There are many reasons why verbal and non-verbal communications may fail. In many communications, the message may not be received exactly the way the sender intended and hence it is important that the communicator seeks feedback to check that their message is clearly understood.

Barriers may lead to your message becoming distorted and you therefore risk wasting both time and/or money by causing confusion and misunderstanding.

I had conducted a survey that talks about the barriers to effective communication and after that, what I did was I gathered all of their responses and analyzed it and below are the questions what I’ve ask them regarding barriers to effective communication.

For you, what are the communication barriers that affect our community?

• Well for me, physical disabilities such as being a mute or deaf, lack of attention or interest, culture barrier and even language itself.

How can we avoid misinterpretations in communication?

• We can avoid misinterpretation by understanding the message of the communicator and most importantly by paying attention.

How can you improve your communication skills?

• We can improve our communication skills by making our message clear and concise, maintaining eye contact and avoid the excessive usage of hand or body gestures, and taking some time to process or develop your message before responding or starting a conversation.

How does poor communication cause conflicts?

• Lack of communication can cause conflict with your friends, workmates or just a stranger you are talking to. Without clear message and/or misunderstood gestures this may lead to a conflict with another person.

In these days, what are the communication problems that you encounter?

• As a SHS student that’s studying in a campus or school with students from different region in the country, I can say the culture barrier and linguistic difference are part of the communication problem/s that I face as of the moment.

As living beings, we need to express and understand the expressions of others. Like it or not, human society thrives on communication.

Therefore, the significance of communication cannot and should not be underestimated. Sometimes, difficult situations in life can be resolved by just sitting down and talking it out. Similarly, most personal, professional and social disasters can be averted by maintaining clear, appropriate and unambiguous communication. All we need is some effort on our part to identify and avoid barriers to effective communication to make our lives and the lives of those around us better.