Barriers to Effective Communication

Barriers to Effective Communication

An important part of any profession is effective communications. The act of sending a message to a recipient in a particular manner is communication. There is a difference in hearing and listening that most people understand. The way a message is conveyed can have an effect on how the message is received and how the communication interests the receiver. This paper will help define the process of communication and the different barriers that effective communication.

Process of Communication and Its Components

The three components of communication are paraverbal, verbal, and nonverbal communication. Paraverbal communication is how the message is written or spoken in order to deliver a message. The volume and tone of a person’s voice can distort the meaning of the message. If a person laughs their tone allows the receiver to understand that the message is not serious. Written communication can be perceived by punctuation marks, capitalizations, using bold letters, and italics. When wanting to show a lesser tone to the receiver, the sender may want to insert an image such as a smiley face to deliver a less serious message was intended.

The act of speaking or writing a message to a receiver is considered verbal communication. The sender must assure their meaning is not misinterpreted by correctly speaking or writing the correct words. A simple spelling error or misuse of a word may change the understanding of the message the receiver was intended. According to Sanchez (n.d.), “the best way for the sender to ensure the message is unmistakable is psychologically to envision the message from the receiver's point of view.”

Nonverbal communication is conveying a message without words. People talk to each other with nods to let the other person know that they agree. The scrunching of one’s forehead or eye brows drawn together can indicate they are confused or lost in the conversion. Other nonverbal facial features could be grimaces, smirks, frowns, and smiles. Law enforcement officer use hand and arms signals to direct traffic when traffic light goes down, or at a car wreck. When a person shuffle their feet, yawns or roll their eyes it tells the speaker they are not listening. Another example would be the waving of a person’s hand to get someone’s attention or to let someone know you are say hello or goodbye.

Differences between listening and hearing

Listening is an important part of effective communication. When listening one must want to hear the message the sender is trying to convey. The willingness to seek first to understand, and then be understood is the key to good listening. While hearing is very similar to listening, it does not require the same level of energy or concentration or the mental connection between the speaker and listener (Windle & Warren,