Communication Skills

Communication Skills refers to the process of human beings responding to the symbolic behavior of other persons. Communication Skills is typically used to describe face-to-face and written messages. In one study, researchers measured the amount of time a sample group of college students spent on various activities. They found that the subjects spent an average of over 61 percent of their waking hours engaged in some form of communication. Relationships can change a communicator’s identity as well as confirm it. Others messages shaping who we think we are, the messages we create often are attempts to get others to view us the way we want to be seen. In another survey, over 90 percent of the personnel officials at five hundred U.S. businesses stated that increased communication skills are needed for a success in the twenty-first century. One way to understand more about what it means to communicate is to look at some models that describe what happen when two or more people interact. Different communication channels (e-mail, telephone, and face-to-face communication) can affect the way a receiver responds to a message. One study revealed that ideas of how good friends should communicate varied from one ethnic group to another. Communication is a set of skills that anyone can learn. Communication can be a tool for expressing warm feelings and useful facts, but under different circumstances the same words and actions can cause both physical and mental pain.

Types of Listening Skills

• Active Listening: Listening in a way that demonstrates interest and encourages continued speaking.
• Appreciative Listening: Looking for ways to accept and appreciate the other person through what they say.
• Comprehension Listening: Listening to understand.
• Critical Listening: Listening in order to evaluate, criticize or otherwise pass judgment on what someone else says.
• Discriminative Listening: Listening for something specific but nothing else.
• False Listening: Pretending to listen but actually spending more time thinking.
• Full Listening: Listening to understand.
• Informative Listening: The listener's primary concern is to understand the message.
• Relationship Listening: Listening in order to support and develop a relationship with the other person.
• Total Listening: Paying very close attention in active listening to what is said and the deeper meaning found through how it is said.

Listening Games

Objective:
Help students understand the importance of listening when engaged in conversation.
Preparation:
Copy paper strips to accomodate the number of students in your class.Cut the ideas into strips and place them into corresponding containers -Container 1 and Container 2.

Note: Copy the directions for the Box#1s on one color and Box #2s on another color to avoid mixing the two up. Also, put the #1s in one basket and the #2s in another basket for the students to draw from. Make enough copies of the directions so each students has a #1 or #2 set of directions. Also make equal numbers of the directions so the students can work in pairs.
Instructions:
1.Divide the class into pairs.
2.Allow one person to choose from the #1 basket and the other person to choose from the #2
basket. Instruct the student to keep their directions secret from their partners.
3.Allow students about two minutes to complete this exercise.
At the end of this exercise,discuss with the students how they felt during this exercise. Then review some good listening skills with the class. A good listener will:
*Sit or stand near the person with whom he/she is communicating.
*Maintain good eye contact.
*Give feedback-let the person know you are listening.
*Concentrate on what he/she is saying.
*Let the person finish what he/she is saying without interruption.
*Watch the speaker's body language- it will help the listener understand what the person is
really saying.
*Don't do something else while someone is talking.
Good Listening skills improve communication. The way we listen to others may distract or enhance communication. We need to practice our listening skills in order to improve our communication.

Directions:
For Box 1
*Tell about your favorite television program.Keep talking for at least two minutes.
*Tell about what you did last night from the time you got home from school.Keep talking for at
least two minutes.
*Tell about your vacation last summer.Keep talking for at least two minutes.
*Tell about your favorite teacher.Keep talking for at least two minutes.
*Tell about your favorite movie.Keep talking for at least two minutes.
*Tell about your favorite television program. Keep talking for at least two minutes.
*Tell about what you did last night from the time you got home from school. Keep talking for at
least two minutes.
*Tell about your vacation last summer.Keep talking for at least two minutes.
*Tell about your favorite teacher.Keep talking for at least two minutes.
*Tell about your favorite movie.Keep talking for at least two minutes.

For Box 2
*While your classmate is talking, stare at the floor or ceiling.
*While your classmate is talking, don't say anything.You may smile, laugh or touch him/her,
but dont say a word.
*While your classmate is talking, act bored with what he/she is saying. (You can yawn ok look
away).
*While your classmate is talking, keep interrupting-don't let him/her ever finish what he/she is
trying to say.
*While your classmate is talking, write a note, read a book, or comb your hair.
*While your classmate is talking, stare at the floor or ceiling.
*While youe classmate is talking, don't say anything. You may smile,laugh, or touch them, but
don't say anything.
*While your classmate is talking, act bored with what he/she is saying. (You can yawn or look
away).
*While you classmate is talking, keep interrupting-don't let him/her ever finish what he/she is
trying to say.
*While your classmate is talking, write a note, read a book, or comb your hair.

Listening is beneficial to students

Active listening will assist is acheiving in class an getting a higher GPA. Active listening will make you a more effective student. If you think at four times the rate that you speak, a passive listener, concentrating just enough to keep up with the speaker will only be applyingone quarter of their mental capacity to the content of the lecture. Active listeners, applied more of their mind's attention and capacity(possibly all of it)to the subject, will be up to four times more effective.

By applying a few active listening techniques, you will benefit in many ways:

*Class time will go by much faster.

*You will develope a more healthy, productive attitudes toward class.

*You will increase your memory and retention for the material.

*You will relieve yourself from undue study time and effort.

*You will strenghten your mind and increase its capacity

*You will always know what to study, come test time

*Means it will help you to be prepared and maintain a high grades.

Listening Skills

*The key to recievinf messages effectively is listening. Listening is a combination of hearing what anothe person says. Listening requires more than hearing words.It requires a desire to understand another human being, an attitude of respect and acceptance,and willingness to open one's mind to try and see things from another point of view.
*Listening requires a high level of concentration and energy. It demands that we set aside our own thoughts and agendas, put ourselves in another shoes and try to see the world through that person's eyes. True listening requires that we suspend judgement,evaluation,and approval in an attempt to understand another is frame of reference,emotions, and attitudes. Listening to understand is, indeed, a difficult task!
*When we listen effectively, we gain information that is valuable to understanding the problem as the other person sees it.We gain understanding of the other person's perception. After all, the truth is subjective in a matter of perception. When we have a deeper understanding of another's perception, whether we agree with it or not, we hold the key to understanding that person's motivation,attitude, and behavior. We have a deeper understanding of the problem and the potential path for reaching agreement.

Seven Elements of Communications

Seven elements of communication that are written in order:

1.The first element are being the thought and idea.
2.Second is encoding the same
3.Third is the transmission of the message or the channel
4.Fourth being the reception of the message
5.Fifht is decoding the same
6.Fifth is understanding the decoded idea or thought.
7.Seventh is the feedback of the reciever to the sender as a sign of confirmation of the communication.

Brief Theory of Communication

Expressing our wants, feelings, thoughts and opinions clearly and effectively is only half of the communication process needed for interpersonal effectiveness.The other half involved in listening and understanding what others communicate to us. Basically communication and listening skills are both involved to have an effective communications. When a person decide to communicate with another person he/she does so to fulfill a need.

In deciding to communicate ,the person select the method or code which he/she believes will effectively deliver the message to the other person. The code used to send the message can be either verbal or nonverval.When the other person recieves the code message. They go to the process of decoding or interpreting it into understanding and meaning. Effective communication exist betwwen two people when the reciever interprets and understand the senders message in the same way the senders intended it.