• L a n g u a g e i s a e x c e l l e n t c o m m u n i c a t i o n t o o l .• L a n g u a g e i s t h e s o u r c e o f m a n y

c o m m u n i c a t i o n p r o b l e m s .

LANGUAGE AND CRITICAL THINKING

A GOOD CRITICAL THINKER SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE THESE FOUR THINGS IN MIND:

TIME:

PERSON:

OCCASION:

PLACE:

FOUR AREAS OF LANGUAGE USE THAT ARE IMPORTANT TO CRITICAL THINKING:

WORD CHOICE

• There are about 500,000 words in the English language. for the 500 common words there are about 14,000 different meanings. words choices allows us to indirectly express our “real” feelings about the people, events and things in our environment. The words we select to describe people both internal and external, shapes the Way we feel about this individuals.

AMBIGUITY

Ambiguous language can cause confusion.

Ambiguous language can lead to over-generalizing and stereotyping.

When categorizing large groups of people, events and things under one single label.

Communication using words cannot be 100% efficient. Whenever a word, phrase or even a sentence has more Than one meaning, it becomes ambiguous. Euphemisms: to soften the impact of a word to makeIt more acceptable. Doublespeak: language that conceals or prevents thought - language that is clear and accurate but implies something which is false. bypassing: when people intentionally use the same word to mean different things, or to represent the same thing.

DEFINITION • To avoid ambiguity in language is to define

the terms you are using. Definition can indicate the sense in which you use familiar terms. - Denotative: refers to the way a word Is generally used or the meaning which people use to attach to a word. - Connotative: refers to the way a Person emotionally responds to the term/word. - connotative are necessary and important part of human communication. - without them, it would be unable to describe ourselves fully and be

understood by others.

DEFINITION

Dictionary definition:

- know as formal definition

- most common form for clarifying what a word means.

Operational Definition:

- most useful to define a word by its function or operation. Definition by Example: - the attempt to define a word or phrase by citing specific instances of that word/phrase. Definition by Negation:

- tells us what a phrase or word is not.

Definition by Etymology: - is when you define a word or phrase by citing its historical roots or point of origination.

INTENSITY OF LANGUAGE

The language that demonstrates irreverence, disrespect toward groups of people or religious beliefs.

The language that is vulgar and offensive.

Negative Evaluative words: - words that can only be understood through a comparison with their opposite.

Strong Emotive Words: used to describe something, but present the person’s attitude toward what is being described.

Abusive Language: such as name calling,insults and remarks which are normally of a racial or sexual nature.

IMPACT OF LANGUAGE ON CRITICAL THINKING

Language is related to audience attention and comprehension:

- language should be used to select and direct attention

toward desired elements. - proper word choice is the key to comprehension.

language is related to audience acceptance and rejection of an argument.

- the right word is dependent upon the potentialities in language choice. Language affects arguer credibility: - the better the word choice, the more appropriate the word selection is to time, place, occasion, topic and audience.

language determines how people interpret their environment:

- language powerfully conditions all our thinking about social problems sand processes.

-. language powerfully conditions all our thinking about social problems sand processes