Communication Skills

Communication is simply the act of transferring information from one place, person
or group to another.

Every communication involves (at least) one sender, a message and a recipient. This may
sound simple, but communication is actually a very complex subject.

The transmission of the message from sender to recipient can be affected by a huge range
of things. These include our emotions, the cultural situation, the medium used to
communicate, and even our location. The complexity is why good communication skills
are considered so desirable by employers around the world: accurate, effective and
unambiguous communication is actually extremely hard.

FIVE TYPES OF COMMUNICATION:

❖ Verbal communication
❖ Non-verbal communication
❖ Written communication
❖ Visual communication

VERBAL COMMUNICATION
Verbal communication occurs when we engage in speaking with others. It can be face-to-
face, over the telephone, via Skype or Zoom, etc. Some verbal engagements are informal,
such as chatting with a friend over coffee or in the office kitchen, while others are more
formal, such as a scheduled meeting. Regardless of the type, it is not just about the words,
it is also about the caliber and complexity of those words, how we string those words
together to create an overarching message, as well as the intonation (pitch, tone, cadence,
etc.) used while speaking. And when occurring face-to-face, while the words are
important, they cannot be separated from non-verbal communication.

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
What we do while we speak often says more than the actual words. Non-verbal
communication includes facial expressions, posture, eye contact, hand movements, and
touch. For example, if you’re engaged in a conversation with your boss about your cost-
saving idea, it is important to pay attention to both the their words and their non-verbal
communication. Your boss might be in agreement with your idea verbally, but their
nonverbal cues: avoiding eye contact, sighing, scrunched up face, etc. indicate something
different.
WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
Whether it is an email, a memo, a report, a Facebook post, a Tweet, a contract, etc. all
forms of written communication have the same goal to disseminate information in a clear
and concise manner – though that objective is often not achieved. In fact, poor writing
skills often lead to confusion and embarrassment, and even potential legal jeopardy. One
important thing to remember about written communication, especially in the digital age,
is the message lives on, perhaps in perpetuity. Thus, there are two things to remember:
first, write well – poorly constructed sentences and careless errors make you look bad;
and second, ensure the content of the message is something you want to promote or be
associated with for the long haul.

VISUAL COMMUNICATION
We are a visual society. Think about it, televisions are running 24/7, Facebook is visual
with memes, videos, images, etc., Instagram is an image-only platform, and advertisers
use imagery to sell products and ideas. Think about from a personal perspective – the
images we post on social media are meant to convey meaning – to communicate a
message. In some cases that message might be, look at me, I’m in Italy or I just won an
award. Others are carefully curated to tug on our heartstrings – injured animals, crying
children, etc.

We communicate continually throughout each and every day. We do it without thinking –

Understanding how you communicate is the first step to communicating more effectively.
You can easily look online for communication courses. There are a variety of credit and
non-credit course available to help you improve your communication skills, including
our non-credit series.
 FOUR IMPORTANT COMMUNICATION SKILLS:

❖ Listening

❖ Speaking
❖ Reading
❖ Writing

The four abilities of Learning are a group of four capabilities that enable a
person to grasp, follow, know and understand the expected subject or topic.
LSRW way of Learning abilities are Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing.
With regards to acquiring the Learning abilities, LSRW way of Learning skills
are regularly gained by listening first followed by speaking, reading an d writing.
Hence, these abilities are frequently called LSRW way of Learning.
Teaching in this manner, will guarantee focus around all these four abilities and
provides a stage to the students to sharpen their capability to Learn more
effectively.
A perfect curriculum for learning would include content for all the previously
mentioned four abilities. However, it is seen that most of the times the reading
and writing skills are given more significance over the previous two abilities.
In reality, in the process of learning, listening and speaking should take
precedence over reading and writing. The advantages of normally learning any
subject / topic can be upgraded incredibly when the LSRW method is practiced
in the same sequence as listed

Listening
Listening is the primary learning skill. It is what is known as a responsive
ability, or a latent skill, as it expects us to utilize our ears and our minds to
understand; as it is being told or addressed to us. It is the first of two normal
learning skills.
Listening is the capacity to precisely acquire and translate the significance in the
communication process.
Listening is critical to very essential and the most useful and powerful skill
needed for effectively understanding and correlating the essentials and
fundamentals. Without the ability to listen adequately, the understanding is
essentially mistaken. Subsequently, correlation separates out and the
understanding wades out without much of a stretch and the learner gets baffled.
 Speaking
Speaking is the communication medium of learning orally. To talk, we make
sounds utilizing numerous pieces of our body, including the lungs, vocal tract,
vocal lines, tongue, teeth and lips.
Speaking is the second of the four learning skills. Speaking is normally the
second expertise that we learn. Speaking or talking means to communicate, or
expressing one’s thoughts and feelings in a spoken language.
In primary schools elocution and recitation are main sources to master the
phonetics, the sounds, the rhythm, and to an extent the intonation, modulation
and variation in the way to be effective in conveying ideas and information.

Reading
One of the primary things you find out about reading is that there are diverse
reading strategies and the students ought to know about which procedure is most
fit, as required for the reading effort required by the content or by their educator
/ teacher.
Preparing the students to know their reading methods and derive when best to
apply them is in reality significant, particularly under t est conditions when
opportunity limitations become possibly the most important factor and choices
should be made relying upon time accessibility and the significance of the
outcome that needs to be achieved.
The four fundamental kinds of reading practices are the as under:
• Skimming
• Scanning
• Intensive
• Extensive
We will cover these individually in subsequent articles.

Writing
Writing is the fourth language expertise we may gain in our learning. Similarly
as with speaking, it is a gainful, or dynamic expertise, as it expects us to utilize
our hands and our minds to deliver the composed message, idea, thought or
information that we would have spoken otherwise.
Writing abilities might be improved by giving activities on piece and exploratory
writing. Students ought to be taught and urged to compose, arrange and organize
their thoughts on a giving subject or topic. The significance of sequencing their
idea thought process ought to be appeared so as to acquire cohesiveness,
completeness and accurateness in their writing.
Barriers in Communication
Barriers of Communication: This far we have seen what we mean by the process
of communication. But, at times even after taking care of every other detail some
misunderstandings arise. So, to eliminate these misunderstandings, we have to understand
the most common barriers to effective communication. Let us see what these Barriers of
Communication are!

Barriers To Effective Communication

The process of communication has multiple barriers. The intended communique will often
be disturbed and distorted leading to a condition of misunderstanding and failure of
communication. The Barriers to effective communication could be of many types like
linguistic, psychological, emotional, physical, and cultural etc. We will see all of these types
in detail below.

Linguistic Barriers
The language barrier is one of the main barriers that limit effective communication.
Language is the most commonly employed tool of communication. The fact that each major
region has its own language is one of the Barriers to effective communication. Sometimes
even a thick dialect may render the communication ineffective.

Psychological Barriers
There are various mental and psychological issues that may be barriers to effective
communication. Some people have stage fear, speech disorders, phobia, depression etc. All
of these conditions are very difficult to manage sometimes and will most certainly limit the
ease of communication.

Emotional Barriers
The emotional IQ of a person determines the ease and comfort with which they can
communicate. A person who is emotionally mature will be able to communicate effectively.
On the other hand, people who let their emotions take over will face certain difficulties.
Physical Barriers to Communication
They are the most obvious barriers to effective communication. These barriers are mostly
easily removable in principle at least. They include barriers like noise, closed doors, faulty
equipment used for communication, closed cabins, etc. Sometimes, in a large office, the
physical separation between various employees combined with faulty equipment may result
in severe barriers to effective communication

Cultural Barriers of Communication