to which the audience had been taken into account in the process of producing technical information. In this article, I have examined some of the peculiarities of audience as a discourse active participant and described its characteristics which influence the processes of speech production and speech perception in the process of technical information transfer.

References

1. Chambers Harry E. Effective communication skills for scientific and technical professionals. New York: Basic Books, 2001.

2. Jonson Robert R. Audience involved: toward a participatory model of writing // Central works in technical communication / ed. by Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Stuart A. Selber. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. P. 91-103.

3. Price J., Korman H. How to communicate technical information: a handbook of software and hardware documentation. New York: Addison-Welsey.

Размещено на Allbest.ru