Model of Communication Effectiveness in the Mentoring Process

In this paper the authors analyse the conditions of effective communication in the mentoring process. In the literature on the subject effective business communication is considered as a key to planning, leading, organizing and controlling the resources of organizations to achieve their objectives. Still, communication models in the mentoring network have not been of interest to researchers yet. The aim of this study was to identify the factors that influence the effectiveness of communication in the mentoring process. The authors created a theoretical model of communication in the mentoring process which became a basis for primary research conducted among 103 mentors and 119 mentees in Poland. It occurred that the factors influencing the effectiveness of communication in the mentoring process are similar in both groups. Next, the authors incorporated the Exploratory Factor Analysis and Cronbach’s alpha reliability test of different factors influencing the effectiveness of communication in the mentoring process. The results proved that all the developed scales demonstrated reliability above the recommended threshold. The final stage involved developing a regression model which allowed to identify the factors influencing the effectiveness of communication in the mentoring process. Those factors are: non-verbal channels and tools of communication, written and oral channels and tools of communication as well as social engagement in the mentoring process.

Intercultural Sensitivity and Adult Learners’ Willingness to Communicate in English as a Foreign Language

Intercultural sensitivity as coined by Bennett (2015) is a relatively new construct which refers to how an individual construes and makes sense of cultural differences. It is believed that it is not inborn and can be developed through intercultural experiences and formal instruction. Though the concept of intercultural sensitivity has been already investigated, particularly in relation to communication effectiveness; yet it has not been examined through the lens of the learner’s willingness to communicate. Hence, the purpose of the research paper is to investigate intercultural sensitivity and its correlation with willingness to communicate in English as a foreign language. The author employed the quantitative methodology, administering the online intercultural sensitivity and willingness to communicate questionnaires to adult learners of English representing various L1 cultures. The insights from the study may equip us with new knowledge on increasing learners’ willingness to communicate and as a result their engagement in communication in a language classroom.

AAC Intervention for Stroke Survivors - An Anomic Aphasic Case Study

Aphasia is an impairment of language that is a consequence of a cerebral insult or damage affecting the speech production and/or comprehension, as well as the ability to read or write. Etiology of Aphasia is multifactorial, most commonly in the form of a stroke (Cerebrovascular Accident), especially in older individuals. The type of aphasia is determined based on multiple factors such as the site of lesion, signs and symptoms and also through patient’s clinical presentation. Rehabilitation for stroke survivors plays a major role in communication effectiveness. Computerized Intervention method provides a prognostic factor in the treatment for adults with aphasia. AAC devices (high-tech) are used to enhance communicative effectiveness of aphasic individuals who are less likely to use strategies/techniques that the caregiver can use to foster interactions between themselves and the aphasic individual outside the treatment setting. Other factors that determine the success of the intervention are the intensiveness and the duration of intervention. This study focuses on one such intervention of an adult Anomic Aphasia patient using a high tech AAC computerized application known as Avaz. The results showed that the client was able to perform much better in terms of the word retrieving abilities and is now able to communicate well. Key words: Augmentative and Alternative Communications; Anomic Aphasia; Language intervention; Avaz; High tech.

Emotional Intelligence, Social Networking Skills and Online Counselling Communication Effectiveness Among Students of OAU, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

With a view to providing empirical information on the factors that influence online counselling communication among Nigerian university students, this study investigated the influence of emotional intelligence and social networking skills on the effectiveness of online counselling communication among students of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU). Through a descriptive survey research design, the study sampled 100 students purposively from users of the University online counselling platform, on the basis of being able to have established complete counselling interaction with any of the counsellors online during the harmattan and rain semesters of 2017/2018 session (or over a period of 12 months.). The results showed that 78.0%, 19.0% and 3.0% of the students demonstrated high, moderate and low levels of online counselling communication effectiveness respectively and that emotional intelligence has significant influence on online communication effectiveness (β = 0.790, p < 0.05). The results further showed that social networking skills has no significant influence on online communication effectiveness (F = 3.457, p > 0.05) and no significant interaction effect of emotional intelligence and social networking skill was found on online counselling communication effectiveness (F = 0.546, p > 0.05). The study concluded that the only factor that influenced online counselling communication effectiveness among the students under study is emotional intelligence

Strategy Analysis of Storytelling in Communicating Marriage Age Maturity Program in The Society

Even though some measures to reduce the incidence rate of child marriage have being undertaken for years, the implementation of the marriage act, Undang-undang No.16/2019, has been strengthening the implementation of Program Pendewasaan Usia Perkawinan (PUP), a national program to reduce the incidence rate of child marriage in Indonesia. Under these circumstances, communication holds an essential role in that program, mainly to reach behavioral and social changes among community as the main target of the program. A number of previous research still focused on the role of communicators and the communication effectiveness of the program. Through narrative paradigm framework, the present study is conducted to explore story-telling strategies performed by extension agents in Kabupaten Pasuruan, a distric where the incidence rate of child marriage is relatively high. Data gathered through FGDs and indepth interviews which involved extension agents of Program PUP in Kabupaten Pasuruan, local authority that concerns in family welfare and women empowerment, and Muslimat NU – those directly involved in the communication and education process towards PUP Program. Through interactive analysis presented by Miles, Huberman & Saldana (2014), this study revealed that within their strory-telling strategies, the extension agents as a story-teller tends to performed themselves in a more symmetrical relationship with their audiences. In order to involve their audiences to their stories, the extension agents employed Islamic based stories. From the structural narration, it is clear that they use humor and mitos to convince their audiences to avoid child marriage. The stories used also performed both structural and characterological coherence. However, in some stories, there are still lack of material coherence. Meskipun penanganan masalah pernikahan usia anak telah sejak lama dilakukan, berlakunya Undang-Undang Nomor 16 Tahun 2019 tentang perkawinan semakin memperkuat pelaksanaan Program Pendewasaan Usia Perkawinan (PUP) sebagai langkah konkret penanganan tingginya pernikahan usia anak di Indonesia. Komunikasi pada akhirnya turut memegang peranan kunci dalam proses pelaksanaan program khususnya untuk mencapai perubahan dalam level masyarakat sasaran. Berkaitan dengan PUP, berbagai riset terdahulu masih banyak berfokus pada peran komunikator serta efektivitas proses pengomunikasian program. Melalui kerangka narrative paradigm, penelitian ini hadir dengan tujuan mengeksplorasi strategi komunikasi berbasis storry-telling yang telah dilakukan oleh para penyuluh lapangan di wilayah Kabupaten Pasuruan, wilayah dengan jumlah pernikahan usia anak yang cukup tinggi. Teknik pengumpulan data dilakukan melalui FGD dan wawancara dengan melibatkan para penyuluh lapangan Program PUP di Kabupaten Pasuruan, dinas terkait, serta Muslimat NU yang terlibat langsung dalam proses edukasi terkait PUP. Melalui analisis interaktif Miles et al (Miles, M.B; Hubberman, A.M,; Saldana, 2014), disimpulkan bahwa melalui strategi story-telling yang digunakan, para penyuluh selaku pencerita berusaha memposisikan dirinya dengan membawakan cerita yang didasarkan pada penggunaan kisah-kisah dalam sejarah Islam untuk melibatkan target audiens di dalam cerita mereka. Dari struktur narasi yang digunakan, secara umum cerita yang disampaikan melibatkan humor dan mitos dan telah dapat memenuhi koherensi struktural dan karakterologis. Akan tetapi, terdapat beberapa cerita yang belum menunjukkan koherensi material.

Sincere praise and flattery: Reward value and association with the praise-seeking trait

Sincere praise reliably conveys positive or negative feedback, while flattery always conveys positive but unreliable feedback. These two praise types have not been compared in terms of communication effectiveness and individual preferences using neuroimaging. Through functional magnetic resonance imaging, we measured brain activity when healthy young participants received sincere praise or flattery after performing a visual search task. Higher activation was observed in the right nucleus accumbens during sincere praise than during flattery, and praise reliability correlated with posterior cingulate cortex activity, implying a motivational effect of sincere praise. In line with this, sincere praise uniquely activated several cortical areas potentially involved in concern regarding others' evaluations. A high praise-seeking tendency was associated with lower activation of the inferior parietal sulcus during sincere praise compared to flattery after poor task performance, potentially reflecting suppression of negative feedback to maintain self-esteem. In summary, the neural dynamics of the motivational and socio-emotional effects of praise differed.

Convergent and Construct Validity of a Conversation Difficulties Outcome Measure in Primary Progressive Aphasia

Cognition and language changes, and their impacts on functional communication, are central to many dementias. Thus, functional communication, including conversation difficulties, is an important endpoint for clinical trials. To develop robust outcomes in primary progressive aphasia (PPA), a dementia characterized by communication impairments, we examined the convergent and construct validity of the Perception of Conversation Difficulties-Dementia Alzheimer’s Type (PCI-DAT; Orange et al., 2009). The PCI-DAT is a care partner reported measure of conversation difficulties. Eighty-two care partners with a mean age of 64.8 years (SD=10.61; 85% spouses, 5% adult children, 10% friends/siblings) whose mean relationship duration to the person with PPA was 39.1 (SD=15.1) years completed the study. Pearson’s correlation indicated a significant, modest correlation (r=-0.54, p&lt;0.0001) between the PCI-DAT Perception of Conversation Difficulties subscale and the Communication Effectiveness Index (Lomas et al., 1989) suggesting strong convergent validity. A Rasch analysis conducted on the same PCI-DAT subscale showed high person (0.92) and item (0.95) reliability indicating a robust overall scale structure that adequately evaluates various levels of conversation difficulty severity in PPA. Six items (27%) had minor ‘fit’ issues (defined by Wright and Linacre, 1994 as having infit statistics &lt; 0.6 or &gt; 1.4) relative to the underlying construct. Results suggest strong convergent and construct validity of the PCI-DAT in PPA and indicate items that will benefit from further development. Overall, our results suggest that the PCI-DAT holds promise for use as a functional communication endpoint in PPA clinical trials. Data for all five PCI-DAT subscales will be presented.

The Impact of Medical Therapeutic Communication Effectiveness on the Quality of the Medical Service Process in Hospitals at Medan City, Indonesia

BACKGROUND: Many individuals from Medan City, Indonesia, seek treatment abroad. This is because they are dissatisfied with the medical services provided at hospitals in their city, especially those for internal medicine, heart disease, and obstetrics-gynecology (Ob-Gyn). The attitude to seek treatment outside of the city may be because of ineffective medical therapeutic communication. However, a questionnaire to assess medical therapeutic communication from the patient’s perspective is lacking. AIM: Here, we sought to determine the effectiveness of medical therapeutic communication on the quality of the medical service process in hospitals. We also aimed to obtain statement items that can be used in a questionnaire to assess the effectiveness of medical therapeutic communication in hospitals at Medan City. METHODS: This cross-sectional quantitative research was conducted in three Medan City hospitals. Accidental sampling was used to select patients. Overall, 121 patients from internal medicine polyclinic, 88 from cardiac polyclinic, and 121 from obstetrician polyclinic were selected. All data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with the second-order model two-stage approach. RESULTS: The outer and inner model tests indicated that 6 statement items from Ob-Gyn specialists could be used as measurements with robustness and accuracy. The hypothesis test also proved that the effectiveness of medical therapeutic communication impacts the quality of the medical service process in Ob-Gyn polyclinics. The PLS-SEM analysis revealed that the effectiveness of medical therapeutic communication affected the quality of the medical service process only in the Ob-Gyn polyclinic. CONCLUSION: Therefore, medical staff at the Ob-Gyn polyclinics must focus more on listening to patient complaints with empathy and sympathy so that the patients feel better. Medical staff must also be forthright about the patient’s condition and explain the disease, examination, and treatment steps in an interesting way and in a soft tone such that patients can re-explain. Hospital management can use these six statement items to assess the medical therapeutic communication effectiveness in Ob-Gyn polyclinics from patients’ perspective.

Augmentative and alternative communication intervention for in-patient individuals with post-stroke aphasia: study protocol of a parallel-group, pragmatic randomized controlled trial

Background People with post-stroke aphasia commonly receive speech-language therapy (SLT) when they are admitted to hospitals. Commonly, these patients reported communication difficulties in in-patient settings. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) has been reported as an effective treatment approach to improve communication effectiveness, language performance, decreasing depression, and improving quality of life for this population. However, little evidence has demonstrated the use of AAC intervention (AACT) in early recovery from people with post-stroke aphasia in in-patient rehabilitation settings for improving these patients’ communication effectiveness. The pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) will explore the effectiveness and feasibility of including AACT in regular SLT for in-patient people with post-stroke aphasia. Method This pilot RCT is a single-blind, randomized controlled trial with two parallel groups. Both groups receive a 1-h treatment session, including either both AACT and SLT or SLT only for ten consecutive days. We aim to include 22 in-patient participants with post-stroke aphasia in each group. Participants will be assessed at pre- and post-intervention and 2 weeks after intervention. The primary outcomes are the ability of communication measured by the communication of basic needs subtest in the Functional Assessment of Communication Skills for Adult (FACS) and the overall language performance measured by the Chinese Standard Aphasia Battery (ABC). The secondary outcomes include a 10-min conversation, the 10-item Hospital version of the Stroke Aphasic Depression Questionnaire (SADQH-10), the Stroke-Specific Quality of Life Scale (SS-QOL), and a patient and caregiver satisfaction questionnaire. Discussion This pilot RCT will contribute to new scientific evidence to the field of aphasia rehabilitation in early recovery during the in-patient period. The paper describes the trial, which will explore the effect of combining AACT and SLT and SLT only, our choice of primary and secondary outcome measures, and proposed analyses. The study results will provide information for implementing AACT in the regular in-patient SLT of future RCTs. Trial registration Chinese Clinical Trial Registry database (ChiCTR) ChiCTR2000028870. Registered on 5 January 2020