According to Joseph De Vito (1994) interpersonal communication is
where you interact with others, learn about the and about yourself and
reveal yourself to others. It is through interpersonal communication that
you establish, maintain (and sometimes destroy) your personal relationship
with other people (p.5). Communications refers to the act, by one or more
persons, of sending and receiving messages that can be distorted by noise,
occur within a context, have some effect and provide some opportunity for
The communication context is useful for teachers to consider because
it relates to the environment that the communication may take place in; the
cultural context of the communication (in this case the school rules); the
social-psychological context, which is the relationship between teacher and
student; and the temporal or time context, (the time of day) the
communication may take place. These can all affect both the way a message
is delivered and received, and therefore can have differing feedbacks
according to variables in the context.
The ideal model of communication can be seen as a circular structure.
The communicator wants to express a message, whether it be verbally or non-
verbally, to a receiver, who receives the message, and then provides
feedback or a response to the message. Bearing in mind that messages can
often be of a non-verbal type, even when having a discussion, care has to
be taken that the response is not missed if it is not of a verbal kind.
An ideal communicator in a face to face, or face to group situation
will be clear, and concise in speech, be loud enough to hear by all
recipients, use language and terminology that is understood easily by the
An ideal listener will show attentiveness when listening, provide
feedback in the form of non-verbal gestures such as facial or hand
expressions, or low murmurs of agreement (or not) ...