Business Communication 1 - Answers to Activity 3-1

Activity 3-1

1. Consider the following verbal and non-verbal barriers to communication. Which barriers are associated with which components of the communication discussed above? Write your answers in the table below: 

Answers


Components of Communication


Barriers to Communication That May Be Associated With Each Component

Stimulus


* Inappropriate or conflicting signals

* Differences in perception
* Inappropriate emotions


Filter


*Differences in interpretation

* Language difference
* Inappropriate use of expressions
* Differences in perception



Message


* Inadequate knowledge or vocabulary

* Inappropriate emotions
* Distractions


Medium


* Language difference

* Polarization
* Inappropriate or conflicting signals


Destination


* Over abstraction and ambiguity

* Polarization

2. Recall situations when you experiences any or some of these verbal and non-verbal barriers to communication. As a communicator, what can you do to minimize these barriers to communication?

Answers: 

I consider the language difference, Inadequate knowledge or vocabulary, and distractions as the common barriers to communication which I already experienced. 

a.  Language difference. - There was a time when I was interviewed by a Japanese student from the other school for his thesis and I was having a difficulty in understanding his questions because of his accent, so I politely asked him to speak slowly and requested him to repeat his question.  As I listen to him, I became quite familiar with his accent which enabled me to understand him. 

b.  Inadequate knowledge or vocabulary.  During my first few weeks at work,  I was having a hard time reporting due to limited vocabularies whenever we had a meeting and it made me anxious each time I speak.  So I tried to enrich my vocabularies by reading English articles and searching the meaning of unfamiliar words in the dictionary.  

c.  Distractions.  As a person with visual impairment, I rely on my sense of hearing most of the time to compensate for the lack of vision.  As a result, I am often easily distracted by outside noise, so I trained myself to focus to the source of information as much as possible.