Regulation/Control as a function of communication means being able to use language, gestures, and emotions to manage individual or group activities such as a parent telling a child not to misbehave or a policeman directing pedestrians not to jaywalk but cross on the pedestrian lane.
Regulation and/or Control are/is also observed when a student asks his/her parents to stop teasing them about having a crush in school. Siblings are also told not to look for that crush in school. Friends/classmates are under strict orders not to talk about the crush at all.
Regulation/Control is observable if we focus on the Verbal and Nonverbal cues used by the Speaker to achieve his/her purpose.
- Verbal cues are the specific words chosen and used. The Speaker and the Listener, when using verbal cues, should be respectful of each other’s culture as well as of their age, gender, social status, and religion. The words are usually directives, orders, requests, etc., meant to regulate and control other people’s behavior. In certain cases involving women or the powerful in Philippine society, an order is oftentimes worded as a request.
- Nonverbal cues include hand gestures, bodily action (including posture), vocal tone (paralanguage), and eye contact. The Speaker and the Listener, when exhibiting nonverbal cues, should be respectful of each other’s culture as well as of their age, gender, social status, and religion. The tone and the bodily action that accompany the words are authoritative and firm. Eye contact is direct. In our culture, these cues may be softened for children and the elderly.
Both verbal and nonverbal cues are necessary for a successful outcome of communication, the achievement of the Speaker’s purpose: Regulation and Control.