The barriers to communication and causes to communication breakdown.doc

The barriers to communication and causes to communication breakdownHow to overcoming such barriers?Communication barriers Most communications happen between sender(s) and receiver(s), such as in intra-personal and inter-personal communication, and so on. The message is the idea or feeling transmitted from the sender to the receiver to achieve understanding. It builds a connection between sender and receiver. The receiver should be able to recognize its purpose and understand what it is about, then give the feedback to sender. But the message is received necessarily the same message sent. Something other than the intended message is received because noise or interference, interrupts the intended message. These are called communication barriers, which can lead to misunderstanding or to confused or ambiguous communication. So communication barriers occur as a result of a understanding or misinterpretation of the message. Causes of communication barriersCommunication barriers can be caused by the sender, the receiver, lack of feedback, a poor choice of channel, and the wrong context or any other elements in the communication model. These are showed with physical, technical, social, psychological, cultural background.Cultural background: Communicators involved varied cultural backgrounds. Cross-cultural communication barriers can often happen. () Language used: There are many and many kinds of language in the world. In our increasingly multicultural and multilingual society, many persons with different language (or even different dialects) are working together. Furthermore, the communications among the different countries with different language are more and more. It is very easy for misunderstandings to arise under these conditions. Even when skilled translators are used, it is difficult for translators to transmit complex feelings and emotions as clearly as they are originally spoken. Language barriers exist also because words can be interpreted in more than one way. Language is an arbitrary code that depends on shared definitions, but theres a limit to how completely any of us share the same meaning for a given word.() Region culture: It refers to the culture that can be shaped by natural conditions and geographical environment of an area. These effects on culture may lend themselves to creating comprehension barriers. () Historical culture: It refers to the culture that is formed by the developing process of certain history and social heritage which varies between nations times. The communication barriers often occur in different historical cultures.() Traditions: There are different traditions from region to region. Sometimes under special conditions, the communication barriers can occur in the communication relevant to traditions. The different perspectives lead to different insights.() Beliefs: It is also the important part of culture. The beliefs are different from person to person. Miscommunication can be caused because of not clear others beliefs. . Social background: The existence and development of language are influenced by society; the social phenomenon and vocabulary of a certain historical periods reflect the object history of society. (A study on cross-cultural barriers in reading of EnglishProfessor Wang Lin, English Department of Foshan University, Guangdong, China) At the same time, the persons in different society have formed different thought, value, perceptions; these aspects also can occur communication barriers with different levels. . Poor listening skill: Hearing and listening is not the same thing. Heating is the act of perceiving sound. It is involuntary and simply refers to the reception of aural stimuli. Listening is a selective activity which involves the reception and the reception and the interpretation of aural stimuli. It involves decoding the sound into meaning.(/donclark/leader/leadcom.html)Many people are poor listeners, even in everyday life. They tend to listen and think about something else at the same time. This happens even more frequently when people are in conflict. Rather than carefully attending to what the other person has said, many people think about their response while the other person is talking. These situations always cause miscommunications. . Physical: These barriers usually relate to environmental factors that affect communication. In relation to the sender or the receiver of the communication, these barriers are neutral. They are not originated by the sender or the receiver. Common examples include: noise may make hearing difficult, listener heating loss, the temperature is uncomfortably cold or hot, the communication may be taking place where there is danger, and distracting activities may be going on nearby. Psychological: Miscommunications may occur due to age-based psychological differences. Older people are always alone, worried, and tired; younger are active; and children are often nave. Sometimes, under different conditions, special situation can impact persons psychology, and cause them pain, fear, anger, hungry, sad, happy or exciting. These moods also affect persons communication situation so that they cause communication barriers. Natural disaster: The Luzon channel earthquake occurred at UTCtime 12:26pm in December 26, 2006. The earthquake got 6.7 degree with 21.9 kilometers. This earthquake caused many people hurt and many buildings on the Island of Taiwan damaged, besides these, it created the multi- strip submarine cable severance, causes block of the Internet and international telephone service in the East Asian area. This is serious communication barriers. . Differences in background: It can be one of the hardest communication barriers to overcome. Age, education, gender, social status, economic position, cultural background, temperament, health, beauty, popularity, religion, political belief, even a passing mood can all separate one person from another and make understanding difficult. Sender-message barriers: These barriers generally relate to style and content of communication, both of which originate with the sender. E.g.: The sender may say the message in a way that turns of the listener or may even antagonize the listener to cause a totally different message to come through than the one intended. Then it causes communication barriers. Overcoming communication barriers. Language: To overcome language barriers, use the most specific and accurate words possible. Always try to use words your audience will understand. Increase the accuracy of your messages by using language that describes rather than evaluates and by presenting observable facts, events, and circumstances. Poor listening: To overcome this barrier, try to view the situation through the eyes of other speakers and resist jumping to conclusions. Clarify meaning by asking non-threatening questions, and listen without interrupting. And improve the listening skills. . Differing backgrounds: To overcome the barriers associated with differing backgrounds, avoid projecting your own background or culture onto others. Clarify your own and understand the background of others, spheres of knowledge, personalities and perceptions and dont assume that certain behaviors mean the same thing to everyone. Psychological: To overcome psychological effect in communication barriers, people should establish better psychological situation. Facing to older persons, we should be friendly and helpful; facing children, we should be patient and concerned. In the situations of some moods, we should try the best to calm down to avoid the communication barriers to take place. In addition to these, we can try to establish more than one communication channel, eliminate as many intermediaries as possible, and decrease distortion by condensing message information to the bare essentials. We need to update our communication technology in order to make communication better and more quickly. The feed