Foundation Of Communication

FOUNDATION OF COMMUNICATION 2nd week

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 Most

people are not effective communicators.  20% of the nation’s (USA) young people cannot accomplish any of the simplest of communication tasks,  almost 63% cannot give clear oral directions,  About 95 percent of the population reports some anxiety about communicating with a person or in groups,the apprehension level of those who fear speaking in public is estimated at 50 to 70 %,  And adults listen at a 25 % level of efficiency. 2

Skills in demand 

Percentage of executives who ranked skills as very important:

 Listening  Interpersonal  Problem

solving  Technical within an industry  Basic computer knowledge  Creativity  Administrative organizational

80% 78 76 71 70 46 36 3

Did you know?  The

average person spends 30 percent of his/her waking hours in conversation….

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Communication defined  Comm.

İs a conscious or unconscious, intentional or unintentional process in which feelings an ideas are expressed as verbal and/or nonverbal messages that are sent, received and comprehended.  This process can be;  accidental

(having no intent),  expressive (resulting rom the emotional state of the person),or  rhetorical (resulting from specific goals of the communicatior). 5

Intrapersonal comm  Human

comm occurs on the intrapersonal, interpersonal and public level.  Intrapersonal comm is communicating with yourself. It encompasses such activities as thought processing, personal decision making, listening and determining self-concept.

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Interpersonal comm  Refers

to comm that takes place between 2 or more persons who estblish a communicative relationship.  Forms of interpersonal comm include face-to-face or mediated conversations, interviews, and small-gruop discussions.

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Public comm  Is

characterized by a speaker’s sending a message to an audience. It may be direct, such as a face-to-face message dlivered by a speaker to an audience, or indirect, such as a message relayed over radio or television.

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All communication is:  dynamic,

because the process is constantly in a state of change. As the attitudes, expectations, feelings, and emotions of persons who are cmunicating change, the nature of their communication changes as well.

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Continuous  Because

is never stops.  Whether asleep or awake, we are always processing ideas and information through our dreams, thoughts and expressions.  Our brains remain active; we are communicating.

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Irreversible  Once

we send a message, we can not undo it.  Once we make a slip of the tongue, give a meaningful glance, or generate an emotional outburst, we cannot erase it. Our apologies or denials cannot eradicate what has taken place.

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Interactive  We

are constantly in contact with other people and with ourselves.  Others react to our speech and actions, and we react to our on speech and actions, and then react to those reactions.  Thus, a cyle of action and reaction becomes the basis for our communication.

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Contextual  It

is a part of our entire human experience.  The complexity of communication dictates that we develop the awareness and the skills to function effectively as comunicatiors and to adapt to the setting, the people who are present, and the purpose of the communication.

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To be an effective communicator;  You

need to understand;

 How the

comm process operates as a

system,  How you send and process information,  How you reason your way to conclusions & evaluate the ideas that others send,  The relationship between communication & culture,  What ethical standards they use making their decisions. 14

The components of human comm.  As

human beings, we are capable of selective comm.  That is, from the wide repertory available to us, we can choose the symbol we believe best represents the idea or concept we wish to express.  We can think in abstractions, plan events in the future, & store & revall information.  Selective comm allows us to combine sounds into complicated structures and therefore describe events & objects. 15

When we communicate  we

encode (take ideas & put theninto message form),  send the ideas through a channel composed of our primary signal system (the senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, & touching) to someone who receives them using his or her primary signal system,  decode (translate) the message. (Figure 1) 16

Figure 1: Encoding & decoding

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 You

ask one of your friends, “may i borrow a pencil?  She says, “yes” & gives you a pencil.  You have jist participated in an effective comunication transaction.  You (a communicator) encoded a message (may i borrow a pencil?)&  Send it out over a channel (vocal tones carried on sound waves) to your friend.

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 Your

friend received the message (by using sensory agents, ears) &  decoded it (understood that you wanted a pencil.  Your friend’s feedback (the word yes & handing the pencil to you) indicated the message was succesfully received & decoded. 19

 Now

suppose that the person sitting next to you is from France and speaks no English.  Unless both of you communicate in French, he will be unable to decode your message.

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 Remember

that;  The act of speech is not itself comm.  Speech is only a biological act: the utterance of sounds, possiblyof vocal symbols of language.  Comm is broader: it involves the development of a relationship amng people in which there is shared meaning among the participants. 21

Component of Comm  Figure

illustrates how the components of the communication process work.  The circles representing;  the

source (the originator of the message) and  the receiver (the recipient of the message)  overlap as each person sends messages (communication) and  feedback (response toa message)  to other through a frame of reference (a perceptual screen). 22

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Communicator perception  

Your perception –the way you view the world – affect your interpretation of a communication stimulus. Man factors make up your perceptual filter. These factors include;       

Your culture (the background worldview you hold) Communication skills (develop from experience & training) Physical & emotional states (how you feel at this particular time) Experiences (your cultural background) Attitudes (negative and positive predispositions to respond to any particular stimulus) Memory (ability to store and recall information) Expectations (what you anticipate will occur)

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 Because

of perceptual differences, 2 people reporting on an incident they have both seen may report their observations differently.  You encode & decode messages through your perceptual filters.  These percepual filters establish expectations for the outcome of the comm, & expectations guide your interpretation of communicator’s message. 25

The source & the message  The

comm process begins when the source is consciously or unconsciously stimulated by some event, object, or idea. This need to send a message is then followed by a memory search to find the appropriate language (verbal or nonverbal or both) in which to encode the message.

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The channel    





During a communicative act, the encoded message is cared through a channel/s If the comm occurs face-to-face, these channels may be some or all of the five senses. Typically, w rely on sight and sound as channels in speaking and listening. Instead of communicating face to face, however, we may choose to use an electronic channel that uses sound (eg, telephone) or seeing & hearing (eg. Tv). In some instances, we may choose to send a message to someone by means of physical contact,such as by tapping the person on the shoulder. In this case, we use the touch channel. 27

The receiver and the message 





At the end of the channel, the receiver must decode the message before comm can be accomplished. On going verbal and nonverbal signals, the rceiver processes them through a memory search so that the signals are translated into the receiver’s language system. This decoded message is not identical to the one encoded by the source because each person’s symbol system is shaped by a unique set of perceptions. A chef & an amateur cook, for instance, may have different concepts of what “season to taste” means in a recipe.

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Feedback   



Once the receiver assigns meaning to the received message, he is in a position to respond. This responce, called feedback, can be a verbal or a nonverbal reaction to the message, or both. Feedback indicates whether the receiver understand (eg. by nodding), misunderstands (eg. by shrugging the shoulders and saying, “I don’t understand”), encourages the source to continue (eg. by leaning forward & saying “yes”), or disagrees (eg. by pulling back & saying “no”). The act of responding, by which the receiver sends feedback to the source, actually shifts the role of the receiver to that of source. 29

Noise  Messages

are influenced not only by the interpretations of each communicator but also by noise, which is any internal or external interference in comm process.  Noise can be cause by some problems: >>

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Environmental noise  is

outside interference that prevents the receiver from gaining the msg.  This can happen when you are in the kitchen running water and the sound muffles your friend’s voice when he asks you a question from the adjoining room.

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Physiological-impairment noise A

physical problem can block the effective sending or receiving of a msg, thus creating physiological-impairment noise.  For example, deaf persons do not have the sensory capabilities to receive a msg in the same way as do hearing people.

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Semantic noise  Problems

may arise regarding the meaning of words -- semantic– creating semantic noise.  For example, semantic noise may result when people use language that is common only to one specific group, a particular part of a country, another nation, or a particular field, profession or organization.  Travellers frequently encounter semantic problem.  eg. A man asks for a soda will probably get a soft drink, rather than a mixture of ice cream, fruit flavoring and soda water. 33

 Experts

(eg. professor, doctor, lawyer, mechanics) sometimes forget that those who do not have as much knowledge of their field may not be familiar with its vocabulary.  eg. Clients often complain that lawyers fail to communicate clearly because they use legal jargon, which is confusing to nonlawyers. 34

 Similarly,

people sometimes use the initials of organizations, equipment or activities rather than their full names.  Computer specialists use such initials as LC D, GDSS, CMS etc., forgetting that most people do not recognize these abbreviations.  To avoid semantic problems, communicators must be aware that although they know the meanings of the words they use, those at the receiving end must assign similar meanings for comm to be effective. 35

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Syntactical noise  Each

language has a syntax, a customary way of putting words together in a grammatical form.  Various types of syntactical noise, that is inappropriate grammatical usage, can interfere with clear comm.  eg. Receivers may become confused if someone changes tenses in the middle of a story (“she went down the street and says to him…”). 37

Organizational noise  When

the source fails to realize that certain ideas are best grasped when presented in a structured order, organizational noise may result.  A geography instructor presents ideas in a random fashion: first he talks about India, then China, then Turkey, then India & than China.  After a while, his students become so confused they have absoletly no idea which country he is discussing. 38

 Many

methods of org. can provide a clear structure.  In giving directions, a person may set a pattern by starting at the departure point & processing in geographical order (eg. Go to the first street, turn right, proceed 3 blocks, & turn left)  If material is presented in a specific pattern, the receiver is likely to grasp the meaning.  If the material is not organized, the receiver must not only try to figure out what is said but also sort out the information. 39

Cultural noise  Results

from preconceived, unyielding attitudes derived from a group or society about how members of that culture should act or in what they should / not believe.  Individuals in a culture who believe in a set pattern of rules and regulations might say, “Nice people don’t do things like that” and “we do it this way”. 40

 An

instance of cultural noise is the attitude that any action by a representative of one’s own group is always right whereas the actions by a member of another group are wrong.  Thus, a person who has always voted for candidates of one political party may find it difficult to be open-minded when listening to information about the opposing political party’s candidates. 41

Psychological noise  We

sometimes find ourselves in situations where psychological noise --stress, frustration, irritation– causes us to send or receive msg ineffectively.  Think of what happens when you are so angry that you “can’t think straight”.  This is a normal example of psychological noise getting in the way of effective comm. 42

 Some

people have severe psychological problems that cause them to communicate in unusual ways.  People with schizophrenia (a disintegration of personolity) or catatonia (immobilty & speechlessness) may have great difficulty communicating.  They may talk in riddles and rhymes, makep up words, switch personalities, or not speak at all. 43



These noise factors can interfere with effective comm in varying stages of the   







linear, interactional or transactional models.

eg. Semantic noise may stop the sender from encoding a msg if she does not have the vocabulary to create the msg. The msg may not get into the channel if there is physiological-impairment noise because the sender has laryngitis. The msg may not get clearly out of the channel if there is environmental noise that creates static on the telephone line carrying the signal. >> 44

 The

receiver may not be able to receive the msg if she is deaf & can’t hear the intended msg.  The receiver may be experiencing psychological noise: though he receives the msg, he may be so disoriented that he doesn’t really grasp the intent of the information.  Semantic and syntactic noise, he may not be able to decode the msg because he doesnt speak the same language as the sender. (Fig) 45

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Dealing with noise  Although

noise interferes with comm, we must learn to adapt to & compensate for it because it is commonly present.  For example: a source should offer opportunities for feedback to make sure that a msg has been received & understood.  Rather than assuming that someone in another room has heard your msg, ord the statemnt so that it requires an answer: “the phone is for you; are you going to answer it?” 47

 Another

way to compensate for noise is to define terms that might be misunderstood or may not be part of the receiver’s vocabulary.  Rather than repeating exactly the same words in a msg that has been misunderstood, you can change the terms or the sentence structure to aid the receiver in decoding the msg.  In the same way, a receiver should ask questions or repeat the msg’s general ideas to be sure that distractions have not interfered with comprehension. 48

The context  Comm

does not occur in a vacuum. It always relates to the context:  Who is present, where the comm is taking place, &  General attitude of those assembled.  Where we are & who is with us affect our comm.  Such factors as the size of the room, the color of the walls, & the type & placement of the furniture can all affect how we feel, the way in which we communicate, & the type of communicating we engage in. For example: >> 49

 Placing

a large number of people in a small work area, as is often the case with direct-phone salespeople, may bring about emotional stress that can be reflected by erratic comm.

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Comm as a system  Think

of your daily msgs, your sending & receiving.  There is a system, a pattern, to the way you 



communicate with others. The pattern centers on who speaks, what the speaker says or is allowed to say, the way in which the msg is sent, & where the speaker and receiver are. The participants, the setting, the purpose, and how they interact form the basis of the comm system.

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 The

follow of comm in a consistent pattern … p. 14

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