A communicator is a person who communicates. Communication could be either verbal, non – verbal or visual depending on the communicator. While looking at communication and its influences and what it takes to be an excellent communicator, one has to answer the following questions.
Am I a competent communicator? – Yes I am
What are my strengths? – Non-verbal communication
What are the areas in which I can make improvements? – Culture, which is an influence in both verbal and non-verbal communication
How can I specifically make these improvements? – By getting to know more about different cultures and being involved in them and also interacting with people from different cultures as well, so as not to pass the wrong message to the wrong people while communicating.
THESIS: Good communication requires the skills and knowledge of both the verbal and non - verbal types of communication.
Types Of Communication
The following are types of communication with their definition and discussion.
Verbal Communication
This is the type of communication that requires the use of mouth to communicate. For a communication to be termed as verbal, there has to be the use of words or sounds (speech) as opposed to gestures. Businesses rely mostly on verbal communication than the other types of communication since there is more authority in the tone of voice while addressing the employees.
Influences On Verbal Communication
Gender
Gender is a term that distinguishes male and female. Many stereotypical beliefs have been heard of while trying to look at the differences between male and female when it comes to verbal communication. However, there is some truth to this differences. According to (von Hippel, Wiryakusuma, Bowden, " Shochet, 2011), women pass information in a more indirect, emotional and elaborate the information in a way that brings about hesitation, lack of authority and just not being certain ,while men communicate in a way that is concise, direct and instrumental.
Age
The effect of age on verbal communication is shown whereby, people from different age groups have to be communicated in a different setting according to their age groups and this enables them to understand the information being passed. A twenty-year-old would not understand the language of a seventy-year-old and vice versa.
Ethnicity/ Race
Culture, race and ethnic background play a big role when it comes to verbal communication. This is mostly because of the values that different cultures have and their thinking styles. According to (Erez " Earley, 1993), different cultures include; norms, institutions, values, physical environment, resources, and geography. With such differences, it is not easy to communicate or understand another person’s culture if you do not belong to the same one.
Education/ Occupation
With different levels of education, there comes more additional knowledge to that person who has gone through higher levels of education as compared to one who is not educated. Therefore, such people cannot understand each other clearly unless there is an interpreter who will make it easier for the Uneducated to understand. People from different occupation also have different communication styles and therefore a jobless person would not understand the language of that manager unless the information is further broken down for him/her to fully understand.
Types Of Verbal Communication.
There are several types of verbal communication and these include,
Intrapersonal communication
This is the type of communication that involves oneself. It is communication within a person and such type can be achieved when someone is silent and in deep thought (User, 2018).
Interpersonal communication
Also known as the one on one communication. It involves two people having a conversation and therefore having a sender and a receiver (User, 2018).
Small group communication
This type of communication involves more than one or two people, although the number has to be small enough to allow easy interaction among them. Examples of a small group communication could be; board meetings, press conferences etc. (User, 2018).
Public communication
This type involves a large group of people being communicated to by an individual. It could be one or two individuals addressing a large group of people. An example of this type of communication is election campaigns (User, 2018).
Analysis
Although verbal communication seems to be the dominant and superior mode of communication, it is biased and does not favor the need of those with special cases such as the deaf and dumb. There is also a lot of biases involved in the influences of this mode of communication and solutions should be created to ensure fair treatment when it comes to communication.
Non – Verbal communication
This is the mode of communication that does not use words or speech to pass information, instead, it uses gestures, body language, distance, touch and use of physical environments.
Influences On Non – Verbal Communication
Gender
In non- verbal communication, both women and men are stereotypically thought to be unlike in how they communicate. Such differences are noticeable in the way males and females act. Some differences are psychological while others are deep into socialization. Women are said to mostly express themselves non-verbally as compared to men and they are also better at noticing others non-verbal behavior. It is also said that women smile more compared to men (Churgai, 2015)
Culture
There are so many non-verbal meanings when it comes to culture depending on the cultural differences and location. Culture also affects how non-verbal cues are regulated. According to “Bookshelf Online”, Japanese look into the eyes for emotional cues while in America, they look at the mouth for the same emotional cues.
Culture is dependent greatly on time and this is seen whereby, some cultures tend to be monochronic while others appear to be polychronic. Monochronic people are keen on punctuality, schedule and they tend to complete one task at a time, while the polychronic pursue pliable schedules in which different tasks are taken care of at the same time ("Bookshelf Online").
Types Of Non – Verbal Communication
Body Movement
Body movement is also referred to as kinesics, motion or body position. In this type of non-verbal communication, there is a broad and detailed field that is involved for it to be classified as a non-verbal type of communication. They include;
Body orientation – This is the physical positioning of the body. How we face towards or away from someone.
Posture – This is the positioning in how one sits depending on what the body wants to communicate.
Gesture – This is the movement of the arms and the hands.
Face and eyes – The face is a difficult part to understand what it is communicating due to its sudden changes, you can only tell a facial expression by being extremely keen. The eyes as well also tell different kinds of messages and could be mistaken to something else if one does not clearly understand the cues.
Voice
Paralanguage is a term used to describe non - verbal vocal messages. While talking or speaking, a message could end up giving many meanings to a word or words. Communication is done through tone, rate, pitch, volume and even through pauses ("Bookshelf Online"). There are some vocal factors which are positively perceived as compared to others. An example is; A person who speaks loudly is considered to be more confident than one who is silent and speaks quietly and also people with attractive voices are highly rated compared to the others whose voices are less attractive.
Touch
The language of touch is a complex language which can be easily misunderstood. A hug, a kiss and a pat on the back are all types of non – verbal communication which involves the means of touch. Although, as much as it is misunderstood, touch should be culturally appropriate.
Appearance
Looks really matter in how people eventually view us. Appearance includes physical attractiveness and clothing. People who are termed as physically attractive tend to get all the positive and great benefits in life compared to the less attractive who have to work twice as much in order to get what the others have. Clothing, on the other hand, is a non – verbal form of communication that conveys different meanings. Clothes could define a class, poverty, moral character, trustworthiness, level of success etc. People make assumptions based on the clothes we put on.
Physical Space
Also known as proxemics and is the study of how people use the space around them. Physical space can be defined by distance and territory. Distance can be categorized into; personal distance, Intimate distance, Social distance, and Public distance, all with different meanings. Territory, on the other hand, speaks power in how people use space.
Physical Environment
The physical settings in our environment including interior designs and architecture also play a part in non – verbal communication. They communicate information about the environment or the structure that has been developed.
Time
Chronemics which is the study of how human beings use time is also a type of non – verbal communication. One can tell how intentional or unintentional you are by just looking at how you handle time. Different cultures also have different values in regards to time and it can be categorized in status, power or relationship accordingly.
Analysis
The non – verbal form of communication, involves almost everything that there is. There is no biasness in this type of communication as opposed to the verbal types of communication and these types accommodate everyone’s understanding.
Conclusion
Both verbal and non- verbal communications are skills that need to be learned and acquired in order to be a good communicator. There is also the necessity of learning different cultures since different types of communication may differ due to the different cultures that we have. It is also important to learn about different cultures so as to appreciate the values and art that comes from them.
Finally, while studying different cultures, there is need to be have an open mind since some verbal or non-verbal influences of communication could contradict to the values that you may have and therefore for the purpose of striving to be a good communicator, you have to sacrifice some values from your culture to get to know others.
Works Cited
"Bookshelf Online". Online.Vitalsource.Com, 2018, https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781305855656/cfi/240!/4/[email protected]:0.00. Accessed 11 Nov 2018.
Churgai, Debbie. "The Influence Of Gender On Communication Style". Linked In, 2015, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/influence-gender-communication-style-debbie-churgai/. Accessed 11 Nov 2018.
Erez, M., " Earley, P. (1993). Culture, self-identity, and work. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press.
User, Super. "Four Types Of Verbal Communication". Atio.Co.Za, 201 http://www.atio.co.za/index.php/careers/60-latest-vacancies.html. Accessed 11 Nov 2018.
von Hippel, C., Wiryakusuma, C., Bowden, J., " Shochet, M. (2011). Stereotype threat and female communication styles. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(10), 1312- 1324. doi:10.1177/0146167211410439
