COMMUNICATION SHILLS

INTRODUCTION

Man by nature is a social being , and for a being like man to have a proper socialization, communication is important and essential to enhance and fasting up his socialization. There is the need for him to share and exchange ideas, thoughts, information, facts, emotions etc. Communication is an everyday activity for a normal human being; in the sense that a man cannot stay for a whole day without communicating either verbally or non-verbally. Communication is an essential element in any cooperative activity.

Communication is an act of sending a message to a specific receiver(s) through a specific channel and having a feedback. Communication doesn’t just mean to talk or make speeches; speech is only an aspect of communication. Communication is an essential part of the human life especially during interaction with the society and fellow human beings.

Communication is a two ways process, involving primarily a sender, a message and a receiver, unless the receiver receives and understands the message and in some cases sends feedback to the formal sender, communication would not be complete.

As human beings, we spend much of our time in communication and when we communicate, we fulfill some reasons which have propelled us to communicate which can be transactional, personal, instrumental, affective, and consumatory.

Messages cannot be sent without a channel in other words communication is totally impossible in the absence of a specific channel. As a social process, communication involves some participants and channels.

Communication channels are the paths or directions through which information travels or flows from the sender to the receiver or from the receiver to the sender in the case of feedback. The channels with regards to the situation and type of message a sender wants to send across, can be internal or external.

Communication as the case may be can either be effective or ineffective depending on the channel and also the type of message being communicated. The ineffectiveness of a message is mostly and commonly influenced by communication noise of any form, which is a barrier to an effective communication and therefore causes miscommunication or lack of communication. The elements responsible for these are what we call communication barriers.

BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

Having seen the definition of communication and what it is all about in the above paragraphs, I will now make an attempt to define communication barriers and identify the barriers to communication.

According to the oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, international student’s edition, means “a problem, rule or situation that prevents somebody from doing something, or that makes something impossible.

For the interest and with regards to the context of this work, I would define barriers to communication as the elements, physical or non-physical, internal or external that serves as hindrance to an effective communication. Anything that causes noise of any form in the channel of communication therefore is a barrier communication. Barriers in communication cause miscommunication or lack of communication.

TYPES OF COMMUNICATION BARRIERS

·         Social barriers

·         Physical barriers

·         Semantic barriers

·         Structural barriers

·         Psychological barriers

SOCIAL BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION

Communication would take place when people feel like sharing ideas and understanding one another. The attitudes of the parties constituting the communication, both the sender and the receiver to one another, particularly stereotypes and prejudices constitute of barriers to effective communication. The entertainment of fear, insecurity, or distrust within a person towards another, will cause reluctance to communication between them and if they do communicate, there would be distort and reduction in the acceptance of the messages conveyed.

PHYSICAL BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATON

These are the physical elements that are hindrances to an effective communication; it may be caused by situation, condition, environment, and geography etc. examples: banging of doors and windows, a stuffy room, side talks/ murmuring, poor ventilation etc.

SEMANTIC BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION

This type of barrier in communication brings about lack of clarity in words or the misconception of words, ideas or concepts of a message. Examples: use of slangs while speaking or writing, diagrams and signs that are not easily understood ambiguity of words etc.

STRUCTURAL BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION

This is a barrier brought about by the defectiveness of a structure under which a communication is taking place; if the structure, organization or arrangement is defective, it would enhance communication problem therefore bring about non-communication. The implication of this barrier is that information may be communicated by or to a wrong person. Example: if a lecturer sends a student to go and call him the person sitting on the third role from the left of a lecture hall, if the arrangement is not systematic or if the arrangement is faulty, the messenger (student) may end up calling the wrong person.

PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION

This type of barrier may occur in the discomfort or abnormality of either the sender or the receiver of a message. Sometimes a receiver receives a message different from what the sender has actually sent.

            In this type of communication barrier, it important to note that “the state of mind of the sender or receiver of a message strongly influence the message been sent or been received as the case may be”.

            this is also caused by difference in mental ability, experiences, exposures, motivations, emotions, expectations and needs between the sender and the receiver, example: Nigeria belong to all of us may sound meaningless to an illiterate but to an educated person, it would be a call to cultivate a spirit of patriotism.

POSSIBLE WAYS OF AVOIDING COMMUNICATION BARRIERS

Communication is very essential for human interaction in the society, but in the midst of barriers the so aim of communication would be defeated, in other words communication can never be effective in the midst of different communicational barriers.

Because of the essentiality and importance of communication to the human life and human society as well, we have to suggest possible means to overcome these hindrances to effective communication.

·         Structures and organizations should be made clear to the receiver.

·         Senders should try and make use of the suitable channels to convey a message rather than doing the otherwise.

·         An uninterrupted system of communication should be ensured in order to reduce the influence of communication noise.

·         Message senders should try as much as possible to maintain a frequent eye-to-eye contact with the receivers in other to gain their attention and reduce distractions.

·         Speakers (senders) before a speech or lecture should ensure a proper arrangement of seats in the role of the auditorium or any communication arena.

·         Speakers should systematical organize their speeches well in simple languages before coming to the stage to address the audience.

CONCLUSION:

Communication to achieve the so aim of it should be effective and influential. The parties involved in a particular interaction or communication should know that listening is also an important part of communication and should not take it for granted.

            Barrier is a must avoid in order to ensure a gentle flow and effectiveness to communication. Due to the cause of these barriers, speakers are advised to use the most effective means to communicate their messages in order to avoid conflicting of understanding.