Links for More Information

Specific to Education

  1. From the University of Waterloo (in Canada) an excellent list of barriers to effective communication in schools and strategies to overcome them:
    https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/communicating-students/telling/effective-communication-barriers-and-strategies
  2. Audio version of the tip sheet in the previous entry (12 minutes long):
    https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/sites/ca.centre-for-teaching-excellence/files/uploads/files/effective_communication_barriers_and_strategies.mp3

Realms of Communication

The coming of electronic technologies across the previous century (telephones, radio, television, cable, computers, cell phones, the Internet) has made communication a focus of attention. All this attention is divided into somewhat separate realms. As you think about this issue, you can check out Wikipedia entries for the main branches of “communication”:

  1. Mass communication (advertising, broadcasting, journalism, public relations)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_communication
  2. Cross-cultural communication (as with ELLs: this article gives you a bigger picture)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-cultural_communication
  3. Languages of the United States (fascinating!)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_United_States
  4. Organizational communication (larger context than groups: includes schools and school districts)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_communication
  5. Group dynamics (the forces that shape communication in groups—like instructional teams)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_dynamics
  6. Interpersonal communication (exchanges between two or more people)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpersonal_communication
  7. Body language
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_language
  8. Intrapersonal communication (talking to yourself internally)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrapersonal_communication