The Barriers To Communication

The Barriers To Communication While there are many subtleties to communication between people with some basic skills can actually help you to be even effective communicator. On this assignment we will explore barriers to listening and strategies for effective listening, Barriers to accurate perception and barriers to effective verbal communication and strategies for accurate perception and lastly strategies for effective verbal communication. Listening may not seem like a complicated process when someone speaks you listen. As you are ready to receive the information and being communicated you are likely not actually realizing that you are decoding the dialogue or interpreting it Barriers to Communication If noise is whatever interferes with communication between sender and receiver (and vice versa), its important to understand what causes noise-what are the main barriers to communication. There are three main types of barriers: external, internal, and semantic. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ External barriers to communications include environmental and visual distractions. Suppose you are listening to your professor and suddenly you see your favorite movie star walk by in the hallway. Do you think you would hear and understand everything your professor was saying at that moment? Or maybe youre on a date and having a hard time hearing what your companion is saying because of the racket in the restaurant. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Internal barriers come from within the receiver. They include not paying attention or not listening, boredom, and lack of interest. If a student is sitting in class daydreaming instead of listening to the instructor, for example, how much communication is taking place? à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Semantic barriers come from differences in language, education, and culture. Obviously if the sender is speaking in English and the receiver doesnt understand English, theres a problem. But even if the sender and receiver speak English, they may not speak the same dialect. The words they use may not mean the same thing. If you order a soda in Washington, DC, for example, youll get a soft drink. If you order a soda in Detroit, youll get a drink made of soda water and flavored syrup with ice cream floating in it. If youre from the United States and youre speaking to a Scot from Glasgow, you may have a hard time simply understanding his Pronunciation. And your accent may be incomprehensible to him! Four Steps to Effective Interpersonal Communication If you are the sender, its your job to find ways to penetrate the noise that prevents clear communication. Following these four steps in your communication will help you do so: 1. Focus your message 2. Magnify the listeners attention 3. Penetrate barriers 4. Listen actively. Focus Your Message Focusing your message means planning before you speak. Think carefully about what you want to say and how you want to say it. Decide what your goal is: to inform, to persuade, to direct, or to do something else. Be sure you understand who your audience is so you understand where the audience is coming from as it receives your message. Make sure your message is specific and concise. Get to the point; dont be diverted into side issues. Present your message politely, and be objective-state all sides positions fairly before arguing your own. (If the listener perceives that you are biased, this itself can become an important barrier to communication.) Magnify the Listeners Attention Ask yourself: Why should my listener care about what I have to say? You must create interest-make your message relevant to the listener. If your instructor suddenly announces that something will be on your next exam, youre more likely to pay attention. If you announce that what youre about to say will save your listeners money, youre likely to grab their attention. Find something in your message that your listener can relate to and make sure you highlight that. Make it clear that your message is important. For example, if you suddenly announce that What Im about to say could save your life, before you discuss a crucial safety issue, youll grab the listeners interest. But your ideas must really be important. Simply declaring that they are wont do it-you must persuade the audience through the clarity and logic of your arguments and your evidence that your message really is significant. Again, think about your message from the audiences perspective instead of your own. This means knowing your audience. Deliver your message so that it naturally draws your listeners attention. Penetrate Barriers One serious barrier to clear communication is vagueness. If you say, There was a fire downtown last night, you have communicated little. If you say, however, Twenty fire trucks from three different towns fought an inferno last night that destroyed an entire city block, including a fireworks factory, your concrete description has communicated a good deal more. The listener now understands that youre talking about a major disaster, not a fire in a trash can. Your concrete description helps the listener create a mental picture, or visualize the blaze.