My Communication Skills Evaluation

 

 

 

 

 





My Communication Skills Evaluation

            The communication self-surveys revealed how I interact with people and some of my strengths and weaknesses.   In the Communication Anxiety Inventory test my score was 40 which revealed that I am not comfortable communicating in all arenas; such as speaking in front of large groups of people (Rubin, Palmgreen, & Sypher, 2009). Communication does not seem to be a problem for me because I love interacting with people but I do try to judge a persons’ demeanor to determine the depths of my conversations.  On the Verbal Aggressiveness Test my test score was 65 which is considered moderate which means that I rank medium on the scale, and when confronting people I am very respectful of their feelings (Rubin, Palmgreen, & Sypher, 2009).  On the Listening Styles Profile test it revealed that I loved communicating with people and that I am concerned about their feelings, and that I am able to build relationships because I possess great listening skills (Rubin. Rubin, Graham, Perse, & Seibold, 2009).

 .          I selected my young adult daughter and a neighbor who is also a friend to take the tests in order to reveal how others view my communication skills.   I was surprised that the outcomes were very similar to my own.  My daughter warned me before taking the test that she was going to “let me have it” but I was pleasantly surprised that her scores were not that far from my own  and in all of the same categories on the test..  My friend’s score actually matched mine in the Communication Anxiety Inventory test which was 40 (Rubin, Palmgreen, & Sypher, 2009).   My daughter’s score on the Communication Anxiety Inventory assessment came out as 49 which moved me up to the “moderate” bracket and implied that I suffered from “situational” anxiety which is stage fright (Rubin, Palmgreen, & Sypher, 2009).  That’s the area I need to improve in order to feel comfortable speaking in front of large groups of people.  My girlfriend scored me as a 68 on the Verbal Aggressiveness Scale which is now making me stop and think about how I interact with her because this number is significant.  I never thought that I appeared aggressive to her but now I need to temper my tone when communicating with her in the future.  This exercise taught me a lot about myself and how others see me and I am glad that the test revealed that I am indeed people oriented because I am a teacher and that lets me know that I have chosen the right profession!

 

References

Rubin, R. B., Palmgreen, P., & Sypher, H. E. (Eds.) (2009). Communication research measures: A

sourcebook. New York: Routledge

Rubin, R. B., Rubin, A. M., Graham, E. E., Perse, E. M., & Seibold, D. R. (Eds.) (2009). Communication

            research measures II: A sourcebook. New York: Routledge..

           

 



Cultural Diversity

 

 

 

 

Cultural Diversity

          My neighborhood has become more diverse in the last five years because the older neighbors have died and for some unknown reason their surviving children have chosen not to keep their parent’s homes.  Ten years ago my neighborhood was African American and now it is very mixed with a Hispanic family, one Caucasian gay male, two Caucasian heterosexual couples, one Caucasian/Hispanic gay couple, and one biracial heterosexual couple (African American women married to a Caucasian male).  This change is a welcomed change but it makes me feel like I have to exert more effort in developing neighborly relationships.

          After being enrolled in this Communication and Collaboration course I have begun to ponder on what techniques I could use to communicate with my new neighbors.    When I visited my neighbor Maria who is Hispanic I assumed that her television would have an English speaking show on because I thought that everybody watched English speaking shows. But when I entered her home she was watching a show in Spanish and I sat down on the couch to watch the show with her.  I was displaying cultural myopia when I thought that she was watching the same types of shows that I watched, believing that everyone shared my interests (O’Hair & Wiemann, 2012).   Maria has come over to my house on several occasions to help me with my garden or to alert me to move my car because of street cleaning.  I would like to get to know her better and understand her life story and forge a stronger relationship.

          John is a very friendly person, he is Caucasian and his wife Jessica is

African American and she isn’t very friendly.  They have a garden in their backyard and are very much into organic food.  Jessica seems to be very guarded with her communication with me and I often wonder could it be a defense mechanism because maybe she has received negative comments because of her marital situation.  I would like to get to know her more and feel just as comfortable with her as I do with her husband John.  I guess I should work on my self-adequacy skills and improve my communication delivery by sharing some of my interests with her and finding out what interests she may have and what we may have in common.  Sometimes you have to go the extra mile when trying to establish relationships and shyness is not an asset in this case.  In both of the examples I mentioned I communicated differently because with Maria there is a slight language barrier even though Maria makes an effort to communicate with me in English but I know that she is making a strong effort because I hear her speak Spanish to her family members.  Jessica has chosen not to communicate much with me so I am very careful with the words that I use to communicate with her, but I have the faith that things will get better.  Being in a diverse neighborhood is exciting because you can observe different cultures and figure out how to interact with people in a positive way.

 

 

References

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction. New York: Bedford/St.

          Martin's.

 



Communication Skills: Language, Nonverbal, Listening

 

 

 

Communication Skills: Language, Nonverbal, Listening

     I watched the television show “Modern Family “ with the sound off for the first several minutes then I turned the sound up and compared what I thought I was observing without sound to watching the show with the sound turned up.    There was a dark haired man sitting on the couch moving his hands and looks like he is explaining something.  A lady is talking to a boy that looks like he is around 12 years old.  A blond- haired guy is on a playground but looks like he has a flashback to something that has occurred earlier.  In the next scene a heavyset guy is talking to a lady with blond hair and they appear to be arguing and the guy rushes into the house.

            Now with the sound turned up on the show, an older man is taking care of a baby and he put a liquor bottle up to his mouth and drinks the liquid.    The heavy set guy reappears and says that he has to prove a dispute with Claire. The older man decides to take the baby to the movie theater and the baby starts crying, so a lady in the movie theater offers to take the baby out of the movie theater.  The scene goes back to the playground area and the blond-haired guy asks a little boy to teach him how to play a children’s game using a ball because his little daughter has been bullied by this particular little boy.  A woman named Gloria caught the guy (who is actually her husband) without the baby but he is holding the baby’s blanket.  The father says he doesn’t understand why his wife is so mad, but his son (the 12 year old boy) tells him that maybe she is mad because he gave the baby away to a complete stranger. 

            This experiment made me realize the importance of verbal communication.  When I was watching the show without sound I had some idea of what the people were feeling by looking at facial expressions and body language,  But when the sound was turned up it opened up a whole new world of understanding.  Listening is more important than speaking in order to get the full picture of what is actually happening.  This exercise forced me depend solely on my visual and listening skills  and now I am going to take the time to really listen to people before I speak in order to give my undivided attention and respect to the speaker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Effective Communications

 

 

 

Effective Communications

 

President Barack Obama is a master communicator because he engages his audience, builds a relationship with the listeners, and he makes one feel an affiliation because he appears to understand what they may be experiencing in their own life.  His sense of humor is contagious and he delivers his speeches in a non-threatening way.  In the field of politics it is very important to connect with the audience in a positive and convincing light.  During the President’s first presidential campaign he used the code words ‘Yes We Can” and this slogan resonated in the minds of a multitude of people.  That slogan was hard to forget during the campaign season and it evoked positive thoughts in people that had just experienced an economic downfall.

I do not feel comfortable speaking to a large group of people because I have difficulty with the speed and intonation of my voice.  I would like to be convincing to people and attempt to influence their thoughts because those are the skills that a great communicators must possess.  President Obama portrays a lot of charisma and his smile can light up an entire room.  I would like to learn some of the positive techniques that he possesses because I have great ideas of how to improve the early childhood field.  I need to put my nervousness aside and step out on faith and realize that the only way that I can become a more effective speaker is to practice.