Download barriers to effective communication

JRE SCHOOL OF Engineering
CLASS TEST-1 EXAMINATIONS MARCH 15
Subject Name
Professional
Communication
Roll No. of Student
Date
23 March 2015
For CS, IT and EE branches only
SECTION – A
Subject Code
NAS -204
Max Marks
Max Duration
Time
30
9:20-10:20 am
(3 marks * 5 Questions = 15 Marks)
Note: Attempt all questions. All questions carry equal marks.
Q.l. What are the features of technical writing? How could it be distinguished from general
communication?
Ans. There are several different kinds of writing that fall under the umbrella of scientific
writing, such as:

Peer-reviewed journal articles (presenting primary research)

Grant proposals (you can’t do science without funding)

Literature review articles (summarizing and synthesizing research that has already been
carried out)

Popular science articles (communicating scientific discoveries to a non-scientific audience)
Features of Technical Writing
Always keep in mind that the purpose of a technical document is to draw the attention of the
readers, to interest them, and to convince them about your technical information. Technical
writing requires certain different emphases to enable people to read with ease of understanding
and interest. Ease of understanding from the readers' perspective is the key in technical writing.
The contents of technical materials are usually already complicated enough for the reader to
understand.

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
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Accuracy
Clarity
Brevity
Simplicity
Word choice
Use of active voice
TECHNICAL VS GENERAL COMMUNICATION
•
Technical content
•
Informal/formal
Formal
•
Highly Structured
Unstructured
•
Specific purpose & specific subject Matter
matter
•
Specific audience
audience
General content
No well defined purpose &Subject
Not always for a specific
•
Specialised vocabulary like jargons, graphics
•
Always Factual
•
Objective/subjective
doesn’t involve technical words
May not be Factual
Always Objective
Q.2. Give the meanings of following homophones and use them in sentences:
i) Stationary, Stationery ii)Counsel, Council iii) Course, Coarse
Ans: i) Stationary, Stationery:
Stationary (not moveing, still )- While the sun is stationary , all other planets revolve around it.
Stationery (means writing and office supplies e.g., writing paper, envelopes, pens).
I would have written down everything they said, but I had no stationery with me.
ii) Counsel, Council:
A council is meeting for discussion or advice, but to counsel is a verb meaning to give advice.
Council is a group of people who get together to figure something out, or or a group chosen to
give advice, like a student council.
But the information was often incomplete or conflicting — and council members are now
asking the agencies to respond to their queries in writing.
As a noun,counsel is a synonym for advice, but it can also mean the act of giving that advice or
refer to a person who gives legal or professional advice.
That lawyer would counsel you.
iii) Course, Coarse
Course-Education delivered in a series of lessons or a series of events or a direction
I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia.
Course- The river changed course
Coarse- Consisting of large grains or particles.It also means rough, crude, of low quality or
not fine in texture.
A badger's fur is more coarse than it looks.
Under the microscope they are seen to contain coarse grains.
Q.3. a)Give the synonym of the word ‘incredulous’
(Answer marked in bold)
i) Unbelievable b) Trusting c) Disbelieving
b) Pick the antonym of ‘common place’
i) ordinary ii)special iii)interesting
c) The words ‘summon’ and ‘writ’ are examples of:
i) Jargons ii) Clichés iii) Eponyms
Q.4. Explain briefly the process of communication.
Ans: Robert Kreitner defined, “Communication process is a chain made up of identifiable links.
The chain includes sender, encoding, message, receiver, decoding, and feedback.”
Communication may thus be defined as a process concerning exchange of facts or ideas between
persons holding different positions to achieve mutual harmony. Communication process as such
must be considered a continuous and dynamic interaction.
This Shannon Weaver model of communication summarises the process of communication.
In detail, the communication process consists of the following eight steps:
1. Developing idea by the sender: In the first step, the communicator develops or
conceptualizes an idea to be sent. It is also known as the planning stage since in this stage
the communicator plans the subject matter of communication.
2. Encoding: Encoding means converting or translation the idea into a perceivable form that
can be communicated to others.
3. Developing the message: After encoding the sender gets a message that can be transmitted
to the receiver. The message can be oral, written, symbolic or nonverbal. For example, when
people talk, speech is the message; when people write a letter, the words and sentences are
the message; when people cries, the crying is the message.
4. Selecting the medium: Medium is the channel or means of transmitting the message to the
receiver. Once the sender has encoded his into a message, the next step is to select a suitable
medium for transmitting it to the receiver. The medium of communication can be speaking,
writing, signaling, gesturing etc.
5. Transmission of message: In this step, the sender actually transmits the message through
chosen medium. In the communication cycle, the tasks of the sender end with the
transmission of the message.
6. Receiving the message by receiver: This stage simply involves the reception of sender’s
message by the receiver. The message can be received in the form of hearing, seeing, feeling
and so on.
7. Decoding: Decoding is the receiver’s interpretation of the sender’s message. Here the
receiver converts the message into thoughts and tries to analyze and understand it. Effective
communication can occur only when both the sender and the receiver assign the same or
similar meanings to the message.
8. Feedback: The final step of communication process is feedback. Feedback means receiver’s
response to sender’s message. It increases the effectiveness of communication. It ensures
that the receiver has correctly understood the message. Feedback is the essence of two-way
communication
Q.5 Explain the concept of Kinesics in non-verbal communication.
Ans: Kinesics is the non-verbal behaviour related to movement, either of any part of the body, or
the body as a whole. In short all communicative body movements are generally classified as
kinesic. There are basically five different types of kinesics; emblems, regulators, illustrators,
affective display and adaptors.
Emblems:
Emblems are non-verbal cues that have a verbal counterpart.For example, the British sign for
Victory (forefinger and middle finger erect) symbolises the letter V, a sign for victory. However,
the same movement may symbolise the number two in the US and may be seen as insulting in
Australia.The list of possible interpretations and different meanings is, endless. In short, emblems
are signs used to refer to certain words. Its interpretation may vary across different cultures and
groups of people.
Regulators:
Regulators are non-verbal signs that regulate, modulate and maintain the flow of speech during a
conversation. These can be both kinesic, such as the nodding of a head, as well as nonkinesic,
such as eye movements. They are often used as feedback to find out if one is clear of the
instructions given or if the audience is intrested in the speech. Different cultures use different
forms of regulators to show confusion or understanding of a certain information.
Illustrators: Illustrators are used more consistently to illustrate what is being said. For example
pointing to something that you are discussing about. It reinforces what you are saying.
Affective Display:
Affective Displays are body, or more frequently facial, movements that display a certain affective
state, i.e. emotions. A lack of such affective displays may well be understood as a lack of
emotion, which in turn is probably wrong. Different cultures may practice the displaying of
emotions differently. Although two people may be feeling just as angry, their display of anger
may be totally different. One may blow up in the face while the other may use silence to show
displeasure. Therefore the lack of display may not indicate the lack of emotions.
Adaptors:
Adaptors include postural changes and other movements at a low level of awareness, frequently
made to feel more comfortable or to perform a specific physical function. A slumped posure
indicates that you have low spirits, fatigued or that you feel inferior.Whereas, an erect posture
shows high spirits and confidence. If you lean foward it implies that you are open and interested.
Leaning away shows disinterest and defensiveness. Maintaining a rigid posture may mean that
you are defensive, while a relaxed posture may translate to openess. Crossed legs and arms shows
unwillingness to listen while uncrossed arms and leg indicates that you are approcahable.
SECTION – B
(5 marks * 1 Question = 5 Marks)
Note: Attempt any one of the following:
Q.6 Discuss the channels and flow of communication in an organization.
Ans: Communication channels are the means through which people in an organization
communicate. There are two channels of communication : the formal and the informal channel.
The informal channel is also called grapevine communication.
Flow of Information within Organization:
•
Downward Communication: is more than passing on information to subordinates. It
may involve effectively managing the tone of the message, as well as showing skill in
delegation to ensure the job is done effectively by the right person.
•
Upward: The function of upward communication is to send information, suggestions,
complaints and grievances of the lower level workers to the managers above. It is,
therefore, more participative in nature
•
Horizontal/Lateral: This type of communication can be seen taking place between
persons operating at the same level or working under the same executive. Functional
managers operating at the same level, in different departments, through their
communication, present a good example of lateral communication.
•
Diagonal/Cross-Communication: Diagonal or crosswise communication takes place
when people working at the same level interact with those working at a higher or lowerlevel of organisational hierarchy and across the boundaries of their reporting
relationships.
or
Define language and describe the various characteristics of language.
Ans: Language is a system of conventional spoken, manual, or written symbols by means of
which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in itsculture, express
themselves. The functions of language include communication, the expression of identity, play,
imaginative expression, and emotional release. Henry Sweet, an English phonetician and language
scholar, stated: “Language is the expression of ideas by means of speech-sounds combined into
words. Words are combined into sentences, this combination answering to that of ideas into
thoughts.”
The major characteristics of language are:
Displacement
This feature of languages refers to the ability to speak not only about what is happening at the
time and place of talking.but also about other situation, future and past., real or unreal. We can
talk about electronic parts catalog while playing cards and without ever seeing one.
As far as we know, the majority of animals cannot do that, nonetheless as the research suggest the
bee can direct other bees to a food source. This might mean that the bees' communication system
also possesses this feature, although in some limited fashon.
Arbitrariness
There is no natural connection between the word or sound and the thing it denotes, which means
we cannot tell what is the meaning of a word simply by looking at it. Nothing in the German word
'Handyspiele' tells us that it means the same as the English word 'handball' or Polish word 'piłka
ręczna'. Although this rule applies to the most of human language there are certain exceptions. In
order to understand arbitrary words one has to know a specific language, though there are a
number of iconic symbols in every language that can be understood without having to know the
entire language system. Onomatopoeias - words which imitate sounds - are present in the majority
of contemporary languages.
Productivity (also: 'creativity' or 'open-endedness')
The potential number of utterances, as well as the number of words and meanings in human
languages is practically infinite. Humans can come up with terms such as myspace codes or
property in Cyprus and the number of these terms has no possible limits. In animal
communication every signal has a fixed reference which means that it can only refer to one idea
and its meaning cannot be broadened. In addition, it seems that animals cannot invent new signals
in order to describe new ideas.
Cultural transmission
Although we are all born with certain fixed genetic predisposition for language use (e.g. shape of
vocal tract) it does not predetermine which language we are actually going to use as our mother
tongue. A Chinese baby brought as a toddler in Great Britain and raised by a British family is
going to speak English and not Chinese, though it will still look like a Chinese. If, for example, a
Korean puppy was brought to Britain it would still bark the same way as in Korea (perhaps with a
slightly different accent J ).
Duality
Human languages have two levels: minimal units - the alphabet for writing and phonemes for
speech - which do not have a meaning on their own, and the level where the meaning emerges as
a result of combination of the units from level one. It is emphasised by the fact that with a limited
set of letters in the alphabet an unlimited number of words and expressions may be produced.
The aforementioned features are generally perceived as those which differentiate the human
language from the animal languages. There are three more properties which seem not to be shared
by animal forms of communication, but are not fully acknowledged by all linguists. These
include:
Prevarication : the ability to make sentences knowing that they are false and with the purpose of
misleading the receiver of the information.
Reflexiveness : using language to talk about language which involves ability to speak of abstract
things. The language used to describe language is usually called metalanguage.
Learnability : Apart from the fact that we naturally acquire a mother tongue we are also able to
learn any of the number of other languages. It also means that unlike animals human beings are
not genetically limited to use only the language of parents.
Moreover, several other features of language of both humans and animals can be enumerated:
reciprocity - speakers are also receivers of information under usual circumstances;
specialization - linguistic signals do not serve any other purpose than to communicate something;
rapid fading (also 'transitoriness') - spoken linguistic signals vanish very quickly. This is, of
course, not true for written messages, or scents produced by some animals to mark territory;
non-directionality - anyone close enough to hear can pick up the message;
vocal-auditory channel use - most of communication is made via the vocal tract and is perceived
by ears.
SECTION – C
(10 marks * 1 Question = 10 marks)
Note: Attemp any one of the following:
Q.7 Discuss the concept of ‘Noise’ in communication. What are the main barrier to
communication? Illustrate with the help of examples.
Ans: Noise: Any interference, in the message sent and the message received leads to the
production of noise. The term communication barrier, or that which inhibits or distort the
message, is an expansion of the concept of noise. Noise here does not mean cacophony, but a
break in the communication process. The commonly found barriers are:
The use of jargon. Over-complicated, unfamiliar and/or technical terms.
Emotional barriers and taboos. Some people may find it difficult to express their emotions
and some topics may be completely 'off-limits' or taboo.
Lack of attention, interest, distractions, or irrelevance to the receiver.
Differences in perception and viewpoint.
Physical disabilities such as hearing problems or speech difficulties.
Physical barriers to non-verbal communication. Not being able to see the non-verbal cues,
gestures, posture and general body language can make communication less effective.
Language differences and the difficulty in understanding unfamiliar accents.
Expectations and prejudices which may lead to false assumptions or stereotyping. t.
Cultural differences. The norms of social interaction vary greatly in different cultures, as do
the way in which emotions are expressed. For example, the concept of personal space varies
between cultures and between different social settings.
BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
Any interference in the message sent & message received leads to the production of Noise. The
term communication Barrier or that which inhibits or distorts the message is expansion of the
concept of noise. Noise means a break in the process of communication. If noise occurs because
of technological factor it is a smaller problem as it can be removed by correcting it. However if
the noise is due to human error the parties involved in the Communication process need to take
corrective measures. Communication does not occur haphazardly in organization. It is a complex
interactive process a two way dynamic process which involves the Sender and the receiver
Communication Can be successful only when the receiver understands the message. There are
some communication barriers that are given below. –
Language and linguistic ability may act as a barrier to communication.
However, even when communicating in the same language, the terminology used in a message
may act as a barrier if it is not fully understood by the receiver(s). For example, a message that
includes a lot of specialist jargon and abbreviations will not be understood by a receiver who is
not familiar with the terminology used.
Regional colloquialisms and expressions may be misinterpreted or even considered offensive.
•
Physical barriers: are often due to the nature of the environment. Likewise, poor or
outdated equipment, particularly the failure of management to introduce new technology, may
also cause problems. Staff shortages are another factor which frequently causes communication
difficulties for an organization. Whilst distractions like background noise, poor lighting or an
environment which is too hot or cold can all affect people's morale and concentration, which in
turn interfere with effective communication. System design faults refer to problems with the
structures or systems in place in an organization.
•
Examples might include an organizational structure which is unclear and therefore makes
it confusing to know who to communicate with. Other examples could be inefficient or
inappropriate information systems, a lack of supervision or training, and a lack of clarity in roles
and responsibilities which can lead to staff being uncertain about what is expected of them.
•
Attitudinal barriers come about as a result of problems with staff in an organization.
These may be brought about, for example, by such factors as poor management, lack of
consultation with employees, personality conflicts which can result in people delaying or refusing
to communicate, the personal attitudes of individual employees which may be due to lack of
motivation or dissatisfaction at work, brought about by insufficient training to enable them to
carry out particular tasks, or just resistance to change due to entrenched attitudes and ideas.
•
Psychological factors such as people's state of mind. We all tend to feel happier and
more receptive to information when the sun shines. Equally, if someone has personal problems
like worries about their health or marriage, then this will probably affect them.
Different languages and cultures represent a national barrier which is particularly
important for organizations involved in overseas business.
•
Individual linguistic ability is also important.
•
The use of difficult or inappropriate words in communication can prevent people from
understanding the message.
Or
Explain the following forms of non-verbal communication with suitable examples:
i)
Proxemics ii) Paralinguistics
Proxemics Every culture has different levels of physical closeness appropriate to different types
of relationship, and individuals learn these distances from the society in which they grew up. In
today's multicultural society, it is important to consider the range of non-verbal codes as
expressed in different ethnic groups. When someone violates an 'appropriate' distance, people
may feel uncomfortable or defensive. Their actions may well be open to misinterpretation.
The Four Main Categories of Proxemics
Intimate Distance (touching to 45cm)
Personal Distance (45cm to 1.2m)
Social Distance (1.2m to 3.6m)
Public Distance (3.7m to 4.5m)
These four distances are associated with the four main types of relationship - intimate, personal,
social and public.
Each of the distances are divided into two, giving a close phase and a far phase, thus making eight
divisions in all. It is worth noting that these distances are considered the norm in Western Society:
Intimate Distance: Ranges from close contact (touching) to the 'far' phase of 15-45cm. In British
society, it tends to be seen as an inappropriate distance for public behaviour and, as mentioned
above, entering the intimate space of another person with whom you do not have a close
relationship can be extremely disturbing.
Personal Distance: The 'far' phase of personal distance is considered to be the most appropriate
for people holding a conversation. At this distance it is easy to see the other person's expressions
and eye movements, as well as their overall body language. Handshaking can occur within the
bounds of personal distance.
Social Distance: This is the normal distance for impersonal business, for example working
together in the same room or during social gatherings. Seating is also important; communication
is far more likely to be considered as a formal relationship if the interaction is carried out across a
desk. In addition, if the seating arrangements are such that one person appears to look down on
another, an effect of domination may be created. At a social distance, speech needs to be louder
and eye contact remains essential to communication, otherwise feedback will be reduced and the
interaction may end.
Public Distance: Teachers and public speakers address groups at a public distance. At such
distances exaggerated non-verbal communication is necessary for communication to be effective.
Since subtle facial expressions are lost at this distance so clear hand gestures are often used as a
substitute. Larger head movements are also typical of an experienced public speaker who is aware
of changes in the way body language is perceived at longer distances.
ii Paralinguistics: Paralanguage refers to the non-verbal elements of communication used to
modify meaning and convey emotion. Paralanguage may be expressed consciously
or unconsciously and it includes the pitch, volume, and, in some cases, intonation of speech.
Sometimes the definition is restricted to vocally-produced sounds. The study of paralanguage is
known as paralinguistics. The study of vocal (and sometimes non-vocal) signals beyond the
basic verbal message or speech We speak with our vocal organs, but we converse with our entire
bodies. Paralinguistic phenomena occur alongside spoken language, interact with it, and produce
together with it a total system of communication. The more technical discussion of what is
loosely described as tone of voice involves the recognition of a whole set of variations in the
features of voice dynamics: loudness, tempo, pitch fluctuation, continuity, etc. It is a matter of
everyday observation that a speaker will tend to speak more loudly and at an unusually high pitch
when he is excited or angry (or, in certain situations, when he is merely simulating anger and thus,
for whatever purpose, deliberately communicating false information).
Paralinguistics is concerned with how words are spoken, i.e. the volume, the intonation, the speed
etc.. In intercultural communication paralinguistic differences can be responsible for , mostly
subconscious or stereotyped, confusion.
For example the notion that Americans are talking "too loud" is often interpreted in Europe as
aggressive behaviour or can be seen as a sign of uncultivated or tactless behaviour.
The speed of talking equally is different in various cultural settings. For example Finnish is
spoken relatively slowly in comparison to other European languages. This form of speaking has
often resulted in the Finish as being regarded somewhat 'slow' and lax.
Further importance is given to the amount of silence that is perceived as right during a
conversation. A Japanese proverb says "Those who know do not speak - those who speak do not
know"; this must come as a slap in the face of, for example, US Americans where even a slight
silence is often seen as embarrassing, and hence is filled up with speaking, something often
perceived as hypomanic.