English Communication PDF

English Communication “How well we communicate is determined not by how well we say things, but how well we are understood.” -Andrew Grove. What is communication? Communication is a process of sharing information, which is both dynamic and interactive, and results...

English Communication “How well we communicate is determined not by how well we say things, but how well we are understood.” -Andrew Grove. What is communication? Communication is a process of sharing information, which is both dynamic and interactive, and results in an exchange of meaning and understanding. Importance of Communication Getting jobs you want Relating positively to others Being productive on the job Gaining promotions Providing leadership Assuring the success of your organization Types of Communication:  Verbal/Non-verbal: Verbal pertaining to the usage of words  Internal/External  Vertical/Horizontal/Diagonal  Formal/informal  Interpersonal/Intrapersonal  Verbal/Non-verbal: Verbal communication pertains to the usage of words, whether written or spoken whereas non-verbal communication happens without the use of words, for example gestures, posture, facial expressions, tone, eye contact, etc.   Internal/External: Internal communication takes place within the organization whereas external communication takes place between two or more different organisations or entities.  Vertical/Horizontal/Diagonal: Vertical communication flows from seniors to juniors and vice- versa, Horizontal communication is among colleagues or people in the same hierarchical position, diagonal communication flows in all the directions.  Formal/informal: Formal communication is planned. Work-related, and important for effective operation of the business whereas informal communication is both work related and personal, unplanned, flows in all the directions, maintains positive human relationships, for example, Grapevine(rumours), gossip, chat etc.  Interpersonal/Intrapersonal: Interpersonal communication is with other people whereas intrapersonal communication is with yourself. Process of Communication Ideation- The first step in communication process and the basis of the message to be communicated. Encoding: To put the idea into words or symbols. Transmission: The transmission of message with an appropriate channel and media. Decoding: Translation of symbols encoded by the sender into ideas for understanding. Feedback: The key element which completes the communication process. Barriers to effective Communication: Physical Barrier: Like noise, time, distance etc Socio-psychological Barrier: status, attitudes, perception, distortion, past experience, bad listening etc. Cultural Barrier: stereotyping, ethnocentrism, xenophobia Language Barrier: Poor grammar, poor vocabulary, lack of common language, spelling mistakes, multiplicity of meanings etc Organisational Barrier: Hierarchy, Communication load, workforce specialisation, wrong choice of medium Listening or Hearing Hearing is an accidental and automatic brain response to sound that requires no effort. We are surrounded by sounds most of the time. For example, we are accustomed to the sounds of airplanes, lawn mowers, furnace blowers, the rattling of pots and pans, and so on. We hear those incidental sounds and, unless we have a reason to do otherwise, we train ourselves to ignore them. We learn to filter out sounds that mean little to us, just as we choose to hear our ringing cell phones and other sounds that are more important to us. Listening, on the other hand, is purposeful and focused rather than accidental. As a result, it requires motivation and effort. Listening, at its best, is active, focused, concentrated attention for the purpose of understanding the meanings expressed by a speaker. We do not always listen at our best, however, and later in this chapter we will examine some of the reasons why and some strategies for becoming more active critical listeners. The listening process The listening process involves four stages: receiving, understanding, evaluating, and responding. Basically, an effective listener must hear and identify the speech sounds directed toward them, understand the message of those sounds, critically evaluate or assess that message, remember what’s been said, and respond (either verbally or nonverbally) to information they’ve received. Nonverbal communication Nonverbal communication, also called manual language, is the process of sending and receiving messages without using words, either spoken or written. Similar to the way that italicizing emphasizes written language, nonverbal behavior may emphasize parts of a verbal message. The term nonverbal communication was introduced in 1956 by psychiatrist Jurgen Ruesch and author Weldon Kees in the book "Nonverbal Communication: Notes on the Visual Perception of Human Relations." Nonverbal messages have been recognized for centuries as a critical aspect of communication. For instance, in "The Advancement of Learning" (1605), Francis Bacon observed that "the lineaments of the body do disclose the disposition and inclination of the mind in general, but the motions of the countenance and parts do not only so, but do further disclose the present humour and state of the mind and will." Types of Nonverbal Communication "Judee Burgoon (1994) has identified seven different nonverbal dimensions:" 1. Kinesics or body movements including facial expressions and eye contact; 2. Vocalics or paralanguage that includes volume, rate, pitch, and timbre; 3. Personal appearance; 4. Our physical environment and the artifacts or objects that compose it; 5. Proxemics or personal space; 6. Haptics or touch; 7. Chronemics or time. "Signs or emblems include all of those gestures that supplant words, numbers, and punctuation marks. They may vary from the monosyllabic gesture of a hitchhiker's prominent thumb to such complex systems as the American Sign Language for the deaf where nonverbal signals have a direct verbal translation. However, it should be emphasized that signs and emblems are culture-specific. The thumb and forefinger gesture used to represent 'A-Okay' in the United States assumes a derogatory and offensive interpretation in some Latin American countries." How Nonverbal Signals Affect Verbal Discourse "Psychologists Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen (1969), in discussing the interdependence that exists between nonverbal and verbal messages, identified six important ways that nonverbal communication directly affects our verbal discourse." "First, we can use nonverbal signals to emphasize our words. All good speakers know how to do this with forceful gestures, changes in vocal volume or speech rate, deliberate pauses, and so forth...." "Second, our nonverbal behavior can repeat what we say. We can say yes to someone while nodding our head...." "Third, nonverbal signals can substitute for words. Often, there isn't much need to put things in words. A simple gesture can suffice (e.g., shaking your head to say no, using the thumbs-up sign to say 'Nice job,' etc.)...." "Fourth, we can use nonverbal signals to regulate speech. Called turn-taking signals, these gestures and vocalizations make it possible for us to alternate the conversational roles of speaking and listening...." "Fifth, nonverbal messages sometimes contradict what we say. A friend tells us she had a great time at the beach, but we're not sure because her voice is flat and her face lacks emotion...." "Finally, we can use nonverbal signals to complement the verbal content of our message... Being upset could mean we feel angry, depressed, disappointed, or just a bit on edge. Nonverbal signals can help to clarify the words we use and reveal the true nature of our feelings." (Martin S. Remland, Nonverbal Communication in Everyday Life, 2nd ed. Houghton Mifflin, 2004) "Traditionally, experts tend to agree that nonverbal communication itself carries the impact of a message. 'The figure most cited to support this claim is the estimate that 93 percent of all meaning in a social situation comes from nonverbal information, while only 7 percent comes from verbal information.' The figure is deceiving, however. It is based on two 1976 studies that compared vocal cues with facial cues. While other studies have not supported the 93 percent, it is agreed that both children and adults rely more on nonverbal cues than on verbal cues in interpreting the messages of others." (Roy M. Berko et al., Communicating: A Social and Career Focus, 10th ed. Houghton Mifflin, 2007) Nonverbal Miscommunication "Like the rest of us, airport security screeners like to think they can read body language. The Transportation Security Administration has spent some $1 billion training thousands of 'behavior detection officers' to look for facial expressions and other nonverbal clues that would identify terrorists." "But critics say there’s no evidence that these efforts have stopped a single terrorist or accomplished much beyond inconveniencing tens of thousands of passengers a year. The T.S.A. seems to have fallen for a classic form of self-deception: the belief that you can read liars’ minds by watching their bodies." "Most people think liars give themselves away by averting their eyes or making nervous gestures, and many law-enforcement officers have been trained to look for specific tics, like gazing upward in a certain manner. But in scientific experiments, people do a lousy job of spotting liars. Law-enforcement officers and other presumed experts are not consistently better at it than ordinary people even though they’re more confident in their abilities." (John Tierney, "At Airports, a Misplaced Faith in Body Language." The New York Times, March 23, 2014) Small Talk Is the conversation about things that are not important, often between people who do not know each other well. In spite of seeming to have little useful purpose, small talk is a bonding ritual and a strategy for managing interpersonal distance. It serves many functions in helping to define the relationships between friends, colleagues, and new acquaintances. In particular, it helps new acquaintances to explore and categorize each other's social position. Small talk is closely related to the need for people to maintain a positive face and feel approved of by those who are listening to them. It lubricates social interactions in a very flexible way, but the desired function is often dependent on the point in the conversation at which the small talk occurs: Conversation opener: when the speakers do not know each other, it allows them to show that they have friendly intentions and desire some sort of positive interaction. In a business meeting, it enables people to establish each other's reputation and level of expertise. If there is already a relationship between the two talkers, their small talk serves as a gentle introduction before engaging in more functional topics of conversation. It allows them to signal their own mood and to sense the mood of the other person. At the end of a conversation: suddenly ending an exchange may risk appearing to reject the other person. Small talk can be used to mitigate that rejection, affirm the relationship between the two people, and soften the parting. Space filler to avoid silence: in many cultures, silences between two people are usually considered uncomfortable and/or awkward. Tension can be reduced by starting phatic talk until a more substantial subject arises. Generally, humans find prolonged silence uncomfortable, and sometimes unbearable. That can be due to human evolutionary history as a social species, as in many other social animals, silence is a communicative sign of potential danger. Leadership No matter which sort of leadership is practiced, it's leadership at the inspiration of each organization that drives the corporate. The strategic implications that organizational behaviors wear leadership, codify the importance of leadership to business. The implications that leadership, leadership styles, and leadership processes wear a corporation directly relate to the organizational behaviors within a corporation and the way they assemble to determine sound leadership. Most of the issues and solutions in every organizational moment evolved around leadership. Whether it had been an absence of leadership or a directional change in leadership, leadership was at the core of each situation presented within the readings. Leadership is a behavior. The way a corporation employs leadership, controls a spread of influences that guides the company’s direction. These leadership styles greatly impact a corporation and directly contribute to the directions and futures of a business. Leadership styles explain the persona leaders exude in managing their people. Leadership theorists incorporated processes into leadership to elucidate how leadership styles impact the performance of workers within a corporation. Leadership may be a term with a spread of definitions counting on the context that it’s been defined. One common definition of leadership is “the behavior of a private directing the activities of a gaggle toward a shared goal.” the subsequent paragraphs would elaborate on one major approach of studying leadership, its strengths and weakness, and an example during which it had been utilized in a corporation. (Yukl, 2010) Participative Leadership style Participative Leadership is that the commonest leadership style in business settings like hospitality. Sample questions: Qs.1 To complete the function of the written word we require a) Two persons are required for the communication process b) Three persons are required for the process of communication c) One person is required for the process of communication d) Four person are required for the process of communication Qs.2. In business, the purpose of writing is mainly to a) To entertain people b) To ensure that the people are informed and persuaded c) To only persuade people d) To only inform people Qs.3. Define Elements of communication? a) The elements of communication have Message, Sender, Encoding, Channel, Receiver, Decoding, Acting and feedback. b) The elements of communication could be defined in terms of formal and informal communication c) The elements of communication could be linear model of communication, Shannon Weaver model of communication, The Aristotle model of communication. d) The elements of communication also mean to inform and persuade. Qs.4. What is “you- attitude” in business writing? a) “You- attitude” is reader’s point of view. In business writing the authors should write according to the reader. He should be able to see and present the situation as the reader would see it. b) “You- attitude” is an informal tone for social and personal communication and for informal communications. The informal tones may include slangs, colloquialisms c) “You Attitude” is accuracy of facts and figures,follow the rules of grammar, Paying attention to punctuation marks and check word for spelling and usage. d) “You Attitude” is brevity which means saying only what needs to be said and leaving out unnecessary words or details.It does not mean saying less that what occasion demands. Qs.5. What are the essentials of good business letters? a) The business letter includes simplicity, clarity, conciseness, standard and neutral language, you attitude ,sincerity and tone ,Emphasis. b) The business letter should always consider the reader,the purpose of writing and the situation(context) c) The business letter should include either the full block style,the semi block style and the simplified style. d) The business letter is always within in the organisation just like memo with emphasis on straight forward language Qs.6. What is a presentation. a) A presentation is a live mode of sharing information with a select audience.It is a form of oral communication in which person shares factual information with a particular audience. b) A presentation is an informal communication between the speaker and audience to highlight the personal issues in the organisation. c) A presentation and a written report are one of the same thing in the organisation. d) A presentation does not contains any visual aid to compare the statement of facts and figures. Ques.7. What are the essentials required for participating in a group discussion? a) The essentials required for participating in a group discussion includes leadership, Gd protocol, discussion techniques and effective listening skills. b) The essentials required for participating in a group discussion includes argumentative skill, commanding language, autocratic leadership and dominance.  c) The essentials required for participating in a group discussion includes mentioning your salary expectation, your strengths, and present package. d) The essentials required for participating in a group discussion includes debating skill where either you oppose or support the topic. Qs.8. What is a resume a) A resume is a self- introduction that highlights an applicant’s strengths and experiences. It summarizes the applicant’s education, abilities, experience, accomplishments and personal details for the employer’s consideration. b) A resume is an informal mode of expressing one self. c) A resume is inclusion of your weakness. d) A resume also tells the candidate ability to argue with others, control others and lead others. Qs.9. Listening is a process which requires a) It is a process which requires a speaker, a listener and a message. b) It is a process of perception of what is being communicated. c) It is a process of mental, semantic and physical distraction. d) It is a process of creating a self-centeredness and forgiving delivery errors. Qs.10. Fill in the appropriate article. My grandmother gave me …….. doll on my birthday. a) a b) an c) the d) no article