Page 165 - Effective Communication Soft Skills Strategies For Success by Nitin Bhatnagar, Mamta Bhatnagar

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Pedagogy and Communication | 153

because of age differences, life experiences, interest, and ‘adult errors’ and its
removal is very important in pedagogic communication.
Semantic barrier can only be overcome if the pedagogue knows and
takes into account the pupils’ age and past experiences and understands
their psychology as well as their personal limitations. To reduce semantic
barriers, children should be taught to use adult language and adults should
be taught to understand children’s language. Communication between two
people may have contrary meanings and intentions. For a teacher, a fight
between two boys in school is a breach of discipline, whereas, for the student
it may be yet another attempt to prevent the bully from teasing him.
A pedagogue has every reason to expect the child to master a language
not only in its proper context, but also from a personal sense, which would
provide a common platform for mutual understanding and respect. But a
teacher while expecting a student to learn an adult language with its system
of personal senses should also try to understand the personal sense of the
child. The objectives of teaching and learning will be facilitated if teachers
can identify themselves with the child. Interpersonal conflicts in pedagogic
communication arise mostly due to pedagogue’s lack of ability or his/her
lack of desire to understand and acknowledge the student’s system of inter-
personal senses.

Influence of Interpersonal Relations
Communication is not just based upon words, intonations, and pronuncia-
tions. It is also the transmission of one’s personality, feeling, and intents. In
pedagogic communication, the ‘transmission’ of one’s personality into the
communication process, is essential for the purpose of social influence, and
acquires particular importance when we consider the psychological aspects
of teaching.
Teaching is primarily an informative process. The teacher imparts knowl-
edge to the pupil and gets feedback from the students in the form of answers
and test results, which gives the teacher information about the pupil’s assimi-
lation of the received information. Here, interaction takes place at the level
of meanings. But the pedagogue’s role in communication does not stop at
meaning, forming notions and other such criteria. The pedagogue plays a
crucial role in transmitting the sense of these notions as he or she sees it to
the pupils.
For example, when a teacher is teaching a poem, or issues related to history
or social studies, the teacher is not only teaching the content but also much
more- he is passing on the values. He/she is providing meanings, appreciation,
as well as his personal attitudes to the topics he/she is discussing. This part of
communication is crucial in education, which is inseparable from teaching
just as sense is inseparable from meaning. Behind the influence exerted by

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