When communicating it is only natural that you are doing so for a purpose. Regardless of the purpose itself, when communicating it is also natural that you want to be understood. You are sending a message that you have encoded in your mind because of particular perceptions that you may have and as a result of that or because of it, you will want to send a message to someone and it is hoped that they understand you or interpret the message the way you would like them too. However there are many things one must consider to ensure that the purpose of the message is understood and the message itself is correctly interpreted. Effective communication is when those things are accomplished.
I would not say I am always an effective communicator on any given instance. I would say I am more of an effective communicator in my class when sending messages to my students. Because I have a standard one class and they too have problems relating experiences and expressing themselves, I have to set the precedent for them. With the exception of spontaneous and scripted communication, I carefully construct my messages and I do a lot of repetition or phrase the same message differently while drawing on references and asking questions to make sure I am understood and they too understand the purpose of the message and the message itself. We are six weeks into school and I learnt this lesson probably by my second week of school after realizing that my kids were behaving the opposite to what was previously expressed. I came from a standard 4-5 class and because their level of maturity and understanding would have been greater, I grew accustom to that and took it for granted that my standard ones would too. Well they do now and I am thankful for it.
With adults however, I cannot say that I am as effective a communicator as I am with adults. I often take it for granted that because we are mature and possess a certain level of understanding that some things should apply to common sense while others could be rationalized according to verbal/nonverbal cues given in the first place. This is not always so because many times especially with strangers or persons I am slightly acquainted with misinterpret my actions and messages to mean something else. Only when necessary will I try to recreate the message and ensure that I am understood, otherwise I do not even bother. Persons who I am closely related to almost always (if not always) gets the message first time around but that is because they know me.
Because I am respectful I would say that I demonstrate not a perfect but high level of linguistic sensitivity. I don't ever belittle persons according to their characteristics. I like to feel comfortable in spaces and around others so that I also try to do the same. I do not like labelling either and generalizing because it is often done by others when they describe "Rastafarians" to which sometimes they do not even apply to me although I belong to that co-culture. I try to pluralize and use words such as "their/they, some people, sometimes, in some cases, might..." etc. This was introduced to me at an early age because I was on a debate team in school and also when doing General Paper and Sociology for A Levels these things applied and maintained importance.
I am ever so conscious about how I speak, my language choices and body language because as a teacher so much is expected from you, even if you do not agree with those expectations one might find themselves trying to cause minimum disturbances and misinterpretations to save your image as a teacher. I use vocabulary I believe persons should understand and if I do not know you then during the course of communication I will be better able to decipher what one's vocabulary status may or may not be. I use jargons when I know I am with persons who belong to the same group associated with such terms, for example teachers and Rastas. ALl in all I do try to be sensitive and respectful because in my mind, its enough having to deal with the real content in our messages, let's try not to make situations even more complex by being offensive or insensitive.
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