whom you are talking;
5. the destination would be the intended person’s head.
Noise, as you can see, can occur at any point within that communication process, and can prevent the original thought or idea reaching its destination intact and as intended. Noise can be anything. Noise might be
• physical, i.e. what we commonly call noise, a loud sound (physical noise);
• psychological, i.e. an emotion such as anxiety or a strongly-held point of view or a cultural barrier (psychological noise);
• semantic, i.e. a language or representation problem (semantic noise);
• physiological, i.e. deafness, blindness or pain (physiological noise).
Noise can interrupt the communication at any stage.
| REFLECTION 1.4 |
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1 Imagine yourself in a busy work area. What sorts of noise do you think might stop your message getting through to another person?• Are people or machines making a ‘noise’?• Is the other person in an emotional state, are they flustered, worried, angry or even frightened?• Is their perception of the situation different from yours?• Do they understand the language you are using?• Do they have a particular communication problem?
2 Make a list of some of the common things that you think would cause ‘noise’ and interfere with communications in your place of work, and discuss your experiences with a colleague. It might help if you list the noises under the headings offered. You’ll be surprised at what constitutes ‘noise’, particularly when you explore the psychological aspect.
If your message is not getting across, this simple model gives you the opportunity to explore some of the reasons why. Once the ‘noise’ is identified you can then try to eliminate or at least modify the ‘noise’ or message in some way. The possibilities are all subject to the nature of the ‘noise’ and may require you to do some strategic thinking and extra planning to ensure your message gets across. Can you think of any recent examples of ‘noise’ interfering with a message you wanted to convey? In Chapters 2 and 6 we will look at noise again by thinking about blocks and barriers to communication and we’ll be exploring ways of overcoming these barriers in order to ensure effective communication.
As teachers we experience ‘noise’ in the learning situation all the time, particularly in the large groups that we sometimes have to teach. We often hear colleagues say, ‘I told the students yesterday, why don’t they listen?’ Our response is always the same. Telling someone something doesn’t mean they have heard what you say and, using Shannon and Weaver’s model, our approach is to identify the ‘noise’ that stopped the message getting across and to try other ways to make sure the message is delivered, heard and understood. Other methods to overcome noise in this example will often involve using alternative modes and channels of communication including announcements, notices, ICT, other people, good old repeating oneself, using humour to capture attention, jumping up and down or sometimes even whispering. These are all strategies that we use in the classroom. The strategies you use should be appropriate to the situation and to the person or people you are communicating with. Never believe that people have heard exactly what you meant to say without first checking their understanding and making sure the message reached its destination intact and as you intended it. Using such a simple strategy will help avoid all sorts of complications later on.
Julia Wood’s Transactional Model
The other model of communication to be discussed here is a Transactional Model developed by Julia Wood (2004). Earlier in this chapter we explored her definition of communication. You will recall that communication is:
“…a systemic process in which individuals interact with and through symbols to create and interpret meanings.”
(Wood, 2004)
That definition was then broken down into components for analysis, and part of this discussion explored the significance of symbols in our communication, how they impact upon our behaviour and how we create and interpret meanings through that process.
Wood (2004) offers the following diagram (Figure 1.2) to illustrate communications taking place between two people.
In this model you can see that communicator A transmits a message to communicator B, who receives the message, decodes the message, has a reaction to the message and then responds to communicator A. Notice that the ‘noise’ surrounds the process and that ‘shared messages’ have a direct impact on the communication between the two.
This is a far more complex model of communication than Shannon and Weaver’s which, you will recall, was linear in its process. In this model messages are being sent backwards and forwards all the time, not just in one direction but simultaneously. The Transactional Model focuses on how we interpret meaning and how meanings are shared within our communication with other people.
When communication goes wrong it is often the result of meaning being misinterpreted. Meaning in communication is said to be negotiated between the people concerned. For example, if you use a word in one context with friends it will be interpreted in a particular way by that social group but, use the same word or communication with your teachers or parents, and the meaning is not shared on the same level. For example, the words ‘sick’, ‘whatever’ and ‘random’ come to mind, as we know older people’s interpretations of these words are completely different from those of younger people. There are, no doubt, lots of other examples you can think of. Our language is constantly developing and has to accommodate new ways of living, new technologies and new ways of expressing feelings and thoughts. Social groups use a common language to communicate on a psychological and sociological level that isn’t always instantly apparent to people on the outside of that group.
The language we use, our non-verbal behaviours and the symbols we include in our communications all play a powerful role in establishing and sharing meaning. It is important to remember that understanding something is a subjective experience. We construct meaning in social contexts and share a mutual awareness and often a mutual language that is culturally bound and age-related.
The Transactional Model is a more accurate model of what really happens in face-to-face communication than the Shannon and Weaver model. The Transactional Model takes into consideration all the aspects of communication that we looked at earlier in this chapter. It is also a better basis for any new communication system you might consider creating to help the people you work with. What is it in the Transactional Model that makes it so much better at explaining what real-life communication is like? The answer lies in the channels of communication.
Channels of communication
In the Transactional Model multiple channels are being used. For example:
• facial expressions;
• body angle;
• posture;
• presentation;
• tone of voice;
• words;
•
