Barriers to Effective Communication

 

A barrier to communication is when people try to communicate a message. They have to do it in a certain way to make sure the audience receive the message in the correct way. If the message is not understood it means the presenter has not clearly researched their audience in order to give an effective presentation.

 

General Communication

Cultural Differences

A potential barrier to effective communication is cultural differences because cultures differ in many ways and this can mean the presentation given to different cultures could all have different outcomes, because signs, gestures, and language are taken into meaning a different way for each culture. This can be a real barrier when communicating to a very diverse audience that includes people from a lot of different cultures.

An example of a potential barrier would be personality and non-verbal body language, the scenario would be a person from Spain who is in a room with an English person. In this scenario the Spanish person has very open gestures and likes to be interactive with touching others to show friendship, however the problem is that the English woman is refined and closed off to being touched by another when they do not fully trust them as English refine their emotions. This is a potential barrier because the person being offended will get the wrong impression from the other person and therefore they will not want to socialise with them, meaning a goal for effective communication is not met.

Another example of a potential barrier is gestures and a thing that can come into effect is another person touching an Arabians head as they see this as a sign of disrespect because their souls are known in their culture to be in their heads. However in another country this gesture could count as a well done job. In the same culture they have a rule that no one should shake their left hand, because they reserve this hand for toilet reasons. Therefore if you go to shake this hand you are showing great disrespect to them, causing them offence so they would be unwilling to communicate with you making this a barrier to effective communication.

Technology can be a potential barrier because the wrong grammar, punctuation and structure can be misinterpreted when given over an email or text. Without the rise and fall of the speaker’s voice the listener cannot tell if they mean something in a certain ways such as sarcasm, jokes etc cannot be understood without the correct pronunciation.

A mechanism that could reduce the impact of communication barriers could be to research into the audience’s culture, beliefs and attitudes. The presenter will have an extremely broad understanding of the acceptable and not acceptable gestures, language and body language.

There are mechanisms that can reduce the impact of the technology barrier because you could make sure someone else proofreads your work because they will be able to tell you the issues with the message portrayed. Another way to overcome the barrier would be to use technology in a formal way until you have a personal presentation/meeting with the audience.

Overcoming the potential gesture barrier would mean researching into who will be in the audience and what culture they believe in so that when making body gestures they do not offend  any of the audience.

Reducing the potential language barrier could be done by listening extra carefully to people with accents because of their difference in language, and nicely ask them to repeat what they said so that you get the correct meaning of what they said.

Interpersonal Communication

Techniques and Cues

Negative body language can be a potential barrier to effective communication because having a weak posture, offensive gestures and crossing your arms can all play a vital barrier in not communicating effectively. Having weak posture can suggest you are not professional or are shy because you are closed off. This can be a barrier because it means the audience will not want to listen to someone who is not confident in themselves or the topic they are trying to present because they will not believe the topic is worth listening to.

Offensive gestures can be a barrier to effective communication because it shows you don't know your audience so they will not appreciate or respect you because you have not taken the time to research what could offend them. Offending them with inappropriate gestures can cause them to stop paying attention to what you are telling them meaning they will not understand the meaning you are trying to portray to them. This is a potential barrier.

Crossing your arms can also be a barrier to effective communication because it suggests you are closed off to your audience and new concepts. This means the audience will not ask questions if they are not sure about something you have said so they will not get the correct meaning of the thing you were trying to say to them.

Another potential barrier to effective communication is intonation because if you sound mundane throughout the presentation the audience will lose concentration and therefore will not get the full understanding of what you are trying to portray to them.

There are mechanisms that can reduce the impact of communication barriers such as improving your posture. This could give the audience a different attitude to understanding the meaning, to improve your posture you must think about standing up tall to show confidence in yourself and the subject you are talking about.

Another mechanism that can reduce the impact of the communication barrier is researching the audience you have present in the room to find out about their culture and religion and what may offend them or even just finding out what different gestures means. Such as an 'OK' sign with your hand in England means okay however in Japan it means they want to talk about money.

The mechanism you could use to reduce the impact of the barrier negative body language is by making sure you research how to be open to your audience so that you seem professional and well presented. This means if you don't cross your arms you will be open to new concepts from your audience and then the audience will listen and ask questions about the subject you are talking about.

Raising your voice up and down can be a mechanism to reduce the communication barrier because the audience will remain interested in what you are saying and therefore will get the full understanding you require them to have.

Written Communication

Spelling and Grammar

There are many potential barriers when trying to communicate effectively with written communication such as when you write a letter etc you could use the wrong spelling. This counts for using spellcheck which is on Microsoft because it has an American spellings such as 'Organization' instead of 'Organisation'. Using an American spelling to an English person could make them think the text does not apply to them because it is for Americans. This is a barrier because they would not read further into the text so they would not receive the message you are trying to communicate.

Another barrier to effective communication is again spelling but this time the wrong spelling that makes it harder or impossible for the reader to understand the message you are trying to portray to them. This could also result in the reader misinterpreting what you are saying through a written message and because it is written it means you cannot correct your meaning and their interpretation because you will not be present at that time.

Grammar can be a barrier to effective communication because if the text has too many grammatical errors the reader will not be able to read the text in the right way and they will not interpret the meaning in the correct way. Also if there are too many grammatical errors they could give up reading the text and they won’t have a chance to even get half the message you are trying to get them to understand. An example of a grammar mistake is when someone uses spell check and they chose the first one so they end up with 'Defiantly' instead of 'Definitely' which they did intend to write, this can give a complete new meaning to the point they were trying to make.

There is a mechanism that can reduce the impact of communication barriers and this is when using a computer add the correct English spelling into the dictionary so that the 'Z's' in certain words are not used, unless you have an American audience then leave the 'Z's' in the text because they can relate to this more than English people can.

Another mechanism that can reduce the impact of communication barriers is using spellcheck on any words that are underlined red, but be extra careful when choosing the correct spelling because sometimes the top correction given is not the word you intended to write.

Proofreading your work can be a mechanism to reduce the communication barrier because doing this will ensure you find any grammatical errors that have occurred and that you can find words that have been missed out. Correcting these simple errors can make the text flow more fluently in order for your audience to understand the correct meaning and they will also be able to read the text easily.

Written Communication Skills

Written communication skills means that someone can write an efficient document with ways of checking it beforehand such as:

• Spelling
• Grammar
• Capitalisation
• Proofreading

Spelling and Grammar

Spelling and grammar is important when communicating information effectively because if there are spelling or grammar errors this can make it difficult for the reader to understand what you are trying to say.  To remain professional within a document you must not make grammatical or spelling errors because these are vital mistakes that can impact on whether the person reading what you have written understands what you have said.

When using programs like Microsoft Word there is a spell check available however since the spell check provides many options you may chose the wrong spelling. Also the spell check is American so words that have ‘S’ in them are sometimes changed to ‘Z’ an example would be ‘Organized’ when it should be spelt like ’Organised’. One simple spelling mistake such as spelling definitely as defiantly can totally change the meaning of what you have written and the reader would have a hard time trying to understand the message you are giving them.

Spelling and grammar is important when communicating information effectively because the person reading the document must be able to understand the meaning you are trying to portray. If there are too many errors the meaning can become unknown and the reader will give up trying to figure out the correct spelling or grammar to understand what is being said.

Proofreading

Proofreading is important when trying to communicate information effectively because if you do not proofread your work you would not be able to correct where you have missed out words and these words could be important to the point you are trying to make. Things involved in proofreading are:

• Missing words
• Structure errors
• Spelling errors
• Grammar errors

Knowing how to proofread your own work is extremely difficult because you already know the meaning you are trying to get across in your head and you may think it is clear in your writing. Proofreading is important in communicating information effectively because each word has to be noticed individually to ensure all the words are present in the sentence and nothing important has been missed out. If something important has been missed out then the reader will not understand what you are trying to communicate to them. Proofreading can help you in many ways because doing this can make sure you know when you have made errors such as grammatical errors which the computer spellchecker will not pick up to tell you, which will result in a different message being portrayed to the reader.

 

When reading in general people will be put off if you write a huge chunk of text this means they will not even attempt to read it, because it will take too much effort to decipher the text. However to effectively communicate you must do a reasonable paragraph structure that is organised and stays on topic throughout so that the reader does not become confused because this could prevent them from understanding the message you are trying to tell them.

 

 

 

 

Interpersonal Communication Skills

An interpersonal skill allows people to communicate effectively with another group or individual. There are many interpersonal communication skills such as:

•  Methods
• Techniques and Cues
• Positive and Negative Language
• Active Engagement
• Barriers
• Types of Questions

Techniques and Cues

When communicating with others you must consider your body language and intonation. This ensures that the message you are trying to get over will be understood in the way you intend. An audience must be comfortable with the person talking to them. Body language can be different in many ways such as how close someone is to one another  can be a sign of how well they trust you such as if they remain extremely close they are most likely to have a strong friendship with you. If they move away when you get closer they do not trust you enough to let you violate their personal space.

Also eye contact with body language is very important because this can be a sign of someone being nervous, this could be the person looking left and right often. When people look at the floor it means they could be emotional, shy, or upset. When someone is not listening to the speaker they will be in a day dream or a thought. To communicate effectively with others you must not use this body language towards them, or if they are displaying this towards you change your body language so they feel more comfortable. If negative body language is used it can give the audience an image that you are aggressive, not bothered, difficult etc which would impact on how your message was delivered.

The image is an example of good body language. She is open, friendly, and well-presented etc.

This image is an example of bad body language. She is closed, unhelpful, ignorant etc.

Another factor is intonation and this must be use to give a positive impression to your listener because the use of your voice can tell someone your attitude towards the subject. Along with your voice you have the pitch, volume and rhythm. If you choose to not vary any of these factors then the audience will lose concentration and your voice will seem very monotone and boring. So to present you must control your voice and make it sound interesting and emphasis the point you are trying to get across. This will help to keep the audience engaged and listening to what you have to say.

Active Engagement

Active engagement is a skill where you listen to a speaker and you pay attention to them. This shows you have understood what the subject is about by using nodding, paraphrasing, and summarising. Paraphrasing is when the listener understands a situation/ subject and they return the feelings involved back to the speaker or they repeat the words that the original speaker had said to show that they were concentrating on the conversation.

 

Nodding shows the listener is listening to the speaker but doesn't feel the need to interrupt the speaker so they silently agree with a nod instead of saying “Yes I understand”. Summarising is when the listener understands the concept the speaker is trying to get across and they put it into their own words to show their understanding. You should try to actively engage with the audience because it shows a mutual understanding of the subject at hand and it is a way to make sure that the audience has understood the message you have conveyed. It is important however not to make assumptions i.e. if a person is nodding this is not necessarily an indication they have actually understood what you have said.

 

General Communication Skills

 When presenting the person will be doing it for a reason, to portray their message to the audience and to do this effectively they must use different communication skills such as:

•  Accuracy
• Questions and Answers
• Cultural differences
• Adapting to suit the audience
• Engaging the audience

Cultural Differences

Cultural differences can have a big impact on effective communication as some words and gestures are acceptable in some cultures but are very offensive in others. It is important to know what will offend different cultures if you are to communicate with them effectively. Also you must know this skill to read their signs because if you don’t you could agree to something without knowing about it. Having this skill allows you to identify different body languages signs so that you can communicate effectively with the people you are presenting to, having this knowledge will give you an upper hand because they will appreciate that you have researched their culture in order to not offend them.

Some examples of the differences that are involved in personal space as in South America people prefer to be closer to one another when they interact therefore the consideration would be to keep the presentation in a small area to fit in with the differences and make it more personal to them.

In some country's women are still not viewed as equals so it would be best to send a man to the presentation as a consideration which will allow the man to fit in more than a woman would. However if this is not possible another consideration is some countries would to not make eye contact with women. If the wrong words or gestures are used when communicating to people with different cultures this could result in them becoming offended, misunderstand what you have said or interpret it in a different way to that you intended. If this happens the message you are trying to communicate would be lost. To communicate effectively it is essential to understand the cultural beliefs of the audience you are communicating to.

Techniques for Engaging the Audience

If communication is to be effective it is important to make sure the audience are engaged if you are to keep them interested in what you are saying. In order to do this the person presenting can use different techniques in order to make sure the audience are listening and attentive. The consideration you would have to make would be handing out hand-outs which will give them something else to do other than staring at the board. Also use open body posture in order to seem friendlier to the audience so they will feel comfortable enough to make eye contact and ask questions to engage.

 

If the audience is not engaged they could become bored and stop listening to what is being said.  To prevent this the person communicating to the audience could do a ‘pattern interrupt’ which will keep the audience engaged with questions and make them think and pay attention.  It is a good idea to pause to create an effect so it does not sound like a robot is just piling information on top of the people listening as this could result in them becoming dis-interested and they would stop listening. It is important to consider what the presentation is about and what you hope to achieve, if you know this then the audience will remain engaged and you will be able to communicate your message effectively. It is also very important to have eye contact with the audience to keep them engaged.