Spelling and Grammar Communication Barriers

Spelling mistakes are misspelt words such as “howse” instead of “house”. Grammar mistakes are missing punctuation such as not putting a full stop at the end of a sentence and using a comma where a semi-colon should have been used. Grammar mistakes are also miss use of words such as “their” and “there”. Both sound the same but are used in different contexts.

Grammar mistakes can be communication barriers. For example, if an employee at Apple was sent a letter from their boss instructing them to “Fill out the forms under no circumstances put the forms in the bin.” he wouldn’t know what to do. This is because if you use punctuation the letter reads two different ways. If you included a comma after “forms” the letter would read, “Fill out the forms, under no circumstances put the forms in the bin.” This is instructing and employee to fill out the forms and not put them in the bin. If you were to add a comma after “circumstances” the letter would read, “Fill out the forms under no circumstances, put the forms in the bin.” This is now instructing the employee to not fill out the forms and put them in the bin, therefore, you can see how this would prevent effective communication as the employee has no idea what to do. If his boss had included proper punctuation this problem could have been avoided. To overcome this communication barrier, Apple could train all of their staff how to use punctuation properly. This way a problem like the one with the letter could be avoided and effective, clear communication can be achieved.

Spelling can also act as a barrier to communication. For example, if you were sent a document via email, a letter or any piece of text which had lots of spelling mistakes, it would be very hard to understand. You wouldn’t be able to understand what the text was telling you as the spelling mistakes would make it hard to make out what certain words meant. This could lead to the person reading it interpreting the information incorrectly. To overcome this barrier to communication a company could teach all of their staff how to spell properly. This will ensure clear communication via written or typed text.

Accent Communication Barriers

Your accent is how you speak; pronounce what you say and the words that you use that are unique to the area of the country that you come from. This can act as a barrier to communication.

For example, if you come from Yorkshire you tend to drop the “H’s” in words and not pronounce them so “house” would be “ouse”. If you went into Currys and PC World in London and started speaking to an assistant in a Yorkshire accent, especially if you had a very broad accent, they wouldn’t be able to understand some of the words you were saying due to how you pronounce them. This would act as a barrier to communication, rendering your inquiry futile.

To overcome this barrier to communication you could try to speak without your accent. You could also write down what you were trying to say so that they could read it. The same could be said for the assistant if you could not understand what he is saying due to his regional accent. This would resolve the communication barrier and ensure clear communication between individuals from different areas of the country.

Accuracy Communication Barriers

Accuracy is how accurate documents are at explaining the information they include.

For example is you were working for Samsung and were given an instruction booklet on how to operate a new mobile phone prototype. Your job is to test the prototype for Samsung. However, if the instruction booklet wasn’t accurate it would cause a barrier to communication. By this I mean if the instructions told you to press the delete button to send a message on the phone and not the send button, this wouldn’t be accurate. This would cause you to delete your message instead of sending it. If you were then to instruct someone how to use the phone using the same instructions you would be miss informing then without knowing, therefore, causing a barrier to communication .

To overcome this communication barrier Samsung could ensure that all of their instruction booklets are proofread and checked before supplying them to other people to use. This would ensure effective and clear communication when using the instruction booklets.

Another example could be an inaccurate email user guide. If the guide was inaccurate the users of the guide would end up sending their emails to the wrong people or even not being able to send emails at all. This will cause a barrier to communication as the people the emails were intended for would never receive the information included on the email. This is why accuracy is so important and if not achieved can cause major problems and communication barriers.

Body language Barriers to Communication

Body language is the way you act in certain situations in terms of your body. For example if you are not stood upright, if you lean back in a chair when people are talking to you and so on.

One body language communication barrier is not keeping eye contact with someone who is talking to you. If you do not keep eye contact with someone who is talking to you they may get annoyed with you as you will look like you are not listening. This is because you will be looking elsewhere at your surroundings and not focusing on the person trying to have a conversation with you. You will appear to the person speaking to you as if you are daydreaming and not focused on what is being said. This could cause you to misunderstand information covered in the conversation which might cause you problems later on, especially if the information was instructions on how to complete a task. To overcome this communication barrier you should keep eye contact with the person talking to you at all times. This way you will be focused on what they are saying and therefore prevent any risk of misunderstanding, therefore, achieving clear and effective communication.

Another body language communication barrier is slouching. For example, you may not be sat upright in a chair and instead laid back as if you are going to go to sleep. This does not give off a good impression to someone who is talking to you as it makes you look like you are not interested at all in what they are saying and would rather go to sleep. This also shows closed body language, closed body language is when you shut yourself off and appear unapproachable, and you look like you don’t want to be talked to.  This could cause the person speaking to you to get angry and not finish telling you what they have to say, therefore, preventing effective communication. To overcome this communication barrier and resolve effective communication once more you could sit upright, look as if you’re interested even if you’re not. This way you will give open body language, showing that you are open to conversation and ready to listen to what has to be said. You will also give off a good first impression; this would be helpful during a job interview with a company, Hewlett and Packard for example.

Online fault Barriers to Communication

An online fault barrier to communication is something that prevents or obstructs effective communication whilst online. This could be a weak internet connection for example.

A weak internet connection could cause an email to not be sent, therefore preventing the individual from communicating via email with the recipient. If you worked for Microsoft and your job involved sending a lot of emails to lots of different people who were relying on you to send them information, a weak connection could be a major problem. To overcome this communication barrier the individual could move closer to the internet router to achieve a stronger connection. They could also switch to another computer that is closer to the router which would receive a better connection. This way you would be able to send your emails due to the stronger connection. This would then allow effective online communication to be achieved.

As well as a weak connection, no connection at all would also prevent you from communication online via webcam, instant messaging or emails. To overcome this barrier to communication you could check that all the wires are properly connected up to allow internet connection if you are at home. If they are and this does not solve the problem you could ring up the supplier of your internet router. If you were working for a company and the internet went down you would have to contact an IT technician and get them to fix it. All of these solutions will eventually establish effective online communication once more.

Hardware Barriers to Communication

A problem with hardware is when an electronic device doesn’t function in the way it is supposed to. For example a computer may not allow you to load up a specific program. These hardware problems can act as communication barriers.

For example, if a member of staff needed to send an email containing important information to a colleague and the computer they were using wouldn’t let them open their emails, this would be a barrier to communication. This is because the hardware they are using (computer) is preventing them from communicating with their colleague via email. To overcome this barrier the member of staff could move to another computer or seek technical assistance from the IT technician. The business could also overcome this barrier by ensuring that all their computers are functioning properly by performing weekly checks on all the computers.

Another hardware problem that can act as a communication barrier is a problem with your microphone during a video conference. For example, if the manager of Amazon was trying to have a video conference with one of his suppliers from abroad and his microphone wasn’t working, his supplier would not be able to hear what he was saying. This would obstruct effective communication. To overcome this communication barrier the manager could either get someone to try and fix the microphone or acquire a new one. This would ensure that both individuals could hear each other clearly and restore effective communication once again.

Cultural Barriers to Communication

Cultural barriers to communication are differences between cultures that prevent or obstruct effective communication such as spoken language, accepted behaviour, hand signals, religion and dialect. Hand signals can be a communication barrier as they can mean different things within different cultures.

For example, the OK sign created by connecting your thumb and forefinger together in the shape of an O is highly offensive in Brazil. In the UK and America this hand signal means ok, however, in Brazil it is the same as sticking your middle finger up at someone in the UK. Therefore you can see how this could get you into a lot of trouble. To overcome this communication barrier a business could train their staff to do some research into the culture of the country they are going to be visiting before going. This way they would already know what and what not to do in that country. Therefore they would avoid any mistakes or confrontation and establish effective and clear communication.

Another cultural communication barrier could be spoken language. For example, if a representative of Dell was visiting a foreign country it is likely that they are going to speak a different language to the people in the country that they are visiting. If the representative cannot speak the native language he will be incapable of communicating with the people he is going to see. To overcome this communication barrier he could bring a translator with him on the journey who spoke both the native language and his language. He could also learn how to speak the native language before he set off. This way it would ensure that the representative and the locals could communicate effectively and understand exactly what was being said.

Environmental Barriers to Communication

Environmental barriers to communication are anything that hinders or prevents effective communication within the environment around you. This could be a number of things including noise and time. Noise can be a communication barrier as if you are trying to have a conversation with someone in a noisy environment such as a building site; the other person may not be able to hear you over the noise produced by the construction work. This would prevent clear and effective communication and might cause you to miss vital information.

The individuals could overcome this communication barrier by moving to a quieter location to continue their conversation. This would allow them to hear each other clearly and ensure that all the information being discussed in heard by each person. Therefore, resolving the problem and allowing effective communication.

Time can also be an environmental barrier to communication. For example, if an employee from BT was to send an email to a foreign country. There would be a time delay between them sending the email and the other person receiving it. This delay would be increased by the amount of distance from the person they are sending the email to and themselves. If the person the employee was sending the email to needed the information on the email for a meeting in an hour, the email might not reach him or her in time because of the time delay. To resolve this problem the business could train their employees to send emails and faxes in advance. This way the email or fax would have enough time to reach the person in time for whatever they needed it for.