U1 P3

There are certain barriers that can affect how well you communicate with other people. These barriers aren't impossible to overcome but some skills are needed to help communicate fluently without issues.

Cultural differences

If you are from a different ethnic culture it is important to understand the values of the opposing individual or groups you are communicating with. Miss communication due to cultural differences can have a huge impact on cultural differences. For example, if an investor from Dubai was interested in investing in an organisation based in the UK and the organisation’s representatives could not speak Arabic there will be a lot of miss understanding between them.

Dialects

There are other barriers that are a problem also such as dialects. A dialect is how you speak, it can vary from your accent i.e. How you pronounce something and the phrases you use, for example; slang terms. A lot of countries have different regions which can cause confusion, if someone from Manchester spoke to someone from Liverpool, although the two cities are close there is a huge difference in how they communicate with one-another.

Meanings

There are many words that have many definitions or are spelt differently and sound the same when pronounced. For example, “Sea” and “see” they are two separate words and mean two different things but are pronounced the same. A great examples of this is the old TV show “The two Ronnie’s”

Two Ronnie’s example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDslCUk6aE8

This suggests being more specific when communicating. In this sketch the customer asks “Got any o’s?” but the shopkeeper interrupted it as if he said “Hose” This shows miss understanding although the pronunciation was correct.

Group speaking

If you are speaking to a group it is also important that you speak clear and pronounce words correctly and speak relevant to the audience. For example if you are speaking to a group of young children it is important to speak slowly, clear and use small words that they would understand. If you were to speak to a university student, using complex words would not be an issue. 

U1 M1

Explain mechanisms that can reduce the impact of communication barriers
U1 M1
Lewis Woolley

There are many ways communication can be misleading. It is possible for these communication barriers to be overcome by using specific mechanisms that will help the procedure.

Writing a letter
Although writing letters isn't as common these days due to the internet, it is still key to know that what you are sending could be potentially offensive to the recipient if they are from a different culture. Mechanism such researching and taking notes on the recipients culture and background may help overcome the barrier which can be affected by words or phrases that they may find offensive.

Reviewing and checking grammar
Modern day technology such as computers give the option for you to use specific mechanisms, for example; software like Microsoft word allows you to check your spelling and grammar and possibly suggest better ways to use it. For example,
if i was to miss-spell "Potato" the software would show me that and will suggest other ways to spell it or the correct spelling.

Translator's
There are many individual pieces of software on the internet that allow secondary sources that allow you to translate information from one language to another. But as it is secondary it also suggests that there will be a level of unreliability, such as "Google translator" this is a free webpage that allows you to convert a piece of text from one language to another. Google translator is known for being unreliable. There are primary ways to gather translation information, for example visiting the library and taking out the specific language dictionary but that can take up a lot of time.

Internet

Until the internet was invented, communication around the world was done via unreliable mobile phones. The internet helps people communicate all around the world almost instantly. Online sources allow you to check facts and send them all over the world. Software such as Skype allow you to conference call using a video chat to a lot of people all at once, since web 2.0 technology.

Eye contact

Eye contact is a man made mechanism that allows communication be more respectful and show that the conversation is being understood and that they are concentrating. For example, if an employee was at an interview and the interviewer was asking questions, it is highly respectful and will show that the interviewee is a very respectful person, which suggests that they are really responsible and the right man for the job.

UNIT 1 P2

Task 2-Effective Communication- P2, P3, M1
P2-Explain the principles of effective communication

Produce a word report that explains the principles of effective communication. It must discuss 3 points from each of the areas outlined below.

Effective communication

Effective communication is communication which can be viewed in all positive aspects available, although if you are addressing someone from a different culture, words may be accidentally used which can offend them. Communication can vary from written language and verbal language.

General skills

There is a variety of general skills you must acquire to be able to communicate with others positively.

• Cultural differences can be a problem when  trying to communicate with someone you are not familiar with, for example if you tried to use a word, phrase or slang term which meant something pleasant in English or the area you are from and the audience is not familiar with it; they could misinterpret it and could be extremely offended which could cause the presentation to fail as a whole.  

• Adapting content to suit the audiences needs is vital if you are working with a presentation which could include information for both adults and children. Children often prefer to visually see information from the use of only diagrams, which they can interactive with and adults generally prefer a variety of short text samples and diagrams. If a presenter had children in the morning and adults to address their presentation to in the evening, they would have to modify it throughout the day to suit the desired audience, for example; more valued information would need to be implanted into the presentation.

• Accuracy is important if you intend to use facts and secondary information. Good information will be more expensive than secondary information but it will be more reliable and valid. It is also important the facts you used a referenced, for example if the presentation is on poverty and claim that there is a certain percent within the area that suffer from poverty you must have evidence to backup such a claim and to be accurate with the facts.

Interpersonal skills

Skills that allow you to interact with individuals while communicating is a key part of transacting information.

• Methods of presentation are important when addressing an audience or individual. How you present it could vary depending on who the audience are, for example if the audience is a group of investors, you will want to interact with them to influence them to invest in your and your product. This could include allowing them to sample the product and review it verbally directly to the presenter. 

• Positive and negative language can be used to express opinions and emotions towards your presentation or an opposing presentation. For example, good language can be helpful when interacting with an audience and being polite and complimenting when the audience addresses the presenter with an answer or question. Negative language could be used to influence a negative impact on an opposing presenter for example, if you was going for a job interview alongside another individual capable of doing the job, you could research on their history and find a reason why they are a bad candidate for the employment. It can also be used to offend someone or be polite to someone, if you want to hurt an individuals feelings you can use negative language and if you want to make someone happy, the use of positive language is essential. 

• Active engagement is a really good skill to have when communicating with other individuals as it can create a positive environment and can be used for collaborating within groups. An example of active engagement is team work, big companies such as Disney employ individuals to do certain jobs which can benefit the company, for example Disney would hire a group of software animators to animate their short films and the final product will be determined on how well the group worked together.

Written communication skills

Written skills are important for types of communication when you are presenting a piece of work.

• Spelling and grammar skills are important when writing up someone like a report or presentation. Making sure you spell words correctly and use the correct punctuation is vital. If you present information in a word document to your boss and you have errors in the grammar and spelling, the boss may find it difficult to read and understand which can result in the writer having to re-write and redo the document to make it beneficial for the target audience, in this case the boss.

• Structuring your work is very important as it is clearer to understand and more efficient to read. Structuring means you make something easier to read. For example, using headers and sub headers to indicate what the paragraph is about and using contents pages to indicate where the certain information is located is how you should struct a piece of work.

• Proofreading is extremely important in written communication because when you type or write something you mind may begin to wander causing you to mistype or use the wrong word. Proofreading is where you read over what you have wrote to verify if it is is correct and doesn't have any errors, if you do not do this then submit a certain piece of work someone, for example your employer and they read it and they cannot understand it will reflect very negatively on the writer.

Lewis Woolley