UGCNET Questions

Linear models depict communication as a one-way flow from sender to receiver, often neglecting feedback and context. Transactional models, by contrast, treat communication as a dynamic process where participants continuously send and receive messages, shaping each other’s responses. This fits classroom interaction.

Option A:
Option A reverses the theoretical positions by attributing mutual influence to linear models and ignoring feedback in transactional models, which is incorrect.

Option B:
Option B correctly states that transactional models emphasize simultaneity and reciprocity, capturing how both teachers and students act as communicators rather than as fixed sender or receiver.

Option C:
Option C suggests linear models always include feedback loops, but classic linear models are often criticized precisely for their minimal treatment of feedback.

Option D:
Option D confines transactional models to written communication, whereas they are highly relevant to rich face-to-face interactions common in teaching.

The transactional model sees communication as a dynamic, reciprocal process rather than a one-way sequence. In the classroom, teachers not only send messages but also receive cues, questions and feedback from students. Students, in turn, interpret teacher messages and respond verbally or nonverbally. Over time, these exchanges shape relationships, classroom climate and learning outcomes, reflecting mutual influence.

Option A:
Option A describes a linear, teacher-centred model where messages move one way from teacher to passive students. This is closer to the linear model, not the transactional view of mutual, simultaneous influence.

Option B:
Option B is correct because it emphasizes that both teacher and students act as senders and receivers at the same time in an ongoing process, which is the core idea of the transactional model.

Option C:
Option C wrongly claims that students only receive messages and never send any. In reality, their questions, comments and nonverbal responses are important messages in the transactional view.

Option D:
Option D limits the teacher’s role to decoding students’ messages, ignoring the teacher’s major function as sender and the mutual nature of the communication process.

Linear models, such as early mathematical models, depict communication as a straight line from sender to receiver with little attention to feedback or context. Transactional models, in contrast, see communication as a dynamic process where both parties are simultaneously senders and receivers. They stress mutual influence, continuous feedback and the role of context. This distinction is central when comparing older and more contemporary perspectives on communication.

Option A:
Option A correctly highlights that linear models are primarily one way and sequential, while transactional models view communication as two way and interactive. It notes the importance of feedback and simultaneity, which transactional models incorporate in explaining real life communication.

Option B:
Option B reverses the features, claiming that linear models focus on simultaneous interaction and transactional models ignore feedback. This misrepresents both models and is conceptually incorrect.

Option C:
Option C is wrong because transactional models actually give greater importance to nonverbal cues, context and simultaneous verbal and nonverbal exchanges. Neither model is defined by excluding nonverbal communication.

Option D:
Option D incorrectly ties each model to a particular medium. Both linear and transactional models are abstract frameworks that can apply to oral, written or mediated communication; they are not restricted by channel type.