- The reference frame factor
What happens if/when you are too concerned (or worse, inhibitted) by the quality or level of the language you are using? At this point you seriously run the risk that your attention will, accordingly, inevitably be focused primarily onto both [1] your discomfort and [2] all the grammar rules that you are going to be trying to remember while producing that chunck of text you are posting!
As a result, your attention will only secondarily be focused onto the message that you wish to communicate.
What this actually means is that you likewise seriously run the risk of drawing the attention of your readers both onto [1] the discomfort you have experienced while writing that text and onto [2] the very grammatical flaws that you would have rather people did not notice!
Yes! Whatever is your genuine focus, as you are engaged in communication, it is hardly possible for you to hide it from your audience. Somehow, it is hardly possible for you to make your audience focus onto your linguistic production from a different reference frame other than that you are coming from!
In other words, the frame of reference that we make use of, as we engage in whatever linguistic activity, this frame of reference somehow becomes inconspicuously intrinsical to the message, itself, that we produce. Somehow, it transpires in between the lines, so to speak.
How is it so? Why do we typically have no control (that we are aware of!) over the way frames of reference creep into the messages we produce?
We are yet to derive better scientific understanding of the human mind, and even more especially so, of the human mind within the framework of communication.
How can we know, then, that the frame of reference we come from, as we engage in communication, creeps into the messages we produce? There is empirical evidence to this: the way people respond to these messages, the feedback given to these messages, the general responses they evoke, in sum.
(If this topic interests you, click here for a couple of leads.)
Anyway, both regarding your Home Page and regarding whatever other activity on line, please remember that, if you are overly concerned regarding the quality of the language you use, you seriously run the risk that your audience might likewise focus rather on the quality of your writing than on the message, itself, that you have originally intended to communicate!
Well, and how about what you have to say, the message that you wish to get across, the reason you are on line?!!!...
...that may have all fallen into second plane... Scientific studies have found that our brain has its limits reagarding the number of different reference frames we are able to handle or focus on simultaneously. This means that, whatever communicative activity we may be engaged into, we should take care to ensure (as much as we possibly can, of course!) that our audience will focus onto what we intend this audience to focus on, regarding the message we are putting across.
As far as you, the communicator, are concerned, here is a simple equation for you to remember, when you are communicating (whether on line or off line): the more you are concerned with the form of your message, the less attention you are able simultaneously to devote to the content of your message! Moreover, you are likely to draw your audience's focus of attention onto whatever aspect of communication that you have under primary focus.
By the form of your message, above, we mean the linguistic style, the grammatical appropriateness, etc. The content of your message, in turn, is equivalent to what you wish to say, the meaning you feel the need to put across to someone else, the very communicative motivation that has gotten you started.
On the Net, and even more so in the Chats Rooms, where communication takes place instantly (=in real time), what really matters is communication, i.e., the content of your message, and much less its grammatical appropriatedness!!!
Let grammatical appropriatedness be your true concern when you are attending your English class (if you are taking lessons) or when you are taking an English exam! Not when you are on line! As always, there is a place and a time for every thing!
On the Net, especially in Chat Rooms, what matters the most is communication!!! This is what you must ensure you achieve! It is never too much to emphasize this point.
Communicate successfully, and people will hardly focus their attention onto possible grammatical slips your message may also carrry!
On the other hand, communicate poorly, and possibly revealing, in between the lines, your own uncertanties/fears regarding your use of English, and you are likely to lead people to focus on it, just as well!...whereas the meaning you had originally intended to carry across to others will have accordingly become diluted, so to speak, amongst the linguistic concerns you unconspicuously end up revealing:(...
(6:11)
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