ORAL COM : Communication Barriers

Communication Barrier

• Factors that prevents us from effectively exchanging and understanding messages

• They can be physical. Cultural, linguistic, emotional and it occurs in individuals, groups, organizations

Opportunities

it can lead to missed opportunities

Miscommunication

it can lead to misunderstanding and conflict

Conflicts

communication barrier can create negative impact on relationship, both personal and professional

Language Barrier

People who speak different language. Prevents people from understanding each other and lead to misunderstanding, frustration and even conflict

Syntactic Barrier

Involves grammar mistake like verb tense shifts or differing sentence structures

Semantic Barrier

Refers to different interpretations of the meaning of the word. Misunderstanding occur because of the ambiguities inherent in all languages and other sign systems.

Slangs

variety of language and other systems used by common people and an informed setting

Physical/Environment Barrier

Physical limitation that interferes in the communication process. E.g. noise, poor lighting, distance, physical obstruction between speakers. It also includes technology issues such as poor signal reception or lack of access to technology such as internet/computers

Physiological Barrier

Refers to physical maladies that prevent messages from being received correctly such as actual blindness or deafness or a splitting headache or sleepiness. E.g stuttering, short tongue, slur

Emotional/Psychological Barrier

Prevents people from fully expressing their emotion or feeling to one another. Lack of trust, fear of vulnerability or difficulty in understanding the other person’s point of view. Can interfere with effective communication and lead to misunderstanding and conflict.

Cultural Barrier

• Occurs due to difference in culture

• Reasons can include poor communication, sentence structure or using wrong style or words

• Happens when the audience’s culture is mostly different from the sender’s culture

• Results in the message being understood in unexpected way

Kinship

Principles form the foundation of societal organization, with families consisting of at least one parent and one child being customary in all societies.

Sexuality

Interestingly enough, society vary significantly in the degree to which they encourage or discourage intimacy and its different forms at different stages in life

Gender

Categorizing children into the binary categories of female and male is fairly common, but there is significant cultural variability in the toleration of switching categories

Religion

beliefs and practices are feature of all known societies but they vary significantly between cultures

Cultural Taboos

some cultures consider certain thing you consider “normal” to be very weird

Dress Codes

Some cultures encourage conservative dress

Food and eating habits

Includes not only what you eat but for example, when you go to Spain, you should learn about very late dinners

Intrapersonal Communication

• It is an internal monologue between us

• Both day and night dreaming are classified into this category as well as prayer, contemplation and meditation

• In film or drama, writers use intrapersonal speech for characterization purposes

• Hamlet’s soliloquy is an example of how Shakespeare used it to characterize the Prince of Denmark and show us his Internal Struggle

Interpersonal Communication

is what we normally think of as communication since it involves at least one other (dyad) or some other (groups)

Psychological Context

It is what the participants bring to the interaction such as needs, values, personality, habits and character

Relation Context

Refers to how close or distant the speaker is to those in the interaction. We speak differently when interacting with siblings versus with a school principal

Situational Context

Deals with the psychosocial “where” the exchange happens

Environmental Context

Deals with the physical “where” they communicating

Cultural Context

Includes all the learned behaviors and rules that affect the interaction

Public Communication

Is at the heart of society whether in economics, entertainment, or religion. It is in fact in every aspect of life

Mass Communication

Refers to the exchange of information or ideas among large numbers of people simultaneously through broadcast, radio, television, social media, and print

Dyad

refers to individuals who take turns speaking and listening