Module-1

Introduction to Communicative English :

Introduction to Communication, Language as a Tool, Fundamentals of Communication, Process of

Communication, Barriers to Effective Communication, Different styles and levels in Communicative
English (Communication Channels). Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Communication Skills, How to
improve and Develop Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Communication Skills.

1. Introduction to Communication:
 In a simple term, communication means sending & receiving information.
 It is a process of exchanging information between two or more people.

 It is a meaningful interaction among human beings.

 It is an art of transmitting ideas, thoughts, information, interests from one person to

another

2. Communicative English:

 The phrase ‘Communicative English’ refers to that English which helps us to

communicate effectively with people using language functions.

3. Language as a Tool:

 Language is a system of words and sounds to communicate ideas in a meaningful

way.

 Language is the source to expressing our thoughts and feelings by means of

speech sounds.
 Language is the most powerful, convenient and strongest tool of communication.
 It enables you to communicate and understand a subject.
 It makes our challenging and complex thoughts easier
 Language is like the blood circulation of communication. Because without
Language, communication is impossible.
4. Fundamentals of Communication:
 Helps in smooth working
 Promotes co operation & peace

 Acts as basis for decision making

 Establishes effective leadership

 Ensures order or discipline

 Helps in improving the performance

 Helps in minimizing the errors

 Increases responsibility and integrity

 Boosts morale and provides motivation

 Helps in training and development

 Helps to maintain public relations

5. Process of Communication:

a. Sender: The person who conceptualized the idea and wants it delivered to the
recipient.
b. Encoding: The way the information is described or translated into a message.
c. Message: The idea, fact or opinion that the sender wants to communicate.
d. Communication channel: The method of delivering the message.
e. Receiver: The target audience of the message.
f. Decoding: The interpretation of the message.
g. Feedback: The response or action a receiver takes after decoding a message.

6. Types of Communication:
a. Verbal/Oral Communication: Oral communication is the exchange of information
and ideas through spoken words. It can be directly in person in a face-to-face
interaction or through an electronic device such as a phone, video platform etc.,.
The most effective way for businesses to transmit information verbally is through
oral communication. It saves time by letting you convey your message directly to
the other person and getting their response immediately. It’s the most secure form
of communication for critical issues and important information. It helps to resolve
conflicts with face-to-face communication. It’s a more transparent form of
communication as it lets you gauge how others react to your words.

b. Nonverbal Communication: Transfer of information from one person to another

without the use of words or spoken language. Nonverbal communication can occur
in a variety of ways, including through facial expressions, gestures, and body
posture or position. What you say is a vital part of any communication. Surprisingly,
what you don’t say can be even more important. Research shows that 55% of in-
person communication comes from nonverbal cues such as facial expressions,
body stance, and tone of voice. According to one study, only 7% of a receiver’s
comprehension of a message is based on the sender’s actual words, 38% is based
on paralanguage (the tone, pace, and volume of speech), and 55% is based
on nonverbal cues (body language). To be effective communicators, our body
language, appearance, and tone must align with the words we’re trying to convey.

c. Written Communication: A ‘Written Communication’ means the sending of

 messages, orders or instructions in writing through letters, circulars, manuals,
reports, telegrams, office memos, bulletins, etc. It is a formal method of
communication and is less flexible. A written document preserved properly
becomes a permanent record for future reference. Communicating through writing
is essential in the modern world and is becoming ever more so as we participate in
what is now commonly called the information age. In contrast to verbal
communications, which are oral, written business communications are printed
messages. They may be printed on paper or appear on the screen. The sender can
write a message that the receiver can read at any time, unlike a conversation that is
carried on in real time. A written communication can also be read by many people.
It’s a “one-to-many” communication, as opposed to a one-to-one conversation.

7. Barriers of Communication: The factors which obstruct the effectiveness of

communication are known as Communication Barriers. These barriers cause a
mismatch between understanding of the message by the sender and the receiver.

A. Linguistic/Language Barrier: Language barriers usually occur when two people who
speak different languages cannot understand one another, and there is a breakdown
in language and communication.
 Foreign Language - Communication between people of different countries becomes
difficult if neither of the speakers has a common language to communicate in.

 Accents - Accents are peculiar ways of pronouncing words of a language. English is

spoken in many other accents other than the standard Received Pronunciation.
Accents occur when speakers belonging to different regions or countries speak a
language not their own. Their mother tongue will influence how they pronounce
words in the foreign language. This causes difficulty in understanding what is being
said.

 Jargon - Jargon is language or words that are specific to a particular profession.

Excessive use of jargon in communication may make comprehension difficult. For
example – a doctor’s prescription, the results of a medical test, financial and legal
documents need interpretation of experts for the layman.

 Slang - Slang refers to those words or expressions that are peculiar to a group of
persons who are familiar with it. It is an informal language that persons of a close-
knit group coin to indicate shared experience or emotion. It may be considered
offensive by people who are not familiar with it.

 Word Choice - The choice of words made by a speaker is a result of his/ her
knowledge and mastery of the language. However, one must be careful while framing
 sentences or using particular being aware of the multiple meanings of the words
(connotative, denotative) and their uses in idioms and phrases. The use of unfamiliar
words or more words creates fatigue in the mind of the reader making for a break in
communication.

 Grammar - Grammatical errors while speaking or writing distort the message and
therefore act as a barrier to communication.

 Ambiguity -Ambiguity arises when the sender and the receiver of the message
assume different meanings to the same words, phrases, and sentences or use
different words to convey the same meaning.

 Verbosity: Verbosity or wordiness can also make the message obscure. The use of
unfamiliar words or more words creates fatigue in the mind of the reader making for
a break in communication.

B. Psychological Barrier: It refers to the psychological state i.e. Opinions, attitudes,

status consciousness, emotions, etc. of a person that deeply affects the ability to
communicate.

 Lack of Attention: When the person is pre-occupied by some other things and do not
listen carefully what the other person is speaking, then arises the psychological
barrier in the communication. When the person does not listen to others, then he
won’t be able to comprehend the message as it was intended and will not be able to
give proper feedback.

 Premature Evaluation: Many people have a tendency to jump to the conclusions

directly and form judgments without considering all the aspects of information. This
is generally done by the people who are impatient and resort to a selective listening.
This premature evaluation of the information acts as a barrier to the effective
communication and lowers the morale of the sender.
 Poor Retention: The retention refers to the capacity of a brain to retain or store things
in the memory. The brain does not store all the information came across but in fact,
retain only those which deems to be helpful in the future. Therefore, much of the
information gets lost during the retention process, and this acts as a barrier to the
effective communication.

 Loss by Transmission: The loss by transmission means, whenever the information

exchanges hand its credibility reduces. It is most often observed in the case of an
oral communication where people handle information carelessly and transmits the
information which has lost some of its truth. Thus, the improper and lack of
information being transmitted to others acts as a hindrance in the communication
process.

 Distrust: To have an effective communication, it is must that both the

communicators (sender and receiver) trust each other. In case there is a lack of trust
between both the parties, then they will tend to derive negative meaning out of the
message and often ignore what has been communicated. If the receiver has no trust,
then he will not listen to whatever is being said by the sender, and this will result in a
meaningless communication.

 Emotions: The communication is greatly influenced by the emotions of a person. If a

person is not in a good temperament, then he would not listen properly to whatever is
said and might say things offending the sender. Several other emotions such as
anger, nervousness, confusion, restlessness, etc. affects the communication process.

C. Organizational Barrier: It refers to the hindrances in the flow of information among

the employees that might result in a commercial failure of an organization.
 Organizational Rules and Policies: Often, organizations have the rule with respect to
what message, medium, and mode of communication should be selected. And due to
the stringent rules, the employees escape themselves from sending any message.
Similarly, the organizational policy defines the relationship between the employees
and the way they shall communicate with each other maintaining their levels of
position in the organization. Such as, if the company policy is that all the
communication should be done in writing, then even for a small message the medium
used should be written. This leads to delay in the transmission of the message and
hence the decision making gets delayed.

 Status or Hierarchical Positions in the Organization: In every organization, the

employees are divided into several categories on the basis of their levels of the
organization. The people occupying the upper echelons of the hierarchy are superior
to the ones occupying the lower levels, and thus, the communication among them
would be formal. This formal communication may often act as a barrier to the
effective communication. Such as the lower level employee might be reluctant in
sending a message to his superior because of a fear in his mind of sending the faulty
or wrong message.

 Organizational Facilities: The organizational facilities mean the telephone, stationery,

translator, etc., which is being provided to employees to facilitate the communication.
When these facilities are adequately offered to the employees, then the
communication is said to be timely, accurate and according to the need. Whereas, in
the absence of such facilities, the communication may get adversely affected.

 Complex Organizational Structure: The communication gets affected if there are a

greater number of management levels in the organization. With more levels, the
communication gets delayed and might change before reaching the intended receiver.

D. Physical Barrier: A physical barrier to communication can be defined as an element

or a physical factor that acts as a distraction to hinder the flow of communication.
A physical barrier can be natural or human-made and is easy to spot.
 Noise- Noise is the disruption found in the environment of the communication. It
interrupts the communication process and acts as a barrier as it makes the message
less accurate, less productive and unclear. It might even prevent the message from
reaching the receiver.

 Distance - Geographical distance is a major cause of physical barriers. Distance can

be a damaging barrier to effective communication, especially if the technological
devices of communication—telephone, fax, e-mail, webpage—and other
communication gadgets are not available to link them. Faulty sitting arrangement in
the office may also create distance barrier and end up causing communication gap.
The distance between the workbenches in the offices or in the modern production
departments and half partitions between them can severely limit communication
among the employees.

 Time: Different time zones of the sender and receiver not only cause a problem in
communication, there is also a concept of time separation that takes place.
Coordination can breakdown over as little as differences in lunch times and work
hours across teams. Time can act as a barrier to communication in some other ways
too. A guest who arrives in the wee hours of the morning will not be able to
communicate well with the host who might feel embarrassed or disturbed in his sleep.
Overlapping and non-overlapping work hours should be managed as carefully as
calendars and schedules across teams.

 Technical Disturbances: A major cause for physical barriers is disturbance in

mediums or technical issues. Technology is a great tool to break time and distance
barriers to establish communication but technical disturbances can happen at any
time. A faulty phone will create noise or suppress volume, a broken fax machine can
prevent a message from coming through, a defective printer can prevent storage of
hard copies of data and a crash in the system will delete all the unsaved information.
E. Emotional Barriers - An emotional barrier is a mental limitation that prevents you from
openly communicating your thoughts and feelings. It has the potential of preventing
you from being your authentic self as it affects your emotions and feelings. An
emotional barrier to communication is often the result of low emotional intelligence,
also known as emotional awareness or control. Anger, pride, anxiety, distractions,
partial or selective listening.

 Fear - Fear, in its purest form, is said to be the most powerful negative emotion.
Among its declensions, insecurity and embarrassment, which are common emotional
barriers to communication. Within the workplace, situations arise when workers fail
to communicate effectively because of the fear of being judged or not being good
enough. For example, during a meeting, employees may refrain from making a
comment or giving a suggestion for fear of sounding ridiculous. This can ultimately
prevent a potentially great idea from seeing the light of day and turning into
something amazing.

 Anger - Anger is a forceful enemy of effective communication because it affects – in

quite a significant part – the way the brain processes information. When you’re angry,
you’re less logical. This makes you less open to other people’s opinions and less
capable of solving problems. Therefore, anger and poor emotion management
quickly turn into a team cohesion issue, which alters overall productivity within the
workplace. In a professional environment, different teams have to work together on
specific projects. Since effective group communication is a key factor for a
company’s success, the need to overcome emotional barriers is vital.

 Pride - Pride can stand in the way of effective communication in a multitude of ways.
Stubbornness, always having to have the last word or allowing your ego to get in the
way and not being able to admit when you’re wrong are huge blocks to effective
communication. Collaboration is what makes teams work and is imperative in today’s
competitive business environment. When emotional barriers such as pride
arise, teamwork and collaboration are unlikely to flourish.
 Anxiety - This emotional barrier is one of the most common, appearing in everyday
life. It usually has a negative impact on the part of the brain required for effective
communication. Anxiety is an emotional barrier that hinders effective communication
since having an anxious disposition impairs judgment and our ability to act.
Consequently, anxiety can stand in the way of career development.
 Jealousy - Jealousy or envy are major obstacles to effective communication. They
 can lead to intentionally wrong or misguided information being presented. This
obviously wastes time and other resources, which for a business, is
counterproductive.

F. Cultural Barriers - The global market has opened up lots of opportunities for business.
However, due to cultural barriers, people or companies often miss out on these
opportunities. Language differences can lead to misinterpretations, the activity of
labelling people can create stereotypes, and behavioural patterns can form mental
blocks. Also, different cultures in different places can turn into strong communication
barriers. As the world is getting more and more globalized, any large office may have
people from several parts of the world. Different cultures have a different meaning for
several basic values of society. Dressing, Religions or lack of them, food, drinks, pets,
and the general behaviour will change drastically from one culture to another. So, how
would you handle such cultural barriers? Conscious nurturing of cross-cultural
sensitivity is the answer. Hence it is a must that we must take these different cultures
into account while communication. This is what we call being culturally appropriate.

G. Attitude Barriers - Certain people like to be left alone. They are the introverts or just
people who are not very social. Others like to be social or sometimes extra clingy!
Both these cases could become a barrier to communication. Some people have
attitude issues, like huge ego and inconsiderate behaviours. Discrimination on the
basis of gender, race, or religion, prejudice, suspicion, and emotional aggressiveness
often affects communication. They arise because of the refusal to change or a lack of
motivation. Effective listening, feedback, problem-solving, and being open to change
can help you eliminate attitudinal barriers in communication.

H. Perception Barriers - are mental blocks that are the result of internal biases we have
of people or events around us. They disrupt effective communication because they
prevent us from having healthy conversations with others. Perceptual/Perception
barriers interrupt the way we process information and prevent us from developing an
accurate perception of others. They encourage us to act and behave out of personal
interest and make gross assumptions, among others. When it comes to
communication, perception barriers blind us and make us see someone in a particular
way. Oftentimes, we become sarcastic, condescending or dismissive of someone, just
because we think of them differently. Personal past & present experiences, beliefs,
preferences, triggers, education, occupation, needs, age, dimension of skill, personal
preferences and values, upbringing, identity, trauma, mental illness, attitude.

I. Physiological Barriers - to communication are obstacles that impact effective

communication because of the condition of the human body and mind. Physiological
barriers may result from individuals’ personal discomfort, caused by ill-health, poor
eye sight, or hearing difficulties.Physical and mental conditions play crucial roles in
 determining how to effectively convey messages or interpret them. Poor physiological
conditions can affect a person’s ability to communicate. Physiological barriers to
communication act as sieves that limit the flow of information and create confusion.
Few examples are, speech impairment, muteness, speech and sound disorder, apraxia,
cluttering, stammering, hearing impairment, body language issues, getting distracted,
poor memory, selective perception, interpretation, and attention.

J. Technological Barriers - A technical breakdown or even a small technical glitch may

sabotage the entire process of communication. In business, organizations encounter
several technological barriers in communication. Some are obvious like poor internet
or obsolete hardware, outdated technological systems, limiting access across
functions and levels, over flowing email-box. For example, a text message where all
the words are in capital letters can be interpreted as an angry ‘yelling’ message, while
the reality may be far from that.Though technology-based communication such as
phone conversations, text messages and e-mails have made communication easy for
us but on the flip side, it has reduced the possibility of natural face-to-face interaction
that is at the helm of any human communication.But others like language barriers
aren’t as easy to identify but are equally potent. For instance, remote workers now
work from different cities or even countries. Employees may have to connect with a
colleague who’s from a different culture. Understanding their language over the phone
or video call can be a challenge if they’re not familiar with it. A technological barrier
can be overcome if the right training is given. If your organization is moving its
communication entirely online, it’s possible your employees take time to get the hang
of it. They need proper training and familiarity with the new software for overcoming
technology barriers.

K. Socio-religious barriers - are man-made constructs originating from social norms and
cultural values. They have mainly an adverse impact on information seeking by
restricting access to information sources and giving rise to negative emotions.A socio
-cultural barrier occurs at the level of the group or social group. It can even occur
between two people who belong to the same culture.Cross-cultural communication
barriers occur at the level of the individual. Understanding which type is present will
reveal what specific barriers to communication to solve. For example, if a manager
can communicate with a team of Chinese speakers because he can speak Mandarin,
but cannot communicate with a French speaker because he cannot speak French,
then it’s easy to recognize the issue. It can be caused by confusion or discomfort
about how to express oneself respectfully. There are cultures, for instance, where
hierarchy plays an important part in society, in which a junior will hesitate before
contradicting a senior. That’s a socio-cultural barrier.
8. Communication Channels:
The channel, or medium, used to communicate a message affects how accurately the
message will be received. Channels vary in their “information-richness.” Information-
rich channels convey more nonverbal information. Research shows that effective
managers tend to use more information-rich communication channels than less
effective managers. The figure below illustrates the information richness of different
channels.

The key to effective communication is to match the communication channel with the
goal of the message. For example, written media may be a better choice when the
sender wants a record of the content, has less urgency for a response, is physically
separated from the receiver, and doesn’t require a lot of feedback from the receiver, or
when the message is complicated and may take some time to understand.

Oral communication, on the other hand, makes more sense when the sender is
conveying a sensitive or emotional message, needs feedback immediately, and does
not need a permanent record of the conversation.
9. INTERPERSONAL AND INTRAPERSONAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS

As the term, ‘intra’ means ‘within’, so the communication that takes place within a
person is called intrapersonal communication. On the other hand, the term ‘inter’
means ‘between’, so when the communication occurs between two or more persons, it
is said to be interpersonal communication.

a. Interpersonal: Interpersonal communication is the communication where exchange

of ideas and information happens between two or more people by way of any
channel. This can be face to face, online, over the phone, or in written forms as well.

There are several aspects that make this type of communication explicitly
interpersonal:

 Inescapable: Even when we hold some thought inside us and do not let it out
verbally, it will take its form in other nonverbal aspects of communication such as
mood, attitude, or body language.

 Irreversible: Once something is written, said, or submitted, it cannot be taken back.

It is forever in the minds of others.

 Complex: There is a high chance of miscommunication between sender and

receiver, therefore interpersonal communication is complex.

 Contextual: Context is an integral part of this type of communication, and the

context can be situational, environmental, and relational.
b. Intrapersonal: The communication with oneself is intrapersonal communication. It
involves thinking, analysing, interpreting, assessing, contemplating, feeling, etc. It is
to reflect the individual self, with a view to clarifying something.

It is an activity that takes place in our mind; wherein a person is involved in a

conversation with himself/herself, commonly known as ‘self-talk’ or ‘inner speech’. The
activity can be a monologue or internal dialogue, i.e. when you imagine a conversation,
in your mind with the absent other. So, it is quite obvious that the sender and receiver
are the same person.

Here are some things that are uniquely intrapersonal:

 Self-Concept: One’s own self concept is at the center of intrapersonal

communication. It includes an evaluation of one’s own beliefs, values and attitudes,
and how that evaluation plays into what occurs in the outer world.

 Perception: Perception is how people interpret what is going on around them.

Perception can influence intrapersonal communication.

 Expectation: Expectations are based upon intrapersonal communication with one’s

own self, and are predictions of what will happen based on perceptions of what has
happened.

Differences Between Interpersonal Vs. Intrapersonal Communication

1. Intrapersonal communication occurs within ourselves, while Interpersonal
communication occurs between two or more people. Thus, Intrapersonal
communication involves only one person while Intrapersonal communication involves
more than one person
2. Interpersonal communication occurs only within a person’s senses, but
interpersonal communication occurs using Verbal and non-verbal communication.

3. Intrapersonal communication involves thinking and analysis going on within our

mind, but interpersonal communication involves expressing yourself, sharing
information and ideas with others.

4. Interpersonal communication is inescapable as we cannot do without

communicating with another person or expressing ourselves, but Intrapersonal
communication can be escapable to some extent as we can stay a day or more without
communicating with our inner self.

5. Intrapersonal communication is reversible, but Interpersonal communication is

irreversible. This means that in Intrapersonal communication we can change our mind,
thought pattern, final decision, but in interpersonal communication your
communication to another person cannot be reversed.
For example, if you write, speak or text something to someone you cannot take it back
or reverse that communication afterwards when it has been made already.

6. Intrapersonal communication helps us to reflect on something, reflect on ourselves,

or set a goal and make plans, but interpersonal communication helps us to share ideas,
knowledge, feeling, experience or tell a story.

7. Intrapersonal communication is done on our own and within ourselves, while

Interpersonal communication is done with the person you are communicating with
either verbally or non-verbally through signs, text, letter, or social media.

8. Intrapersonal communication often happens when you want to reflect on something,

make a decision, draw a plan, and set a goal, but interpersonal communication usually
happens when you speak with other people in our day to day activities, events, social
gathering or program.

9. Interpersonal communication is visible as it is outward in nature, while Intrapersonal

communication is invisible as it happens within our minds and hearts. Hence, it cannot
be visibly seen by another person.

10. In Interpersonal communication, there is usually physical or virtual response to

your communication, however this is not the case in Intrapersonal communication as
there is usually no response or feedback to your communication.

11. Interpersonal communication occurs on a regular basis, as you cannot spend a day
without indulging in any sort of interpersonal communication, but Intrapersonal
communication on the other hand does not occurs as continuous and repeatedly as
Interpersonal communication.

Ways to improve interpersonal skills:

 Practice active listening skills during all conversations

 Let peers know when you appreciate them
 Smile and use positive body language
 Promote a positive environment
 Cultivate a positive outlook
 Control your emotions
 Acknowledge others’ expertise
 Show a real interest in your peers
 Find one good trait in every peer
 Be assertive
 Practice empathy
 Maintain your relationships
Ways to improve intrapersonal skills: The three most essential components to
developing and improving intrapersonal skills are self-awareness, self-regulation, and
motivation.

 Self-awareness starts with using personal assessment tools that monitor

reactions to understand what is happening inside your head. Knowing the
appropriate response to a reaction or who might have caused it is crucial.

 Self-regulation is necessary for a variety of reasons. Though we may not know

the exact reasoning behind our reactions, it’s best to have guidelines in place so
that you can decide to act without taking time to think about their motives.

 To embrace a successful mindset, you need motivation from within. Changing

your thoughts and behaviors can create new self-concepts that will help you on
the path to success.