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10.effective Communication in English

Effective communication in English requires following simple rules like using direct, simple, brief, vigorous and lucid language. This involves preferring familiar words over unfamiliar ones, single words over long phrases, short words over long, Saxon words over Romance, and concrete over abstract words. Some tips for effective communication are to clarify ideas before communicating, examine the true purpose, consider the environment, be careful of tone and overtones, use crisp and clear language, follow-up for feedback, and be a good listener. Improving pronunciation, reading more, and practicing exercises daily can help develop strong English communication skills.

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150 views15 pages

10.effective Communication in English

Effective communication in English requires following simple rules like using direct, simple, brief, vigorous and lucid language. This involves preferring familiar words over unfamiliar ones, single words over long phrases, short words over long, Saxon words over Romance, and concrete over abstract words. Some tips for effective communication are to clarify ideas before communicating, examine the true purpose, consider the environment, be careful of tone and overtones, use crisp and clear language, follow-up for feedback, and be a good listener. Improving pronunciation, reading more, and practicing exercises daily can help develop strong English communication skills.

Uploaded by

ejkiran
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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4.

10EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IN ENGLISH


The1 English language contains about 490,000 words plus about
300,000 technical words.

It is doubtful if any individual uses more than 60,000 words.

Written English uses about 10,000 words while spoken English, by


the better educated, uses about 5,000 words.

Effective communication in the English language requires that we


follow a few simple rules that can be learnt and practiced by anyone.
We just need to keep in mind the purpose of communication.

The purpose of communication


Issue, receive, interpret, act on commands
Maintain relations - personal and business
Structure the environment – share information, define jobs.
2
This can easily and more effectively be achieved by being:
'Direct, Simple, Brief, Vigorous and Lucid' and the way to
do this is to:
Prefer the familiar word to the far-fetched;
Prefer the single word to the circumlocution;
Prefer the short word to the long;
Prefer the Saxon word to the Romance;
Prefer the concrete word to the abstract.

If you can use Do not use


buy purchase or acquire
measure Quantify
Prefer the short word to the long
3
If you can use Do not use
hope Expectations
kind Categories

Prefer the single word to the circumlocution

If you can use Do not use


act take action on the issue
often in several instances
Prefer the Saxon word to the Romance
4

Saxon Romance
earnings Profit
fall depreciate

Prefer the concrete word to the abstract:

If you can use Do not use


lorries, cars transportation facilities
door entrance
TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IN ENGLISH
5

Clarify ideas before communicating: Systematically think


through the message and consider who will be receiving it
and/or affected by it.

Examine the true purpose of communication: One must ask


himself/herself this question – what am I really aiming to
accomplish with this message? The use of language can then
be suitably adjusted.

Take the entire environment, physical and human, into


consideration: Questions such as, what is being said, to whom
and when are very important. Your skill lies in how you say it
and, of course, your timing. Adapt your language to the
environment.
Be careful of the overtones and the basic content of the
6 message: The listener will be affected by they way you put
across your message. Your tone and facial expressions are
also to be considered.

Use crisp language and be clear: It is very important that


the words are well chosen and that you stay as crisp and
concise as possible. In other words use minimum words to
send across the message and convey useful information.

Follow-up on communication: One must solicit feedback in


ensuring that the receiver has understood the message. If the
person has not understood, tone down the language.

Be a good listener: By concentrating on the receiver’s


response you can ensure his extent of interest in you and
also if he is concentrating.
7

Avoid:
* Use of long words
* Using new words
* Jargon
* Assuming they know
* Preconceptions, prejudices
* Information overload
* Noise
* Information filtering
* Lack of trust
 Why Study English?
The second most spoken language in the world and the lingua
8
franca in many professions, English is a culturally rich, exciting
field of study, with some 380 million native speakers. Only Chinese
and Hindi have more native speakers while Spanish is similar in
number. English is also the dominant member of the Germanic
languages. It has lingua franca status in many parts of the world,
due to the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural
influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th
centuries and that of the United States from the early 20th century
to the present.

Through the global influence of native English speakers in cinema,


music, broadcasting, science, and the Internet in recent decades,
English is now the most widely learned second language in the
world, although other colonial languages such as French and
Spanish retain much importance worldwide.
Research has shown that for the most part, employees are
very good at what they do. That's why they are hired, trained,
9
retrained, and promoted. They are all "subject matter"
experts.

Their problems occur when they attempt to communicate


their subject to others. They have had extensive training and
experience in performing their jobs, but very little training in
effectively presenting their ideas to others.

The challenges in having Effective English


Communication Skills are:

Ability to frame Grammatically correct sentences


Lack of Vocabulary
Fear of Speaking to Groups of People
Ineffective Presentation Skills
As a young professional in today's global business world,
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it is imperative that you are competent in both oral as well
as written communication.

Important forms of oral communication at the


workplace include:

1. Building interpersonal relationships.

2. Giving presentations and debating viewpoints


effectively.

3. You need to master oral skills for both in-person and


over-the-phone interactions.
Similarly, important written communication
11 includes:

→Writing professional e-mails (sans SMS slang).


→ Putting together concise reports.
→ Creating visually powerful PowerPoint presentations.

And the key to acing oral and written communication is


to spruce up your communication skills. And it is a lot
easier than you think.

Here are some easy tips to do it on your own:


1. Improve pronunciation and diction
There are a few tricks to making a vernacular accent
12
more globally understandable.

• Try making sure that 'air' comes out of your mouth


when saying the letters, 'T, P, K' and the sound 'Ch'.
• Focus on elongating your vowel sounds. This will also
automatically slow down your rate of speech.
• Sing English songs out loud!
• Watch news shows on channels like CNN and BBC.
• The web site www.m-w.com is great for pronunciation
help.
• I would also suggest buying books on pronunciation
and language that come with audio cassettes.
• A good book that I found really useful was Better
English Pronunciation by J D O'Connor. It is part of the
Cambridge series, and some of those books come with
cassettes.
2. Spruce up your writing skills
13 • Believe it or not, you have to Read More!

• Well-written magazines, like The Economist and India


Today, are great to read not only to improve language
skills but also to learn more about the world.

• In terms of books, read what interests you. The basic


goal is to read as much as you can.

• There are a plethora of good authors who are popular


today.

• Some good writers whose language is easy to follow


include Vikram Seth, Jhumpa Lahiri Paulo Coelho, J D
Salinger, Albert Camus and Roald Dahl.
14
• People tend to forget basic grammar when writing
e-mails.

• An e-mail is nothing more than a letter which is


sent electronically.

• Make sure salutations and content are


professional.

• Use special phrases when attaching documents.

For example, "Please find attached with this e-mail a


report on..." This helps you sound professional
3. Five exercises to practice every day!
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i.Pretend you are a newscaster and read out the newspaper
to your mirror.

ii. Do not read local newspapers. Focus on national


newspapers.

iii. While reading a book, underline all the words you do


not know. Look them up in the dictionary.

iv. Make a list of these words, and make sure you use at


least five of them in a conversation during the day.

v. Most important, make an effort to speak in English to


your friends and family.

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