Potential barriers to communication and how to overcome the - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Potential barriers to communication and how to overcome them:Slide2

Language Barriers:

One of the most significant barriers to communication nowadays is language, due to every country around the world becoming more diverse, and an increasing number of business moving into and operating in foreign countries, language barriers are beginning to become more of an issue. Language barriers simply refers to two people who need to communicate with one another but don't speak the same language, i.e. one speaking English and on Japanese.

That is referring to physical language barriers, although there are other kinds of language barriers that we can be made aware of for example pronunciation of words between two people, so one word in a language said one way, can have a completely different meaning to if you say it another way, like in German it is very easy to say words one way, when actually you meant a completely different thing. This is an issue that we suffer from in this day and age but can be easily overcome by using a selection of different solutions.

Another example of how language can be a barrier to communication between two parties could be the presenter use of jargon or over-complicated words, by this I mean when someone uses lots of fancy key terms which you need to know the trade to understand, it could mean people get lost in what you are saying and don't actually learn what your trying to teach, this is usually because these terms are un-familiar to the person you are trying to communicate with so aren't understood fully.Slide3

How language barriers can be reduced:

There are several ways which language barriers can be overcome, but personally I think it all depends on how someone is communicating with someone else, when it comes to face to face communication things like translators can be used, someone who speaks both languages fluently and can change the words from one language to a different language with ease. This is the exact kind of things that business do when they have conferences with representatives from foreign countries who don't speak the same language, they simply hire a translator to attend the conferences with them to translate what they are saying.

The way that people can prevent themselves from miss-pronouncing there words or saying something the wrong way and referring to the wrong thing would be usually to have some kind of way of showing people what they are meaning, for example during a presentation, usually people will have some kind of slideshow or presentation document that they can use with washed down, more brief written evidence of what they are getting at, therefore the people who they are communicating with can actually read and see for themselves what that person is trying to say, so if a slip does happen from the person speaking and they do say something wrong, at least they know that the people he or she is talking to, wont be taking on incorrect information.

And the final language barrier to effective communication of using to much Jargon or fancy key terms can easily be reduced. So the first and most obvious way in which we can overcome this barrier is to simply cut these words out and find a simpler way of putting things, like in a presentation, you can explain things more fully rather than relying on a key term which makes it quicker but harder to understand, although the issue with that is that sometimes these key terms need to be referred to in order to remain professional, so the way that someone can get around that is to use the key term, but shortly followed by a brief explanation of what they mean, if they are talking to someone who might not understand at first what they are referring to.Slide4

Distractions:

As we all know when we are concentrating on something it is very annoying and frustrating when things that are irrelevant to what we are doing are going on in the background and start to cause distractions within our work, especially when trying to communicate to other people, so for example during a meeting, the last thing you want when in full swing during a meeting is things that are going to attract the attention of the people that your talking to, more so than what you are talking about. Whether that is excessively loud noise, people causing trouble like chatting or laughing or a loud lawn mower going off right outside the room, it doesn't matter, it causes your participants to become more interested in that than in what your trying to tell them, which is what is considered a distraction.

Usually when someone is being distracted they will only take in certain pieces of information, its usually the things that they have an interest in, and when they hear this being referred to, they pick up on it, but the main body of the information they are hearing usually isn’t remembered by the person.

Distractions are usually at there worst when people aren't fully engaged with what your trying to tell them whilst communicating, so for example if you were trying to teach a class of school students a very boring subject like maths, you would find that lots of them decide to switch off, start chatting or messing around as this is what they are seeing as the more interesting alternative to listening to the teacher. Although as hard as it is to believe there are definitely ways in which you can prevent people from becoming distracted whilst communicating with them explained on the following slide.Slide5

How distraction barriers can be reduced:

Distractions surprisingly are quite an easy barrier to get rid of completely or at least reduce it to make it manageable, there are several ways that you can prevent people from becoming distracted when you are trying to communicate with them, firstly by being interesting and not boring the person you are talking to into being distracted can help reduce this barrier, so for example when doing a presentation, little things like using, video’s, animation and imagery, as well as getting the participants involved can be very good for reducing the opportunity of distractions taking the attention of the people you are trying to communicate with.

A second way that this barrier can be overcome or reduced is by ensuring that what you are talking about is of interest to your target audience or the individual you are communicating with, by doing this then you will have the full attention of that person, this is because when someone finds something very boring or not of any interest to them, they are far more likely to switch off from what you are saying and act like they are listening, when really there attention is else where, for example watching what other people are doing or what's going on outside the room. So by keeping the audience interested in what your saying, by making it relevant can prevent them from becoming distracted easily

.

The third and final way that distractions can be reduced is by ensuring what you are doing is well organised and people aren't able to distract each other, the perfect way to look at this is to consider a school classroom situation, a lot of the time when friends are sat together, they are susceptible to chatting and procrastinating from the task at hand. So therefore by removing the issue at its source i.e. Splitting people up so the don't chat can be the perfect way to eliminate, or at least reduce this barrier to effective communication.Slide6

Lack of interest or concentration:

Everyone is susceptible to becoming very spaced out when they are trying to concentrate on one thing for a long period of time and things can very easy become not interesting to an individual, like reading a revision book, and eventually you begin to become off topic and lose concentration and worst of all don't take any notice of what’s going on around you, therefore it is a barrier to effective communication because what's trying to be communicated to a person simply isn't going in. Lots of different factors can influence how concentrated and interested someone is on one subject for example how well rested they are, how good they are at listening and how interested in the subject they are being taught can all be factors that influence how well someone concentrates on what your saying.

So a good example of where people may be likely to lose concentration could again be during a presentation situation which they don't particularly have any kind of interest in or they don't enjoy it particularly, this is one of the best situations to look at because it is a situation that is so easy to go off the task, if you don't find the subject at hand particularly interesting you will easily drop off and lose concentration completely.

One of the worst things that can happen is when you as a person have to do all the talking or all the listening, you begin to get bored and go off topic completely so by getting others involved, it means that its not one voice being listened to the whole time so people don't zone out and lack interest as much.Slide7

How lack of interest barriers can be overcome:

This situation can be fairly easy to reduce as it only takes a few small elements to prevent people from losing interest whilst communicating with them, if you are transmitting information to them and you can see that they are losing interest, the best thing to do is make sure they know the task they are going to achieve with the information you are telling them, this therefore means that they know the rewards and consequences of the situation at hand,

and therefore they will become motivated to achieve the rewards and avoid the consequences of failure. For example in a business conference people may begin to switch off therefore by reinstating the aims of the meeting and emphasising the goals in interest, they can get people to listen to the more closely again.

One of the best methods for keeping interested in what your telling them is by using techniques such as activities i.e. group or partner activities. The reason this is so effective is because it means that people are becoming involved in what your talking about and not constantly having to listen to you chatting about a subject, so a good example of this is in a school classroom again, by using activities throughout your work like class discussions or question and answer sections of your work, you are able to keep mostly all of the people you are communicating to interested in what your saying rather than lots of participants completely losing interest in your teaching, not only this, it means that the people your are communicating with have a chance to voice there opinions, and it can cause a bit of diversity between opinions and thoughts and make people become really involved in what you are teaching therefore meaning you gain ultimate cooperation from the people you are working with.

A good example of where elements like the above can take place would be during theory lectures at universities, so rather than having one person dictating information to everyone they could work in groups and do individual research to make sure they stay on topic and then you as a person achieve the purpose you set out to achieve which would be to effectively communicate with the people you need to.Slide8

Disability

:

Disability is a barrier to communication in many different ways because its something that cant be avoided yet has to be accounted for and dealt with to the best standard possible. The issue with it is that not everyone can deal with disabilities whether that’s because they don't have the kind of resources required to deal with it, or don't have the training or knowledge of how to deal with it, therefore clearly showin

g why it can be such an issue when trying to communicate effectively with people

whilst communicating with people. The kind of disabilities that I am referring to here are things such as:

Hearing issues

Learning difficulties e.g. Dyslexia or Dyspraxia

Learning support required e.g.

Reading help

Social issues like not being able to get along with others, or arguing with people

Issues with sight

A lot of the time this is an issue because everyone should be able to participate in something if they want to regardless of whether or not they have a disability and most people will agree with that, so they will honour that fact and do there best to ensure that they do help as much as they can, particularly in schools and businesses. So for example in the classroom setting it is very likely that someone with some kind of disability

will exist, therefore meaning that they will need to be accounted for rather than just left to struggle, and there definitely is ways that these issues can be overcome.Slide9

How disability barriers can be overcome:

So as I mentioned earlier there are quiet a variety of different disabilities out there that someone may come into contact with when communicating with people, but of course each and every one of them can be resolved some way or other.

So

i

am going to look at how each disability I mentioned earlier can be accounted for and dealt with:

Hearing issues: hearing issues are very common nowadays and can easily be dealt with, by using things like handouts of what you are saying or having someone else in the room with you who can talk one to one with the person who is only has partial hearing ability can mean that this issue is dealt with, with ease and everyone is happy

Learning difficulties and learning support required: learning difficulties again are quite common, especially in school and can make communication between people slow and quite challenging, so things like extra sessions one to one with people can ensure that all the information that they wanted to learn would actually be gotten through to them rather than missing out on valuable information. Another method of overcoming this barrier would to be having an assistant with you when you are communicating with people, so that they can offer extra help if a particular person needs it

Social issues: this can be quite a challenging barrier to face when you get people who you try to communicate with but they simply cant relate to what your saying or wont accept what your saying, so to overcome this I think its very important to let them have there say on the matter and show you appreciate there thoughts, and try and keep a good attitude towards them, and cooperate rather than start arguments.

Issues with sight: this is

definately

an issue that could be a barrier to communicating effectively because its quite hard to deal with, although the best way to deal with it is one of two things, have some kind of

accesibility

features to what you trying to communicate,

particulalry

in a presentation situation, for example handouts with

largened

text which the will see more easily, or

alternitavely

have someone to work with them through tasks task to aid them were they need help.Slide10

Cultural differences:

Effective communication with people of different cultures is especially challenging. Cultures provide people with ways of thinking--ways of seeing, hearing, and interpreting the world. Thus the same words can mean different things to people from different cultures, even when they talk the "same" language. When the languages are different, and translation has to be used to communicate, the potential for misunderstandings increases

. So for example in certain youth cultures they may use slang terms or unusual terminology whilst talking to one another, which they might also say to you, which means something very different to what it sounds like or what you perceive it as.

Second are

"behaviour

constraints." Each culture has its own rules about proper

behaviour

which affect verbal and nonverbal communication. Whether one looks the other person in the eye-or not; whether one says what one means overtly or talks around the issue; how close the people stand to each other when they are talking--all of these and many more are rules of politeness which differ from culture to

culture. So

for example when speaking to people from

England, it is considered a normality

to greet them with a

handshake,

and then keep eye contact with them if you are talking directly to them otherwise it is seen as rude to them

.

Cited:

http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/problem/cultrbar.htmSlide11

How cultural difference barriers can be overcome:

Cultural differences are a barrier to communication because you

simply cant predict how someone is going to react to something you might say or you might or might not do, and you cant predict how someone is going to view you and the attitude they are going to have about you, therefore it is quite a hard barrier to overcome, although there are a selection of different things that one is able to do to ensure they have the best opportunities to avoid issues arising with someone they don't know but have to communicate with, so now I am going to look at the kinds of things a person can do to try and make sure they are up to date with cultural differences:

Background research on the people they are meeting: what this does then is gives you a bit of an advantage when it comes to meeting them, so by looking at things like where they come from, what kinds of things are normal and accepted in these countries or cultures, is there anything you are likely to do naturally that might be frowned upon or finally how to greet them, could potentially make it much easier to communicate with them effectively either as part of a group or one to one.

Make sure that you think about your actions before you act, so what

i

mean by this is with some people you are able to do things and get away with it like make a sly joke about something, or accidentally swear whilst talking to them, although with other this migh

t not be accepted at all, and can be taken as offensive, therefore, making sure you think before you act can mean that potential awkwardness and friction between you and your counterpart is avoided.