Lesson 1 Notes : Introduction to Communication Skills

FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING MEANS OF COMMUNICATION

When choosing a suitable means of communication there are important factors that need to be
put into consideration:

a)Speed: How fast a channel delivers a message to the recipient. This is an important factor
when the message is urgent. In such a case, a mobile phone would be the most suitable means
of communication.

a)Cost: The expenses incurred in using a means of communication differ from one means to
another. Eg. It is cheaper to send messages by SMS than ordinary mail.

b)Confidentiality: Certain messages are intended for particular persons only. Face to face is the
most confidential means of communication among persons who decide to keep the information
a secret.

c) Distance: This is geographical gap between the sender and the recipient. It is important in
determining the choice of a means of communication. However, the myth of distance has
disappeared with the introduction of the internet/digital means of communication. Some means
are suitable for long distances while others are not.

d)Evidence: It is an act of providing a record of the message conveyed. This may be necessary
for purposes of future reference. All means of written communication provide evidence of
message communicated.

e)Reliability: This is the assurance (certainty) that the message will reach the intended
recipient at the intended time, place and in the right form. Face-to-face is the most reliable
means of communication because one can ask for clarity and get answers immediately.

f) Accuracy: This refers to the exactness of the message to be conveyed by a means of

communication. Written messages are generally more accurate than other means of
communication such as face-to-face communication.
 g)Desired impression: It is the desired image one intends to create upon the recipient. Eg. The
use of colorful and attractive letterheads would convey a good image of business.

h)The degree of formality of the message: This is a standard procedure of packaging and
relaying messages through proper predefined channels and routes. Formal messages conform to
official rules process, system, formality and chain of command.

NB: When choosing a means of communication, all or several of the above factors may have to
be considered. The choice is however dictated by the means of communication available.

COMMUNICATION PROCESS

Description

The communication process begins with a sender who encodes a message which is transmitted
through a channel. The receiver decodes the message and encodes feedback which is
transmitted back to the sender who decodes it.

NOTE: Feedback makes the communication process a two- way process. That is, the act of
responding by which the receiver sends feedback to the source, shifts the role of the receiver to
that of the source and the source to that of the receiver.

Further note that noise occurs throughout the communication process

We talk of communication as a process and would include the following elements:

1 Source/sender: This is the initiator of the communication process and this person has a
thought or idea which he or she would like to share with a person, or people.Sender is a
person(s) who formulate, encode and transmit a message.

2Encoding: This is the act of putting an idea or a thought into verbal or nonverbal form.

3Message: This is the verbal or nonverbal form of an idea, thought or feeling that a person
wishes to communicate with another person or with a group of people. Message is the content
of the communication act.
4Channel: This is the mode by which a message moves from the source to the receiver. It can be
through light waves, sound waves, audio or written. Channels are the media we use to carry
messages. Channels can be classified according to:

(i) To our senses which carries or receives the message,

(ii) The delivery mode, whether the message is delivered verbally, nonverbally or both.

(iii) The primary means of communication we use to deliver the message ie. Whether we use
face-to-face, text messaging, mass media or computer-mediated communication (zoom, email,
social media)

5 Decoding: This is assigning meaning to a verbal or nonverbal message or, translation of ideas
that have been received into the form the receiver can understand.

6 Receiver: This is an individual, group or organization that receives and decodes a coded
message. Receiver is the target audience of communication, who decode message symbols into
interpreted meanings.

7 Feedback: This is the receiver’s either verbal or nonverbal response to a message. Feedback is
information returned to the message source it can come back to us immediately or delayed.
Feedback indicates whether the receiver understands, misunderstands or disagrees with the
message. It encourages the source to continue or discontinue with the communication. The act
of responding by which the receiver sends feedback to the source, actually shifts the role of the
receiver to that of the source.

Getting and giving feedback is one of the most crucial parts of good communication. Like any
other activity there are specific skills that enhance feedback. They include:
 1)Listen to the complete message: Be patient because it helps one to provoke strong options
or radically different points of view. In this situation it is important not to prejudge the incoming
message.

2)Work at listening skills: Good listening skills demonstrate alertness and interest.

3)Judge the content, not the form of the message: Direct your attention to the message, what is
being said, and away from the distracting elements.

4)Eliminate distraction: Noise seriously impairs listening.

Characteristics of effective feedback

a)It is descriptive rather than evaluative: It is important to focus on what the individual did
rather than to translate behavior into what he or she is. For example, we might say that a person
“talked more than anyone else in the meeting” rather than that he is a “loud mouth’’

b)It is specific rather than general.

c) It is directed towards behavior that the receiver can do something about.

d)It is well-timed.

e)It involves the amount of information the receiver can use rather than the amount we would
like to give.

f) It involves sharing of information rather than giving advice: By giving information, we

leave people free to decide for themselves, in accordance to their own goals and needs.

8 Noise: This is anything that reduces a communications clarity and accuracy. Noise is anything
that interferes with or distorts our ability to send or receive messages.

TYPES OF NOISE

There are different types of noise in communication they include

i) Physical/ external/environmental noise: This is outside interference that prevents the
receiver from understanding the message. Eg loud music in an adjacent room.

ii) Internal/ psychological noise: This is mental interference in the speaker or listener. It comes
via poor mental attitudes or emotional stress. Stress, frustration, irritation, wandering thoughts,
biases, sometimes cause us to send or receive messages ineffectively.

iii) Physiological-impairment noise: A physical problem can prevent the effective sending and
receiving of a message. Eg. People who are deaf or blind do not have specific sensory capabilities
to receive a message in the same way as people who can hear and see.

iv) Cultural noise: Results from preconceived, unyielding attitudes derived from a group or
society about how members of that culture should act or in what they should or should not
believe.

v) Linguistic noise: This refers to the communicator’s inability to use the language of
communication accurately and appropriately. Linguistic noise is divided into

a) Semantic,

b) Syntactic and

c) Phonological noise.

Semantic noise Occurs when people have different meanings for different words. Noise would
occur because of difference in understanding. Eg. wrong choice of words, use of unfamiliar
words or use of familiar words in unfamiliar ways.

Syntactic noise: Each language has a customary way of putting words together in a grammatical
form. Inappropriate grammatical usage can interfere with clear communication. This type of
noise occurs in faulty sentence structure, misapplication of the rule of correct language use,
change of tense in the middle of a sentence etc.

Phonological noise: It occurs through poor pronunciation of words.

9 Context: This is the environment or situation in which the communication process takes place.
Martine and Nakayama (2010) also noted that context is brought about by the physical and
social aspects of the situation in which communication takes place. According to DeVito (2010)
there are four aspects of communication contexts:

Physical context This is the environment in which messages are exchanged, cultural context is
the lifestyle, knowledge, beliefs, values, behavior and norms of a group of people.

Socio-psychological context This is the relationship between the sender and the receiver.

Temporal context it is appropriateness of a message in a situation and the time of the day in
which communication takes place.

The four aspects of context interact and affect each other. According to Steinberg (2006) the
communication process is affected by time, space, physical properties of the place of
information exchange, roles, status and relationship of the communicating parties. Context also
affects the meaning, form and content of a message transmitted. This, therefore, makes people
communicate differently in different contexts.

10 Effect: For every communication, there is some consequence. There are three types of
effects.

Intellectual or cognitive effect: These are changes in your thinking.

Affective effects: These are the changes in your attitudes, values, beliefs and emotions.
Psychomotor effects: These are changes in behavior

Why study communication Skills

It improves the way we see ourselves:

Communication forms part of our self-concept and helps us understand ourselves.

Communication improves our perceptions of ourselves. Understanding our perception can lead
to our awareness, the ability to be conscious of ourselves, events and stimuli.
It is vital to the development of the whole person: Communication is a foundation of life. It helps
a person to get ideas, adapt to the changing world and convey messages to the rest of the world.
Most of our knowledge comes from communication experience. Intrapersonal communication
raises our confidence

It improves the way we see other people: Communication can help better understand other
people’s perspectives and needs. Our interactions can be smoother and we can achieve our goals
more easily as we manage the expression or impression we make on others.

It improves how others see us: Communication improves the perceptions others make of us.

Perception is the process of selecting, organizing and interpreting information. People like
communicating with those who can communicate well. Communication increases what we know
about human relationships. In groups we learn how to relate with each other and about what
type of communication is appropriate for a given situation

It teaches us important life skills such as; critical thinking, problem solving, decision making,
public speaking, interaction skills, relationship skills, leadership skills etc.

Career development: There is a positive relationship between the ability to communicate and
career success. Employers seek to hire people who know how to make communication work. If
you develop the abilities to speak so that others listen, listen when others speak, critically
evaluate what you read and hear, adopt to differences in cultural perspectives, handle conflicts
and solve problems and make sound decisions, then you will exhibit skills valued by employees.

Introduction to Communication Skills

DEFINATION OF COMMUNICATION

We are going to start this discussion by defining what communication is. From communication
perspective, communication is a process….and why do we say so Communication is a process
involving an exchange of facts, viewpoints and ideas between the sender and the receiver to
achieve mutual understanding.

Communication can also be defined as the process of understanding and sharing meaning.

Process because it involves a series of activities, an exchange of some sort of behaviour. It starts
long before the words begin to flow and can last long after the words stop.

Understanding the meaning of another person’s message occurs when communicators have
common meaning of words, phrases and nonverbal cues.

Meaning is shared when message has been understood.

Understanding communication

CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMUNICATION

Characteristics of Communication

The essential features of an effective communication are as follows:

Communication is human: Humans have communicatory abilities other animals do not.

Communication is the heart of who we are. We communicate to interact, exchange information
and ideas etc.

Communication is symbolic: Communication involves shared message between the sender and
the receiver. Symbols are characters used to represent things, ideas or events in ways that make
communication possible.

Shared code: This is a common set or system of words, letters, figures or symbols.

Culturally linked: Communication is connected to the shared beliefs, values and practices of a
group of people.

Intentional: Communication is done with intention or on purpose. It is communication that we

are consciously aware of. This is the deliberate use of words, actions and visual support in
communication. One must exhibit a high level of consciousness or purposefulness while
encoding messages.

Mediated: Communication requires a medium- a “vehicle” to transport or carry the symbols

Forms of Communication

Generally, communication is divided into various forms:

a) Intrapersonal Communication

b) Interpersonal Communication

c) Machine Assisted (Interpersonal) communication

d) Group Communication

e) Public Communication

f) Mass Communication
This is the process of understanding and sharing meaning with oneself. It is the basis of all forms
of communication. It occurs when we evaluate or examine the interaction that occurs between
ourselves and other people. It also includes activities like: internal problem solving, planning for
the future and understanding relationships between ourselves and others. Three aspects of
intrapersonal communication are self- concept, perception and expectation.

i) Self-Concept

ii) Perception

iii) Expectation

Self-concept is the basis of intrapersonal communication because it determines how a person

sees him/herself and is oriented towards others. Self-concept also known as self-awareness
involves three factors: beliefs, values and attitudes.

Beliefs are basic personal orientation towards what is true or false, good or bad. Values are
deep-seated orientations and ideas generally based on and consistent with beliefs about right
and wrong ideas and actions. Attitudes are learned predispositions towards or against a topic,
ideals that stem from and generally are consistent with values. Beliefs, values and attitudes all
influence behavior, which either spoken opinion or physical action.

Whereas self-concept focuses internally, perception looks outward. Perception of the outside
world also is rooted in beliefs, values and attitudes. Expectations are future-oriented messages
dealing with long-term roles, sometimes called life scripts.

Intrapersonal communication may involve different levels of communication activities:

Internal disclosure involves thinking, concentrating, analysis, day dreaming, prayer, meditation,
contemplation.

Solo vocal communication includes speaking aloud to oneself. This may be done to clarify
thinking, to rehearse a message intended for others or simply to let off steam.

Solo written communication deals with writing not intended for others. For example, entry in a
diary and personal journal.
Understanding communication

THE PROCESS OF INTRAPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

The process of intrapersonal communication

It starts with a stimulus which could be internal, originating within us or external, coming from
an outside source. The stimuli are picked up by the sensory organs and then sent to the brain.
This process is called reception.

The sense organs pick-up stimulus and send it to the central nervous system. While we receive
all stimuli directed to us, we pay attention to only a few (selective perception).

The next step is processing the stimuli. It occurs at three levels. Those levels are cognitive
(thinking), emotional (feeling) and physiological (bodily behaviors).

b) Interpersonal Communication

This is the process of understanding and sharing meaning with at least one other person. The
source and the receiver are in the same immediate and physical presence of one another. The
closer the emotional link, the more personal the communication.

There are two types of interpersonal communication which are:

Dyadic communication: refers to communication between two people

Image: 1 Dyadic communication: refers to communication between two people

Triadic communication: refers to communication among three people

c) Machine-assisted (interpersonal) communication

This is communication assisted by technology or machines. For example, e-mails, mobile phones,
Automatic Teller Machines (ATM) etc.

d) Group communication

This is communication among three or more people interacting to achieve a shared goal.

e) Public communication

This is the process of understanding and sharing meaning with many people. One person is
identified as the speaker and the others as listeners. Mostly the purpose of public
communication is to persuade or inform.
f) Mass communication

It is communication to a large group of people that is heterogeneous and widely scattered in a

geographical area through a mass medium such as, newspapers, magazines, books, television,
radio etc.

FUNCTIONS OF COMMUNICATION

Functions of Communication

Communication performs various purposes in our lives. They include:

Education and instruction Communication provides knowledge, expertise and skills for smooth
functioning of people in the society. It creates awareness and gives opportunity to people to
actively participate in public life.

Information: Communication helps us to share our experiences, needs, feelings, thoughts, facts,
figures and advice. The quality of our life will be poor without information. The more informed
we are the more powerful we become. Communication provides information about our
surrounding.

Entertainment: Communication provides a form of activity that holds the attention and interest
of an audience or gives pleasure or delight. To break the routine of life and divert our attention
from the stressful life we lead today, entertainment is an essential part of everybody’s life.

Discussion: Communication aids or facilitates interaction among group members who are
sharing ideas. Discussion is the action or process of talking about something in order to reach a
decision or to exchange ideas. This is the act of talking about something with other people or
telling them your ideas or opinions. It is a detailed conversation about something considered
important.

Debates

This is a formal discussion on a particular matter in a public meeting or legislative assembly, in

which opposing arguments are put forward and which usually ends with a vote.

It is a process that involves formal discourse on a particular topic, often including a moderator
and audience.

Persuasion: Communication is used to influence the way someone thinks or behaves. Persuasion
is the act of presenting arguments to move, motivate or change your audience. This is any
message that is intended to shape, reinforce or change the response of another or others.
Communication is used to influence the way someone thinks or behaves. We communicate to
persuade others to think the way we think or to change an attitude or behavior, as well as have
them understand what we are saying.

Cultural promotion: Communication aids in the dissemination of cultural and artistic products
for the purpose of preserving the heritage of the past. Communication stimulates the
dissemination of the complex collection of knowledge, folklore, language, rules, rituals, habits,
lifestyles, attitudes, beliefs and customs that link and give common identity to a particular group
of people. Communication provides an opportunity for the promotion and preservation of
culture and traditions. It makes people fulfill their creative urges.

Integration: Communication promote and facilitates peaceful co-existence of persons of different

cultural or ethnic and racial communities. Communication enhances tolerance, respect,
understanding and acceptance among people of diverse cultural backgrounds. It is through
communication that a large number of people across countries come to know about each
other’s traditions and appreciate each other’s way of life. It develops integration and tolerance
towards each other.

7 C’s of Effective Communication

There are seven words that begin with letter “C” that act as a checklist for ensuring that
communication is effective. The 7 C’s are applicable to both written as well as oral
communication. They are as follows:

Completeness: It is the state or condition of having all the necessary or appropriate parts.

Communication should convey all facts required by the receiver(s). The sender of the message
should take into consideration the receiver’s mind set and convey the message accordingly.

Conciseness: Communicate what you want to convey in the least possible words without
forgetting the other C’s of communication. Concise communication has the following features:
time saving, cost saving, underlines and highlights the main message as it avoids using excessive
and needless words, provides short and essential message in limited words, more appealing and
comprehensible and non-repetitive in nature.

Consideration: This implies “stepping into the shoes of others”. Effective communication must
take the audience into consideration. That is, the audience’s view points, background, mind-set,
educational level etc. Modify your words in the message to suit the audience’s needs while
making the message complete.

Clarity: This means emphasizing on a specific message or goal at a time, rather than trying to
achieve too much at once. Clarity of communication has the following features: makes
understanding easier, enhances meaning of message and makes use of exact, appropriate and
concrete words
Concreteness: This implies being particular and clear rather than fuzzy and general. Concrete
messages have the following features: It is supported with specific facts and figures, makes use
of words that are clear and the messages are not misinterpreted.

Courtesy: This implies that the message should show the sender’s expression as well as should
respect the receiver. Courteous messages have the following features: they should take into
consideration the viewpoints as well as the feelings of the receiver, message should be positive
and focused at the audience, should use terms showing respect to the receiver and use
appropriate and correct language. The message should be polite, friendly, professional, open and
honest.

Correctness: This implies that there are no grammatical errors in the communication.

PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNICATION

Principles of Communication

These are the fundamental truths or propositions that serve as the foundation for the
communication process.They are:

Communication is inescapable: Communication is always occurring in human life at various

levels. For example, at intrapersonal level when you are thinking, planning, mediating, observing,
gathering information and making conclusions.

Communication is irreversible: You cannot take back something once it is communicated. Even if
you retract what you have said, what has been communicated cannot be entirely erased. Traces
of the effect of the communication will always remain.

Communication is dynamic: Communication is an ever-evolving art and is the ability to

consciously interact and react thoughtfully. Communication requires ongoing assessment of
whether the message has been received accurately. Communication is influenced by the mood
and thinking of the sender and receiver. Communication is always changing according to context
and nature. All elements of communication, like the setting, participants, their knowledge and
their roles affect communication as it progresses.

Every communication interaction has a content dimension and a relationship dimension: The
content dimension is the message or the information one wishes to communicate. The
relationship dimension is the social relationship between the communicating parties, e.g.
Employer and employee or student and teacher or communication among peers like students.
Communication is contextual: Communication occurs in particular situations or systems that
influence what and how we communicate and what meanings we attach to the messages.The
setting and environment help determine the words and actions you generate and the meanings
you give the symbols produced by other people.

Communication is complicated: Communication consists of many interconnecting parts or

elements. Communication is complicated in several ways:

It involves choice about multiple aspects of message i.e we have to make verbal or code choices
and non-verbal aspects. We also have to make channel choices

Communication is also complicated because people have different perspectives of what is

communicated

Barriers to Effective Communication

There are various problems and difficulties in the process of communication which often result
in the occurrence of the barriers to communication. Communication barriers are interferences or
obstacles which affects not only the transmission of idea or information but also the
understanding and acceptance of it. It has an effect on entirely preventing communication,
filtering part of it, or giving it an incorrect meaning. The various barriers to the process of
communication are given as follows:

Language barrier: This is difficulty in communication experienced by people who are unable to
speak a common language in case of use of foreign language, differences in dialects and regional
accents. This may also be the inability of the sender to use appropriate language and of the
receiver to understand due to differences in background knowledge and experiences

Poor listening: This is interfered concentration or not paying attention to the speaker. The
effectiveness of communication will depend on the willingness of the recipient to listen keenly.
Listening requires careful attention and concentration. It may however be the task of the sender
of the message to attempt to gain the attention of the listener through his or her choice of
words and expressions among others.

Negative attitude: This is a disposition, feeling or manner that is not cooperative, constructive
or optimistic that one comes with in the communication encounters. It is important that there
exists a mutual feeling of trust and respect between the parties concerned in order to avoid bias.
If there is mistrust or prejudice, then there may be deliberate or unintentional misunderstanding
of the message involved.
Poor timing: This refers to communicating at the wrong time. That is, communicating either too
early or too late. For communication to be effective, the message must be sent and received at
the appropriate time. For example, A message that is sent when one is in a hurry may not be
properly delivered or received. Similarly, a telephone call made at 2.00 am may not be
appreciated.

Wrong medium: This is use of inappropriate channel to relay a message. The means of
communication used must be appropriate for the information being conveyed otherwise a
wrong choice of medium will be a barrier to effective communication.

Emotional responses: This is a person’s attitude experience and corresponding behavior to a

message that has been relayed. Emotional reactions such as those resulting from anger or
excitement may lead to distortion of messages.

Noise: It is anything that interferes with communication process.

Unfamiliar nonverbal signals: Wordless messages have different meanings among people of
varying cultures around the world. These may be a barrier to effective communication because
they may be misinterpreted due to differences in cultures and age groups among others.

Difference between Listening and Hearing

Listening is different from hearing, as a communicator its therefore important to know the
difference between hearing and listening.

Hearing It is the process wherein sound waves strike the eardrum and cause vibrations that are
transmitted to the brain.

Physical act: Requires only the reception of sound waves.

Mental process: Vibrations of sounds waves hit the eardrum and brain of an individual triggering
the electrochemical pulses that make the person feel the sensation of hearing the sound.

Involuntary action: Happens even if we don’t want to.

Listening It occurs when the brain reconstructs these electrochemical impulses into a
representation of the original sound and then gives them meaning.

Active process and conscious act: Requires concentration and effort.

Mental and physical activity: We receive sounds that reach our eardrums (physical activity) and
we try to interpret, evaluate, react and respond to them (mental activity).
Different listening styles

Content-Oriented Listening style

These listeners are most interested in the quality of messages they hear. They focus on whether
the message makes sense, what it means, and if it’s accurate. .They want to seek details and are
good at analyzing an issue from several perspectives. They give weight to the messages of
experts and other credible sources of information. Content-oriented listeners often enjoy ideas
for their own sake and willing to spend time exploring them through exchanges of ideas.

Advantages

This approach is valuable when the goal is to evaluate the quality of ideas and when there is
value at looking at issues from a wide range of perspectives.

It is especially valuable when the topic is a complicated one.

Disadvantages

This approach risks annoying people who don’t have the same sort of analytical orientation.

This approach can take more time than others may be willing to give, and challenge of ideas that
come with it can be perceived as overly critical or even hostile.

People-Oriented listening style

These listeners are especially concerned with creating and maintaining positive relationships
with the speaker. They listen to the message in order to learn how the speaker thinks and how
they feel about their message They tune into others’ mood, they respond to the speaker’s
feelings as well as their ideas. People-oriented listeners are typically less judgmental about what
others have to say: They are more interested in understanding and supporting people than in
evaluating them.

Advantage

It is easy to become overly involved with other’s feelings.

Disadvantages

They lose their detachment and ability to assess the quality of information others are giving in
an effort to be friendly and supportive.

Less personally oriented communicators can view them as overly expressive and even intrusive.
Action-Oriented listening style -Video

Action-oriented listening is also known as task-oriented listening. These listeners are more
concerned about what needs to be done (what the speaker wants). Consequently, they might
have less patience for listening to the reasons behind the task. These listeners are most concern
with the task at hand. Their main concern is to figure out what sort of response is required by
the message. They want to get to the heart of the matter quickly, and so they appreciate clear,
concise messages and often translate others’ remarks into well-organized mental outlines.

Advantage

It is the most appropriate when taking care of business as the primary concern: such listeners
keep focus on the job at hand and encourage others to be organized and concise.

Disadvantages

Their no-nonsense approach isn’t always appreciated by speakers who lack the skill or inclination
to be clear and direct.

They seem to minimize emotional issues and concerns, which may be an important part of
business and personal transactions.

Time-oriented listening style

People using a time-oriented listening style are most concerned with efficiency and prefer a
message that gets to the point quickly. They view time as a scarce and valuable commodity.
Time-oriented listeners can become impatient with slow delivery or lengthy explanations. These
kind of listeners may be receptive for only a brief amount of time and may become impatient,
rude or hostile if they view the speaker as wasting their time or if the speaker expects a longer
focus of attention. Time-oriented listeners convey their impatience through eye rolling, shifting
about in their seats, checking their cell phones, and other inappropriate behaviors.

Advantage

This approach can be an asset when deadlines and other pressures demand fast action

Disadvantages

This listener can put off others when it seems to disregard their feelings.

Also, an excessive focus on time can hamper the kind of thoughtful deliberation that some jobs
require.
NOTE: Choose a listening style that best suit the situation at hand. When your relationship with
the speaker needs attention, adopt the people-oriented approach. When clarity is the issue, be
an action-oriented listener. If analysis is called for, put on your content-oriented persona. And
when the clock is what matters most, become a model of time-orientation. One can also boost
their effectiveness by assessing their listening preferences of your conversational partners and
adopting your style to them.