Effective Communication: Process, Elements, and Barriers
The Communication Process
The communication process involves several key stages:
- Development of Leadership: Thinking about the intended message.
- Encoding: Choosing the appropriate code (e.g., language, symbols).
- Transmission: Selecting a channel for communication (how to send the message).
- Reception: The message is received. Successful reception and understanding are crucial.
- Decoding: Interpreting the message. The closer the receiver’s interpretation is to the sender’s intention, the more successful the communication.
- Acceptance: The receiver decides whether to continue the conversation.
- Feedback: The receiver becomes the sender, providing a response.
Key Elements of Communication
- Sender: The individual who initiates the communication and transmits the message.
- Receiver: The individual who receives the message.
- Message: The content of the information the sender wants to transmit.
- Channel: The means by which the message is conveyed. There are two types:
- Natural Channel: Touch, oral communication, etc. (e.g., air).
- Artificial Channel: Phone, Internet, paper, etc.
- Context: The circumstances surrounding the communication act; the environment. Factors like space, noise, quality, and the channel itself can interfere.
- Code: A set of signs used, with rules known to both sender and receiver.
Functions of Language
- Instrumental: Used to request or claim something.
- Regulatory: Used to regulate or modulate behavior, set rules, or make demands.
- Interactional: Used to relate to others (polite communication).
- Heuristic: Used to question and think about things of interest.
- Imaginative: Used to create, innovate, and envision.
- Informative: Used to explain or demonstrate objective information.
Common Communication Barriers
- Rehearsing: The receiver prepares their response before the speaker finishes.
- Filtering: The receiver only hears what they are interested in.
- Judging: Pre-judging the speaker and not listening openly.
- Dreaming: The receiver’s mind wanders to unrelated experiences.
- Identifying: Cutting off the speaker to share a personal experience.
- Recommending: Offering advice prematurely, preventing full understanding.
- Arguing/Always Being Right: Focusing on disagreements and believing in absolute truth.
- Changing the Conversation: Abruptly shifting the topic due to discomfort.
The Importance of Feedback
Feedback: Once the above steps are completed under optimal conditions, the receiver can express their opinions and reactions with a high level of quality. The speaker will be more receptive. A key function of feedback is to ensure communication has been completed effectively. It is crucial in any educational or informational system.
Other Important Concepts
- Comparison: The receiver compares themselves to the sender’s behavior.
- Mind Reading: Trying to guess the speaker’s thoughts during the message.
- Icons: Signs that resemble what they mean; they represent reality.
- Symbols: Signs that do not resemble the reality they refer to.
- Signs: Spontaneous indicators in nature, not standardized.
- Language: Signs that can be changed according to rules to form larger units (e.g., article + adjective + verb). They are uniquely human, invented, and do not resemble the reality they represent.
- Signifier: The material part of communication, perceived by the senses.
- Signified: The meaning that the signifier raises in the mind; the mental image.
- Language (general): The human capacity to broadcast messages through a system of signs.
- Language (specific): The code comprising a system of signs used to communicate (e.g., a specific language).
- Speech: The concrete realization of language; how an individual uses it (tone, volume, accent).
- Code: A set of interrelated signs with rules, used for communication.
- Signs (general): Anything that can be perceived by the senses and refers to a part of reality.