P3- Discuss potential barriers to effective communication

Unit 1 - Communication & Employability Skills

P3- Discuss potential barriers to effective communication

What are barriers?

Barriers are activities that distract you to talk effectively. These can be very annoying and can affect the way you talk to people. Barriers such as when a teacher is carrying out his/her lesson, if a student has their back turned then this is a barrier because they are most likely not taking in the information.

Types of Barriers

Sound Barriers

There are many types of barriers, things like noisy construction in the area; this makes it harder for people to hear what you are trying to say. This is stopping you being able to communicate effectively.
Other barriers like a television or music playing can distract people for speaking properly, for example you could be explaining something and your favorite TV program comes on, most people would want to look at the TV instead, this means that their speech may get slower since they are concentrating on the TV rather than the person they are talking to. Another example would be, if you are in a meeting and an object is blocking form communicating like a fan. If there is a fan next to someone they will find it hard to hear you as well as talking to you.

Physical Barriers
Even things like technical problems, for example a light may be flickering, this may annoy people which would make it harder for them to concentrate on what the other person is saying. The layout of the room could effect the way people communicate since if someone is far away they may have to speak louder or maybe even act out what they are trying to say. This is important when carrying out a presentation, people could be too far away to see you or any of your presentation, this could strain their eyes and also make it hard for them to read if there is any readable information. There more such as distractments like children behaving badly during class or a lesson. This would make the other children want to join in as well as not concentrate properly since they are more interesting in other things.

Cultural Barriers
Other problems such as languages or cultures, this can be quite a problem. Some people may speak in a different language and may only be able to understand certain things you are saying, this is a huge barrier since you can end up confusing the person you are talking to. Also other culture greet you in different ways, some people may bow instead of shaking hands, if you do things like this wrong you could end up finding it very difficult to communicate because you don't understand each others cultures. Some culture may see some actions as disrespectful so it is important you know a little about their culture before starting your presentation, meeting or conversation.

Personal communication barriers
When speaking to people your communications skills can effect the conversation quite a lot. This is because if you are a shy person and start to stutter or go quiet, people will think you are not interested or that you do not know what you are talking about. You also need to be confident in what you are talking about, this is because if people can read that you don't know then they probably will lose interest and not listen. The way you sue your hands can effect communication since if you end up doing the something that someone doesn't like for example pointing, this is very rude.