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Рік заснування видання - 2014

LANGUAGE BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

23.10.2024 22:38

[8. Philological sciences]

Author: Halyna Kharkevych, PhD in Phylology, Associate Professsor, Associate Professsor at the Department of Foreign Languages and Translation, Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University



orcid:0000-0001-6681-5251 Halyna Kharkevych

Language is the most powerful tool of communication, at the same time, a common barrier to effective communication. Speaking about people of one nationality, they frequently have problems in conversation because of misunderstanding and as for foreigners, they undoubtedly face them. Communication enables people to build and maintain relationships and accomplish goals, jobs and tasks. However, its effectiveness depends on a lot of common characteristics, such as clarity, completeness and correctness of the message, how much all participants are interested in the conversation, how the information is interpreted and how it is perceived by listeners [3].

Barriers to effective communication are obstacles that breakdown the communication process because they prevent the flow of information between a sender and a receiver. They can cause misunderstandings that lead to conflict, offense, violence, hurt feelings, and wasting time, effort, money, and lives of the people [1]. One of the most common problems is the accent of non-native speakers. Speaking another language, people should pay attention to the proper pronunciation of words, emphasis, intonation in sentences and what is also important to know how some similar-sounding words differ, because in most cases their meanings are definitely diverse. It relates not only to the level of language proficiency, but also to the language which person speaks natively or regional dialect. For example, it is very difficult for the Japanese to pronounce “R” and “L”, for the Germans – also “R”, for people from Arab countries – to pronounce the letter “P”, as they constantly get “B”. Language barriers may arise when the sender makes errors in grammar and spelling. These mistakes can create communication problems in written communication. For example, a person makes a mistake of typing “done” – “don”; “buy” –  “bye”; “meet” – “meat”; “lead” – “led”; “red” – “read”. They are understood by their context or pronunciation, but all of them can change the whole meaning of the sentence or make the sentence not understandable [4].

In communication with foreigners, it is important not to use ambiguous or vague words or phrases. 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 [1]. To avoid such misunderstanding, the sender should use clear, precise language, stating exactly times and locations and names. You can avoid any ambiguity by repeating the term or using alternatives. Ambiguous communication means open to many different interpretations. This also applies to the use of phraseology or metaphors. From the one hand, your interlocutor can understand the phrase directly and from the other hand, used phrase can mean something definitely different from what you had meant or even be offensive for foreigners, not to mention that phraseology is translated into foreign languages differently. It is worth mentioning non-verbal signals of communication, interpretation of what may be distinguished with every people.

Considering verbal communication, all people should be attentive not to use abusive or impolite words. No one can bear rude language it is one of the main rules for interlocutors in general and especially for people of different nationalities. The use of rude words or expressions will provoke negative emotions. For example, in the Arab society calling a person “you are a pig” means “you are dirty” is an offending word; the word “client” means “spy” for the Palestinians the one who cooperates with the Israeli security, so, it is used an alternative word “the beneficiary of the services” [1]. The same applies to the using of taboo words or so-called “off-limits”, meanwhile it is also intolerant. In this case person’s words and expressions may hurt the feelings of others [1]. Taboo topics may be politics, religion, sexuality and sex, racism and any issue that may be seen as unpopular or may provoke conflicts between various points of view. 

Among the other language tools scientists criticize the usage of jargon (special words or abbreviations used by a particular profession or group) and slang (informal phrases or words are more common in speech than writing and typically restricted to a particular context or group of people). For example: in the computer jargon “to burn a CD” means “to copy the data on a CD”. To a common man, the word “burn” may have a very different connotation [1; 2]. In communication with speakers of different languages we must avoid using of such collocations in order to prevent misunderstanding.

References:

1. Abu-Arcoub I. Language barriers to effective communication. Utopía y Praxis Latinoamericana. 2019. Vol. 24, № 6. P. 64–77. URL: https://produccioncientificaluz.org/index.php/utopia/article/view/30060. (Last accessed: 25.09.2024).

2. Fischer U., Orasanu J., Davison J., Rosekind M. R. Cross-Cultural Barriers to Effective Communication in Aviation. Cross-Cultural Communication. 1997.  URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23875138_Cross-Cultural_Barriers_to_Effective_Communication_in_Aviation. (Last accessed: 16.10.2024).

3. Jureddi D. N., Brahmaiah N. Barriers to effective communication. Journal of English Language and Literature. 2016. Vol. 3, № 2. P. 114–115. URL: https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=8YMrTGYAAAAJ&citation_for_view=8YMrTGYAAAAJ:

2osOgNQ5qMEC. (Last accessed: 18.10.2024).

4. Lunenburg F. C. Communication : The Process, Barriers, and Improving Effectiveness. Schooling. 2010. Vol. 1, № 1. P. 1–10. URL: 

http://www.nationalforum.com/Electronic%20Journal%20Volumes/Lunenburg,%20Fred%

20C,%20Communication%20Schooling%20V1%20N1%202010.pdf. (Last accessed: 20.10.2024).




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