Study sheet: Communication Skills

📋 Course Outline

1. Communication Purposes and Forms
2. Effective Listening Process
3. Open and Closed Questions
4. Clarification and Verbal Communication
5. Improving Grammar and Speech
6. Non-verbal Communication

📖 1. Communication Purposes and Forms

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Communication : Enables people to share information, exchange ideas and thoughts, and understand each other better.
• Verbal communication : Uses spoken language to exchange information and ideas.
• Non-verbal communication : Conveys meaning without spoken words, including through body language and facial expression.
• Written communication : Exchanges information and ideas through written messages.

📝 Essential Points

• Effective communication skills help workers understand clients and colleagues and become better team members within their organisation.

💡 Memory Hook

VNW: verbal, non-verbal, written

📖 2. Effective Listening Process

★ Must-know

• Good communication involves listening and watching thoughtfully, asking for clarification if needed, and summarising or reflecting on what was said to confirm understanding.

• Good listening enables a person to: seek clarification, give effective feedback, form strong positive relationships, learn more when working with colleagues and clients

Further detail

• Attentive listening makes people feel valued and important, which can make them more responsive and willing to engage and share information.

💡 Memory Hook

Listen and watch → clarify → summarise or reflect

📖 3. Open and Closed Questions

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Open questions : Usually begin with words such as “why,” “how,” or “tell me about” and generally require longer, more detailed answers.
• Closed questions : Can be answered with yes, no, or a simple word or fact.

★ Must-know

• Open questions can: encourage people to express opinions and feelings, start conversations, identify wishes, needs and problems, test understanding through an explanation in the person's own words

📌 A series of closed questions can limit conversation and be less informative than one good open question that promotes deeper discussion.

Further detail

📌 Closed questions are useful for obtaining quick responses and confirming facts, especially when time is limited or a person may only be able to give a yes-or-no answer.

💡 Memory Hook

Open questions expand conversation; closed questions narrow it

📖 4. Clarification and Verbal Communication

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Clarification : Checks that a person has understood a situation or message correctly and shows interest in understanding the other person better.

📝 Essential Points

• The two main ways to clarify information are asking questions and reflecting or summarising information back verbally or by repeating a message in writing.

📌 Workers should never assume that they know what another person is thinking or feeling; they should ask open and closed questions to obtain information.

💡 Memory Hook

Clarification prevents assumptions → shared understanding

📖 5. Improving Grammar and Speech

★ Must-know

📌 Correct grammar makes speech easier for others to understand and makes it sound more professional.

Further detail

• 🔄 Grammar can be improved by: listening to high-quality speeches, reading to improve vocabulary and grammatical knowledge, paying attention to grammar while speaking, asking others for corrections, practising speeches

💡 Memory Hook

Listen, read, notice, ask, practise

📖 6. Non-verbal Communication

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Body language : A form of non-verbal communication that can provide clues about what a person is feeling.

📝 Essential Points

• Watching a person's non-verbal signals, including body language and facial expression, can help determine whether the person is expressing genuine feelings or only saying what they think others want to hear.

💡 Memory Hook

Read the message behind facial expressions and body language

📊 Synthesis Tables

Open and Closed Questions

Question type	Typical answer	Main uses	Limitation
Open questions	Longer and more detailed answer	Encourage opinions, feelings, conversation and explanation	May take more time
Closed questions	Yes, no, or a simple word or fact	Obtain quick responses and confirm facts	Can limit conversation and information