• What is context in communication?
• Characteristics of the context in communication
• Importance of context in communication
• Examples of contexts in communication
• Comunication elements

We explain what the context in communication is, its characteristics, importance and examples. Also, the elements of communication.

The context is the extralinguistic situation that influences communication.

What is context in communication?

The context in communication It is the set of conditions in which the transmission of a message occurs. It is the extralinguistic environment or situation that surrounds and influences the communicative action, for example, a work, political, cultural or school context.

Communication is the act of transmitting and receiving information. The communication process depends on the interaction of various elements (such as the type of sender, receiver, the code, the channel and context) for the exchange to take place.

There are various factors, such as ideology, culture, age or social level, which determine the type of environment in which the human being. This context affects the ability of people to interpret their environment and communicate.

Characteristics of the context in communication

The context in communication is characterized by various factors, both physical and non-physical, which give it the sense of a "communicational environment" such as geography, the history, the kind of group social, the language or code of each interlocutor, the noise or factors that make it difficult to transmit the posts.

The language is neither uniform nor homogeneous. The human being must adapt to each communication situation in which, in addition to linguistic diversity, it is necessary to understand the context in which the transmission of messages takes place in order for communication to be adequate.

Importance of context in communication

The importance of context in communication is that it organizes and gives meaning to the message. The meaning of a message does not depend only on its grammatical structure, syntactic or lexical but also the context that accompanies a statement and affects its interpretation.

The context in communication has to do with the set of knowledge Y beliefs shared (or not) by the interlocutors, the factors and the events that surround him at the moment in which the communication takes place.

Examples of contexts in communication

Specific symbols are used at the airport for communication.

Some examples of communication contexts are:

• At school. It is the context that is defined by the physical elements such as a classroom, a blackboard, tables, students and a teacher, and the abstract elements such as educational practices and norms. The topics addressed in this environment are related to the subjects. There is an academic code in which students listen to the teacher's explanations, consult him in case of doubts and exchange ideas. The climate is formal, of I respect and of learning. When all persons present understand how that school context works, can communicate and interact appropriately.
• At the supermarket. It is the context that is determined by the physical elements such as a commercial space, the objects of consumption available for sale, and non-physical items such as employees, customers, and business rules. Due to the characteristics of the place, the market codes and certain economic factors, customers know what kind of products they can consume in that type of store and what price they could pay for them. These standards are set and make possible the performance of the interlocutors, that is, they can communicate under that commercial code.
• In the airport. It is the context that is determined by physical elements such as infrastructure of location, the runway, airplanes and baggage scanning machines, and non-physical elements such as employees, the variety of languages ​​to communicate (on the signage or the speakers) and the rules for travelers. Because it is a space traveled by people of various nationalities and cultures, certain safety and security codes are used. coexistence that are respected by all passengers, despite the fact that in their country they do not have the same customs or regulations (for example, the requirement to enter a nation foreigner with a tourist visa). When everyone understands how that airport context works, they can communicate and interact appropriately.

Comunication elements

The elements necessary for communication to take place are:

• The sender. He is the one who expresses a message to a receiver and initiates the communicative action.
• The receptor. He is the one who receives a message and issues a response (the non-response also implies a meaning for communication).
• The message. It is the content of the communicative action and can have various purposes, such as persuading, informing, alerting or disseminating.
• The channel. It is the physical medium by which the message is transmitted, such as a telephone, the speaks, writing or drawings.
• The code. It is the system of signals or signs with which a message is elaborated, such as the type of language, the braille system or the traffic signs.
• The context. It is the extralinguistic environment that surrounds the sender and the receiver, in which communication takes place and which influences the understanding of the message.