COMMUNICATION SKILLS

COMMUNICATION
A process of exchanging emotions, thoughts, feelings
Through speech, signals, writing and behavior.
 Word communication has been taken from Latin.
Root words for communication are “communicare” or “communis”, meaning
“to make common” or “to share”.

PROCESS OF COMMUNICATION
Communication is a process of sending and receiving information among people.

 Putting thoughts in language is called encoding.

 Decoding is the receiver interpreting the message and understanding what is
being communicated.
FEEDBACK:
Feedback refers to any response the receiver offers to the message, this could
be communication or behavior.
TYPES OF FEEDBACK:
There are three types of feedback,
1. Positive Feedback
2. Negative Feedback
3. Silence
TYPES OF COMMUNICATION
There are four types of communication:
I NTRAPERSONAL COMMUNICATION:
Intrapersonal communication can be defined as communication with one’s self, and
that may include self-talk, acts of imagination and visualization, and even recall and
memory.
INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION:
Interpersonal communication is the process by which people exchange
information, feelings, and meaning through verbal and non-verbal messages.
It is face-to-face communication.
DYAD COMMUNICATION:
Face-to-face verbal communication between two people.
GRAPEVINE COMMUNICATION:
Grapevine is an informal, unofficial and personal communication channel or system
that takes place within the organization as a result of rumor and gossip.

CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION
 SOURCES OF COMMUNICATION
There are three sources of communication:
1. Desire
2. Emotion
3. Knowledge

OBJECTIVES OF COMMUNICATION
Five ‘i’s of communication,
1. Information
2. Inquire
3. Influence
4. Ignite (for shorter time)
5. Inspire (for longer time)

- Organization uses communication as a “tool”.

PROCESS OF COMMUNICATION
1. CONCEPTION
(Gathering information)
2. ENCODING
(Putting thoughts in language)
3. SELECTION OF CHANNEL
(Medium of communication)
4. DECODING
5. INTERPRETING
6. FEEDBACK
RHETORIC

Aristotle defined rhetoric as “the faculty (ability) of observing in any given case the
available means of persuasion.”

TYPES OF COMMUNICATION
There are three types of communication:
 Verbal communication
 Non verbal communication
 Paraverbal communication
VERBAL COMMUNICATION (7%) (WHAT WE SAY)
It refers to the use of sound to relay messages.
It is a type of interpersonal communication i.e. use of sound and communicating
through words, mouth or pieces of writing.
NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION (55%) (OUR EXPRESSIONS AND ACTIONS)
Communicating through sending and receiving wordless messages. They are all the
intentional and unintentional messages that are not written or spoken.
PARAVERBAL COMMUNICATION (38%) (HOW WE SAY IT)
Paraverbal communication refers to the messages that we transmit through the
tone, pitch, and pacing of our voices. It is how we say something, not what we say.
MINDSETS
There are two types of mindsets of people (qualities of both mindsets can be
present in a person, the overall mindset is the dominant one)
1. Growth mindset (overall optimistic/positive)
2. Fixed mindset (overall pessimistic/negative)
GROWTH MINDSET
 Embraces challenges
 Persists in the face of setbacks
 Sees effort as a path to mastery
 Learns from criticism
 Finds lessons and inspiration in other’s success
FIXED MINDSET
 Avoids challenges
 Gets frustrated and gives up easily
 Thinks potential is predetermined
 Takes criticism personally
 Feels threatened by success of others

COMMUNICATION BARRIER
A communication barrier is anything that prevents you from receiving and
understanding the messages others use to convey their information, ideas and
thoughts.

TYPES OF COMMUNICATION BARRIERS

There are three types of communication barriers
1. Physical barriers (doors, walls, geographical distances, environment, noise)
2. Perceptual barriers (internal barriers – prejudice, preferences, values,
origins, life experiences that act as filter, assumptions, stereotyping,
misunderstandings etc)
3. Emotional barriers (negative emotions e.g. sadness, fear, doubt etc)
 QUESTIONS

1. Draw the diagram of process of communication and label its elements.

2. How many elements are in process of communication?
3. What is the role of sender before expressing his ideas to the receiver?
4. What factors should sender keep in mind while encoding?
5. What factors determine the selection of channel?
6. What is the difference between decoding and interpreting the message?
7. What is the importance of feedback and what are its types?
8. Differentiate between fixed and growth mindset?
9. What are communication barriers? Give examples.
10. What are the types of stress?
11. What is the difference between conversation and communication
12. What is the role of audience in the process of communication?
13. What are the three sources of behavior?
14. What are the objectives of communication?
15. What are the types of communication?
16. Define communication?
17. What does “IMAGE” stand for? How long does it take to form an image?
IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH AS A MEANS OF COMMUNICATION
- 58% Non-Native English speakers speak American English
- 39% Non-Native English speakers speak British English

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WRITTEN AND SPOKEN ENGLISH

WRITTEN ENGLISH
Complete sentences are used in written
English
No contraction of words
Letters are used for communication
No elision (no missing out of words)
SPOKEN ENGLISH
Fragments are used in spoken English
Words are used in contracted form e.g.
(“I’ll” is used for “I will”)
Sounds are used for communication
Elision (words are missed out) e.g. using
“gonna” instead of “going to” in speech to
speak fast.

TOP 3 LANGUAGES SPOKEN IN THE WORLD

- Chinese
- Spanish
- English
ENGLISH AS A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
English is a universal language because of the following reasons
- It is lingua franca (language that is widely used as a means of communication
among speakers of other languages)
- It is a link language (language that allows communication between groups with
no other common language)
- Bridge language (language of international communication)

PHONOLOGY
Phonology is a branch of English language that tells us how to pronounce words
correctly.
OR
Phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and used in natural languages.
ROOT WORDS: “phone” meaning “sound” and “logy” meaning “study”
AREAS OF PHONOLOGY
Phonology has two areas;
- Manner of articulation
- Place of articulation
PRONUNCIATION
Pronouncing a word with reference to a standard is called pronunciation.
OR
The standard way in which a word is made to sound when spoken.
ASPECTS OF PRONUNCIATION
There are five aspects of pronunciation;
- Intonation
- Rhythm
- Sounds
- Phonetic symbols
- Stress

STAGES OF SPEECH GENERATION

There are three stages of speech generation:
1. Initiation – Lungs provide the energy source
2. Phonation – Vocal folds convert the energy into audible sound
3. Articulation – Articulators transform the sound into intelligible speech
SPEECH ORGANS
 Nose
 Upper lip
 Lower lip
 Upper teeth
 Lower teeth
 Alveolar ridge
 Tongue
 Hard palate
 Soft palate (velum)
 Uvula
 Pharynx
 Larynx
 Glottis
WORD AND SENTENCE STRESS
Word stress (syllable stress) is the ‘beat’ on one or more syllables within a word.
Sentence stress is the ‘beat’ on certain words within a sentence.
IMPORTANCE OF STRESS
Stress is important because it adds rhythm to the speech.
VOICED AND VOICELESS SOUNDS
A voiced sound is one in which the vocal folds vibrate, and a voiceless sound is one in
which they do not vibrate.
INTONATION
Intonation is the rise and fall of the voice in speaking.
Intonation is about how we say things rather than what we say. Without intonation it
is impossible to understand the expressions and thoughts that go with words.
TYPES OF INTONATION
There are three types of intonation;
1. Falling tone
2. Rising tone
3. Fall – Rise tone
LISTENING
The process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding from spoken
and/or non verbal messages; to hear something with thoughtful attention.
COMMUNICATION PROCESS
Total communication process is comprised of the following;
 Listening (45%)
 Speaking (30%)
 Reading (19%)
 Writing (9%)

STEPS OF LISTENING PROCESS

There are six stages in the listening process
1. Receiving – sounds from environment
2. Attending – to important elements of sound sequence that is needed for
understanding
3. Understanding – (it is the purpose of listening) gaining meaning from
sequence of words
4. Analyzing – meaningful listening; includes questioning, predicting and
problem-solving
5. Evaluating – receiving the information
6. Reacting/Responding – to the message

LEVELS OF LISTENING
There are five levels of listening;
1. Ignoring – not really listening at all
2. Pretending – being distracted
3. Selective listening – hearing only certain parts
4. Attentive listening – paying attention and focusing on the words
5. Empathic listening – listening and responding to another person that
improves mutual understanding and trust
 QUESTIONS
1. How many total sounds are there in British English and what is their
classification? (total 44, vowels 20, consonants 24)
2. What are the main areas phonology deals with? Give examples.
3. How many aspects of pronunciation are there? Name and define them.
(2,manner of articulation, place of articulation)
4. Explain the speech generation process.
5. What are the organs of speech and what is the role of speech organs in speech
production? (Role: they convert phonation into articulation)
6. What are the types of intonation?
7. What is the difference between word stress and sentence stress? Explain with
examples.
8. Which are the top three languages spoken in the world?
9. Why is it that English is a universal language?
10. How many languages are spoken in the world? (6400)
11. Which is the most spoken language? (English)
12. How is spoken English different from written English? Explain with examples
13. Write down the names of any five speech organs.
14. What is sentence stress?
15. What is the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds?
16. Why is stress important? (it adds rhythm to speech)
17. What is intonation?
18. What is the difference between hearing and listening? (there is no focus in
hearing)
19. What are the levels of listening?
20. What is listening?
21. Describe the steps of listening process.