Barriers and Noise in Communication PDF

BARRIERS AND NOISE IN COMMUNICATION BARRIERS AND NOISE Expert asserts that noise and barriers in communication maybe due to environmental, physical, psychological and emotional conditions. Other than these aspects, differences in language, gender and culture can also be a barrier in comm...

BARRIERS AND NOISE IN COMMUNICATION BARRIERS AND NOISE Expert asserts that noise and barriers in communication maybe due to environmental, physical, psychological and emotional conditions. Other than these aspects, differences in language, gender and culture can also be a barrier in communication. For communication to be effective, these barriers/noise should be mitigated or if possible eliminated. Gender and culture differences as communication barriers however can be more challenging to control and could not be eliminated. What one can at least do is to acknowledge these gender differences in communication, compromise in certain areas, meet halfway and maintain respect to each other’s point of view. 3 Provided that the communication participants speak the same language or regional dialect, shared knowledge and experiences contribute to a successful communication since this result in a continuous exchange of messages. For instance, if both interlocutors had travelled to Japan and had opportunities to encounter some of the country’s culture, they can engage in lengthy and exciting conversations due to their shared knowledge and experience of the country.  WHAT THEN IS COMMUNICATIVE 5 COMPETENCE? Anchoring on Dell Hymes’ (1966) concept, Communicative competence refers to the linguistics, sociolinguistics, discourse and strategic proficiency of the sender and the receiver of communication. Linguistics proficiency includes the ability of the communicator to use the appropriate morphology (words), syntax (grammar), phonology (pronunciation), semantics (meaning), and pragmatics (meanings of utterances in specific contexts). Linguistics skill is a product of being educated and exposed to a language.  6 Sociolinguistics is a sub-discipline of linguistics that treats the social aspects of language (Southerland and katamba, 2001:540). This means that language varieties exist and these variations are to large extent shaped by social factors such as socio-economic status, gender, education, occupation or profession, religion, and other social variables. One’s sociolinguistic competence is demonstrated in the manner that a communication participant tailor fits his/her utterances for a particular audience/s. For instance, it will be less appropriate for an engineer to insist his/her professional jargons to an audience with a different occupational background. Likewise, sociolinguistics competence is also the ability of a receiver to accommodate or adjust the communication style or language variety used by the sender by making an extra effort to learn about the communication patterns, increasing exposure to a particular variety of language, and using the same style or language when necessary. Discourse, refers to how ideas are linked across the sentences (paragraphs in stories, news, essay, etc.) or utterances (speeches, lectures/talks, sermons, etc.) using the appropriate organization of ideas, cohesion and coherence (Stern, 1983). Discourse competence refers to one’s ability to demonstrate organized, cohesive and coherent thoughts in spoken or written texts.  8 STRATEGIC COMPETENCE It refers to a speaker’s ability to adapt to the use of verbal and non-verbal language to compensate for communication problems caused by the speaker’s lack of understanding of proper grammar use and/or insufficient knowledge of social behavioral and communication norms.