At the very core, communication skill simply concerns the proficiency or quality of one’s communicative performance. Just as people’s dancing, driving, or chess playing reflects a certain level of proficiency, so too do their various communication activities, such as listening, public speaking, and making small talk. Com munication skill is one of the most extensively and intensively studied of all aspects of human behavior, in part because it is fascinating in its own right, but also because communication skill is vitally important to one’s well-being: Skillful communicators are happier and healthier, enjoy more satisfying interpersonal relationships, and perform better in school and in their jobs.

Questions about communication skill have occupied thinkers for millennia: At least as far back as the Greek Classical Age (5th to 4th centuries BCE), philosophers grappled with identifying effective persuasion techniques. This concern with persuasion has continued as an important area of study to the present day, but in the past century, examinations of communication skill have extended far beyond issues of persuasion and social influence to include practically every aspect of verbal and nonverbal behavior. And the study of social skill has become a broad,
interdisciplinary enterprise: Examinations of communication proficiency are found in virtually every branch of scholarly inquiry regarding human social behavior—from political science to neuroscience.

Littlejohn, Stephen W and Karen A.Floss. (2009). Encyclopedia of Communication Theory.USA:SAGE.654

Penanggungjawab naskah :

Gayes Mahestu
Edwina Ayu Kustiawan