Page 49 - Effective Communication Soft Skills Strategies For Success by Nitin Bhatnagar, Mamta Bhatnagar

Project Name: Manual for Soft Skills
ACE Pro India Pvt. Ltd.
\\mtpdy01\Womat\Indesign\Bhatnagar-Manual for Soft skills\06-Pagination\06-A-Finals\06-AA-Appl\Bhatnagar_Chapter 03.indd

Channels of Communication | 37

• The speed with which they transmit signals.
• The ability to separate their own signals from those of other channels.
• The accuracy with which meanings are conveyed.
• The effectiveness with which channels communicate emotional
information.
• The effectiveness with which channels communicate factual
information.
The different major interpersonal channels are: (i) facial, (ii) gestural,
(iii) postural, (iv) proxemic, (v) artifactual, (vi) vocalic.

Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication has three categories: sign language, action
language, and object language.
Sign language is a kind of nonverbal communication in which gestures
are used in place of words or numbers. These may vary from the hitchhiker’s
thumb to systematic gesture languages such as the language of the deaf and
dumb. We can also assimilate symbolic information by touch as in the method
devised by Louis Braille, which is a form of tactile communication. Action
language embraces all movements that can be used as signals. Examples of
action language are to be found in the creative arts, pantomime, and ballet,
and, also for instance in Japanese No plays and formalized church liturgy.

Signs and Words
Primitive forms of communication have been used by human beings since
time immemorial. Even after the development of different technologies
some societies still use the primitive forms of communication after refining
them. To be able to externalize their feelings and needs, individuals first
used their bodies to communicate. ‘Body language’ and other nonverbal
languages (e.g., facial expressions, gestures, mime, dance, images, music,
songs, drawings, paintings, sculpture, sport, etc.) while being used for
millennia in traditional societies for a variety of purposes have not lost any
of their validity and importance today despite their obvious limitations.
If we attribute significance to the symbol which we come across, we
would understand how it carries a social meaning. Because people are
different and unique in their own ways, the meaning they attribute to the
symbol also varies. A particular symbol, word, or object has no inherent
meaning and symbols do not mean the same way to everyone. Meanings
reside in people and not in words. People develop meanings in accordance
with their individual personality, learning, experience, and perception. This
notion is crucial to an understanding of how communication works.

Bhatnagar_Chapter 03.indd 37 2011-06-23 7:51:15 PM
Modified Date: Thu, Jun 23, 2011 06:24:00 PM Output Date: Thu, Jun 23, 2011 07:51:15 PM
TEMPLATE Page Number: PB