It enables us to manage our relationships with others and to interpret and interact with our environment. Communication is a learned skill. Most people are born with the physical abilities to acquire necessary communication tools, but such potential does not guarantee that they will learn to communicate effectively. Language, rhetorical strategies, listening skills, and a lexicon of verbal and nonverbal meanings are developed in various ways. It is theorized that people gain their communication skills by having them modeled by persons in their environment, by being taught specific techniques through the educational process, and by practicing their abilities and having them evaluated.
Communication is a field that has developed an extensive body of knowledge.
The information relates to verbal and nonverbal language codes which are spoken, heard, and seen. The communication discipline has a well deserved record of accomplishment. The ability to speak clearly, eloquently, and effectively has been recognized as the hallmark of an educated person since the beginning of recorded history. Modern day communication practitioners have long stressed the role of citizenship in a democratic society, especially as it relates to freedom of speech as defined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The twentieth century has seen the field of speech and rhetoric grow to include studies of the workplace environment, family systems, mass media, and advertising.