M1 - explain mechanisms that can reduce the impact of communication barriers

Unit 1 - Communication and employability skills
M1 - Explain mechanisms that can reduce the impact of communication
barriers

Barriers are a problem when trying to communicate but it is key that we know how to over come them. There are a few ways that we can overcome different barriers like sound or dialect these include hand gestures or speaking louder to overcome any sound barriers.

Sound barriers -
Sound barriers such as car alarms and air conditioning can greatly effect the quality of a lesson or presentation so it is key that you can over come sound barriers. Ways we can do this is by making sure everyone is keeping eye content and then speaking up, speaking clearly and using props to help explain what you are trying to portray.

Physical barriers -
Physical barriers are barriers such as having a fan or folder in front of you while trying to talk or the audience not paying attention or turning around. There are easy ways we can overcome these barriers such as taking the extra minuet at the start to make sure there is nothing in between you and your audience or asking someone politely to turn around if they are talking simple actions such as these can greatly improve how well the audience take in the information given.

Culture, language and dialect -
Having one of these barriers can halt your work immediately if you don't over come them quickly, but it is easy to do just a few things to make sure that you are fully prepared for anything. First know the audience, if you know the audience then you can help make sure you are speaking in a tone or way that they all can easily understand you. Secondly you should take note of different cultures, if you are working with people from different countries there may be things that we take for granted such as hand gestures that they could take offence to so if we research a bit before then we can ensure that all the information necessary is passed over.

Also if you are confident in your self then you can actually help get over some of these barriers with out knowing it, if you stand straight and project your voice to the end of the room and simply speak clearly you can help everyone take the information in.

P3 - Discuss potential barriers to effective communication

Unit 1 - Communication and employability skills
P3 - Discuss potential barriers to effective communication




Barriers can greatly effect how well the audience takes in the information you are presenting weather it is trying to teach a class of students or selling something to a sponsor barriers are vitally important.
Some main barriers that we face in the office or classroom are:

• Sound
• Sound barriers come in many different forms from the audience to cars but it is vital you don't let them affect you. If the barrier is two people in the audience then you have to tell them to be quiet other problems could be mobile phones, if someone is on their phone it could distract other people meaning they don't take the information in as well.
• Other sound barriers would be objects like fans, air conditioning or car alarms. These can be quite mellow sounds or quiet but can still greatly effect the concentration of the audience.
• Physical
• If you are doing a presentation you need to make sure you have a clear view of the people you are presenting to rather than having an object in between you or even them facing away from you.
• Language or dialect
• You can not take it for granted that you will always be presenting to people from the same city as you or even the same country so you have to be clear and concise with what you are trying to  get across.
• If you are in other country or if you are talking to people who are then you have to take into consideration that their culture may find certain hand gestures or words or even body language as offensive and without taking this into count you wont be able to accurately pass the information over

The final barrier I am going to talk about is the speaker them self. If you are presenting to an audience you need to take some things into consideration like your hand gestures, if you are stood with crossed hands and slouching then it looks to the audience that you don't want to be there and you don't want to teach. But if you stand up straight and project your voice, use hand gestures, props and body language you can help the audience read your message.

P2 - Explain the principles of effective communication

Unit 1 - Communication & Employability Skills

P2- Explain the principles of effective communication

General skills

Cultural differences

- Effective communication would be affected by cultural differences, not just different languages but even different accents. If you are presenting an idea to a room of people from all over Britain  the audience can range in accents from a programmer from Manchester to a graphic artist from Ireland and one from Liverpool there could even be managers from Newcastle and Scotland.

Adapting your content to suit the audience

- With such a broad range dialects you need to make sure that you can communicate to them all,. this would be improved by adapting your content to suit the audience. By doing this you can make sure that you don't offend anyone and that you can carry your message across and reach all audiences.

Accuracy

- Accuracy can also help communicate with an audience, if you can get what you want across to the audience accurately then you will be able to keep everyone entertained and keep their attention span with you but you will able to make sure your message is understood.

Interpersonal skills

Barriers

- When you are communicating to an audience there are certain barriers that could affect your effectiveness of the how you are communicating these are barriers like the audience looking at their PC's and not at you or if there is a car outside or if there is air conditioning on this could cause misunderstanding in the audience.

Types of questions

-Another way of keeping attention with the audience is using questioning techniques to make sure that they understood fully what you are trying to get across.

Techniques and cues

- There are different methods or skills you can use when communication with an audience like hand gestures and body language. These can help with cultural differences and keeping attention.
Along with questioning you could also change your body language and tone to suit the positive or negative vibe of what you are trying to portray. So if we are telling someone that there is a barrier of them not paying attention we could show this by may be speaking louder and more to the point where as if we are telling someone their work is good you can use a friendlier tone of voice.

Written communication skills

Spelling and grammar

- When you are trying to write a piece of work or trying to send a letter you have to make sure you use the correct spelling, punctuation and grammar. Keeping these in mind can ensure your work looks professional and saves embarrassing re-submissions or e-mails saying you have written something wrong.

‘Smileys’ or Emoticons

- Also knowing when to use 'slang' language or emotions in writing is vital, slang can sound better or be easier to type out but dependent on who you are talking to it can be inappropriate. If you are sending a request to your boss to ask for a raise you would not want to use slang like calling him mate or even worse 'M8' this would look extremely unprofessional and would not help the cause.

Proofreading

- Tied in with this is proofreading, when you have to send something off weather it is an E-mail or a document you should always proofread it as sometimes you can just type what you are thinking or what you would usually say where as this may not make sense on paper. Also you may have covered a point more than once and need to remove some text.