Sharing of information, ideas, and knowledge among people refers to communication. In today’s time, effective communication skills have become the need of the hour. For students, good communication skills are highly required for academic success and achieving their dream jobs and positions in the future. Let us discuss the types of communication skills, it’s benefits for students, and ways by which teachers can enhance this skill in the students.
Types of communication skills
- Verbal communication
Verbal communication is the most used method to share information from one person to another. With the help of words and language in the form of speaking, information is shared and exchanged among people. To teach, to learn, interact, and participate in classes, vocal or verbal means of communication are used.
2. Nonverbal communication
Along with verbal means, the gestures, body posture, facial expressions, tone, voice, pitch, and body language comprises nonverbal communication. This also plays an important role in how a speaker presents and shares information with others. How attentively a listener listens, understands, and responds depends on his or her nonverbal communication skills.
3. Written communication
Communication with the help of written words is known as written communication. Letters, text messages, chats, and emails are a few such examples. In both learning, teaching, and all professions, this mode of communication is widely used.
4. Visual communication
The extra tools that we use along with verbal and nonverbal means of communication from a visual mode of communication. For example, a presentation, visual notes, graphs, pie charts, and photographs, are a few such examples.
Benefits of good communication skills for students
- Helps to grab more knowledge from the teachers.
Students who are active communicators are confident enough to ask their doubts and queries from the teachers. The learners who hesitate, are shy, or communicate less with teachers, can’t ask doubts and questions. This affects their understanding level and knowledge. But with the help of good communication, one tends to interact and ask from teachers more. They get better knowledge from teachers.
- Better collaboration and teamwork
The students who are good at communication enhance their collaborative and team working skills too. They share better ideas and opinions. Actively listening to each other’s ideas and opinions helps students to work together better and achieve their common goals.
- Better job opportunities
All the companies and professions recruit people who are excellent communicators. The students who are good at communicating crack interviews better make positive impacts on clients, and conduct good meetings and presentations. This broadens their career scope.
- Better academic performance
Students who are active communicators, understand better and get clarity on their doubts and queries. This improves their class participation and engagement. With better participation and understanding, the academic performance of the students is also enhanced.
How teachers can improve the communication skills of students: tips to follow
- Encourage participation: the more the students will speak up in the classes, the better their communication skills get. To enhance communication skills in students, teachers should encourage students to participate. Avoid the monotonous practice of lecturing and students simply listening. While teaching a topic, ask students to share their thoughts, knowledge, views, and opinions. This will enhance their active listening and speaking.
- Organize collaborative activities: to make students better at verbal, listening, and nonverbal communication, teachers should organize collaborative activities. With the help of LMS portals, teachers can manage and organize activities such as group discussions, group projects, debates, plays, and many other extracurricular activities. Here, students get to work in teams. Sharing and exchanging views and opinions along with actively listening to one another, enhances communication skills in students.
- Practice active listening: When teachers listen actively to all the students, communication skills in learners can be enhanced. Active listening should not be listening to the answers given by the students in classes. Some students are active speakers while others are hesitant to speak up. Interact with every student, listen to their problems, and guide them about the same. This way students feel valued and comfortable with teachers. Gradually, this enhances their response and participation in the classes too.
- Develop a safe and positive environment: Whether teaching via online live classes or in conventional classrooms focuses on creating a safe and positive class environment. Many students communicate less because of hesitation and fear of being judged, scolded, and criticized. But in a safe, comfortable, and positive environment, students feel confident to speak and share their thoughts and answers in the classes.
- Teach them good vocabulary: we widely use English as a language of communication. When students have limited knowledge of English, they tend to communicate less in classes. But by teaching them good vocabulary, English words, and phrases, communication skills in students can be improved.
Conclusion
By reading the above-mentioned information we can make out the importance of good communication skills for students. From academic to future success, all is ensured by effective communication skills. We also discussed some tips which teachers can follow in the classrooms to improve the communication quality of the students.
