Evolution and Importance of Communication Skills

The most important thing and specialty that distinguish human beings from other animals is the capability to interact and the use of language. ―Man is different and superior from other species in the sense that he has words at his command. He is interested in the world around him. He is also interested in himself. He has a whole lot of thoughts and feelings about the world around and about himself. And he is driven by an impossible desire to express his thoughts and feelings. He has a compulsive instinct to share these thoughts, feelings, ideas and reactions with other. In order to express his thoughts and feelings he has to find or coin suitable symbols. All words are just symbols to express or represent the object or the phenomena that man sees or thinks about. In this way man is the only species that verbalize i.e. express anything in words. ”1 We human beings can express our emotions so vividly only because we have been given the gift of language. In the times immemorial there were writing patterns, probably symbols and sign language and gestures would have been used to express feeling and to interact with each other. But the interaction would not have lasted for long time due to the scarcity of words. ―Man is the only species gifts with language. And the use of language is primarily in speech. Writing comes afterwards”.2 Slowly and steadily, man made progress in all the fields, that encompassed communication too. The earlier forms of communication were not perfect. But the imperfection of speech anyhow allowed the dissemination of ideas and eventually resulted in the new form of communication. Probably man might

have started to use gestures first as mode of communication followed by some pictorial presentations on the rocks and walls of the caves which could be taken as the form of written communication. After all, man might have discovered the gift of vocal chords in his throat. After wards there is huge evolution in the field of communication. As many of the words in English has their origin in latin communication is also no exception as per a quote,― communication buzz word in today’s world originates from latin word communico or communicare which means to share.3

ccording to Wikipedia, ―verbal communication is one of the earliest forms of communication….The development of communication in its oral form can be categorized based on certain historical periods. The complexity of oral communication has always been reflective based on the circumstance of the time period. Verbal communication was never bound to one specific area instead it has and continues to be a globally shared tradition of communication”4. In ancient time human beings might have developed some kind of models of communication to be used within the clan. So they mastered that particular model of communication. But ultimately out of habit that clan had to migrate to some another location in search of food and shelter. And when they might have come in contact of another tribe or group there might have popped up communication barriers in understanding one another feelings. Then they might have worked

with each other there might have been the exchange of knowledge of traditions and customs of each other‘s clan. So this how the transfer of information might have started. Now let us take a look upon how the communication happens. A general characteristic of communication, as discussed earlier is the transfer of information generally from the sender to receiver. Let us try to understand that “communication is simply the act of transferring information from one place, person or group to another.”5 Now we require three different parts to make communication happen and they are: (i) sender, (ii) the message, (iii) the receiver. Sender - sender is one who initiates a message and is also called the source of communication. In communication sender is very important in providing reliability and authenticity to his or her statements and speech but attractiveness and friendliness also play roles in a receiver‘s interpretation of a sender‘s message. Message – in communication message in any piece of information conveyed through words and sign or symbols. A message can be in verbal or non-verbal form. Receiver – the receiver can be a listener, reader or observer – that is one for whom the message is intended. In other words the receiver is also the decoder of the message. But during the process of communication process one more segment is very important that is channel. Channel is a platform using which the sender sends the message. In all this process of communication the receiver‘s role becomes very vital and crucial. It is the task of receiver to interpret the message with very little distortions as possible. We can say that communication is sending the information and get the desired reciprocal results. Communication needs to reciprocal also. If we do not get desired results by some communication that means communication has failed as it could not reciprocate desirably. Now the question is can the communication be distorted or not? The answer is yes. It can be distorted but chances of distortion at the receiver‘s end are more. Distortions can arise due to many factors. And these factors are called barriers. Let us explore various barriers in the process of communication. Semantic barriers or language barriers – Semantic is the study of words or their meaning. The semantic barriers are those barriers which are related to language. Semantic barriers may include Personal Barriers – These are some barriers which are directly concerned with the sender and the receiver. These barriers may include fear of position, insistence on proper channel, shortage of time and lack of concentration. Emotional and Perceptional Barriers – These barriers depend upon the mental ability of the receiver and sender. These barriers may include premature evaluation, emotional efficiency and poor retention of the information etc. Physical Barriers – Physical barriers are those barriers which pose difficulty due to their presence. These may include outside or inside noise of rooms, machinery noise and inappropriate time of tea or coffee. In the light of these barriers effective communication is just impossible. In today‘s world which requires accuracy and efficiency at every stage effective communication is very important. But suppose we cannot do nothing much to remove these barriers then how can we improve communication. First of all it is very important to lessen the degree of these barriers of communication. If total removal is not possible at least we can make some arrangements to make effective communication possible. We can follow some steps to enhance efficiency. Setting of Goal – The first thing is to set the goal and target audience. We should be able enough to attract the audience towards our point of view. So to be more effective we should know about their positions. Easy Dialect – Language plays an important role while establishing communication. So the language should be simple, understandable, and ordinary and up to the level of the receiver. In this process hefty and difficult vocabulary should be avoided. Expression of your expectation – Communication gets failed if your expectations are not met with the desired results. So it is you who has to tell the target group what you expect from them. The target group needs to be made aware about the purpose of the communication. Minimizing noise –It is always required that we should try to eliminate the potential source of interference in communication. We should always try to choose some kind of methods that enable receiver to concentrate on the communication.

environmental difficulties cone across. We should always try to maintain our surrounding environment hassle free.

Communication skills have a phenomenal history. Along with the evolution human beings language and communication also have evolved to the present condition. Over the time process and purpose of communication have changed. Probably communication has been as dynamic as the development of human beings in the canons of history. In today‘s competitive world effective communication skills have become essential part of our life. So evolution must not stop as it provides new dimensions to many things. And it is the prerogative of humans to adapt to the situation.

REFERENCES

1. K.K. Sinha (2012). Business Communication. Taxmann‘s Pub. Pvt. Ltd. Pg. 21. 2. K.K. Sinha (2012). Business Communication. Taxmann‘s Pub. Pvt. Ltd. Pg. 22. 3. Sanjay and Pushap Lata (2015). Communication Skills. Oxford University Press, Pg. 03. 4. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ communication . 5. https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/what-is-communication.html

Assistant Professor, English, Sanatan Dharma College, Ambala Cantt tejibrar24@gmail.com