Communication skill: Neglected in our education system
Sunday, 9 November 2008
FE Special
Munmun (pseudonym) has graduated from a university very recently. She has joined a research organisation just after completing her masters examination. She does her duties just fine. The problem she faces is she cannot express her ideas properly in the meetings she attends. She knows everything, but she lacks the courage and confidence to share her ideas and opinion. She finds that some employees with less caliber are receiving the attention of the management with their good communication skill. That really upsets her. She feels she should have developed her communication skill since her childhood-from family, from school.
There are many fresh graduates like Munmun who feel that their communication skill is not of satisfactory standard. So sometimes they are concerned how to develop these. They have to spend very hard time until they have acquired a very good skill.
This is very unfortunate that there has been little concern about communication skill in our education system. Very few institutes in our country care about these skills of the students. Those who care arrange debating, speech delivery competition and discussion on the issues taken from text books and from outside texts.
If in every educational institutes such practices like debating, speech delivery and discussion could be made compulsory for each and every student, surely there could be a very good environment for communication skill. Even all these can be included in the final exam of the year so that students become serious about such skills from the beginning of the year.
Besides the role of the educational institutes, families also need to be serious. There should be such environment in a family that the young members are encouraged to speak with the other members of the family. They should talk about daily life and also what they have learned today or recently. The other members of the family should be patient enough to listen to them. In this way, the young members of the family will be motivated to speak.
Today many parents are busy with their work and have insufficient time for the young members of the family. So the kids grow being deprived of the company of their parents. They have very limited scope to talk with. Parents must take this issue very seriously and should find ways to solve the problem.
While the institutes and families need to be serious about communication skill, individual students themselves need to be aware. Certain things students can do to develop their communication skill are talking with themselves, keeping diaries and thinking a lot in tranquility. Talking to oneself is very helpful. One can sit in front of the mirror and talk on various issues. Issues can be related to daily life, from the textbooks and other intellectual aspects. This will help one gain more clear thoughts and the confidence to express oneself. Second, when students write diaries regularly, they gain more mastery over the language and in real life they can clearly express themselves. Third, students need to think a lot in tranquil environment. They need to think their academic issues as well as matters related to the practical life. Such habit of thinking will give them the power to connect their ideas and they will be able to express whatever they need to. Eric Maisil's famous quote can be remembered in this regard:
"To create you must quiet your mind. You need a quiet mind so that ideas will have a chance of connecting."
Munmun (pseudonym) has graduated from a university very recently. She has joined a research organisation just after completing her masters examination. She does her duties just fine. The problem she faces is she cannot express her ideas properly in the meetings she attends. She knows everything, but she lacks the courage and confidence to share her ideas and opinion. She finds that some employees with less caliber are receiving the attention of the management with their good communication skill. That really upsets her. She feels she should have developed her communication skill since her childhood-from family, from school.
There are many fresh graduates like Munmun who feel that their communication skill is not of satisfactory standard. So sometimes they are concerned how to develop these. They have to spend very hard time until they have acquired a very good skill.
This is very unfortunate that there has been little concern about communication skill in our education system. Very few institutes in our country care about these skills of the students. Those who care arrange debating, speech delivery competition and discussion on the issues taken from text books and from outside texts.
If in every educational institutes such practices like debating, speech delivery and discussion could be made compulsory for each and every student, surely there could be a very good environment for communication skill. Even all these can be included in the final exam of the year so that students become serious about such skills from the beginning of the year.
Besides the role of the educational institutes, families also need to be serious. There should be such environment in a family that the young members are encouraged to speak with the other members of the family. They should talk about daily life and also what they have learned today or recently. The other members of the family should be patient enough to listen to them. In this way, the young members of the family will be motivated to speak.
Today many parents are busy with their work and have insufficient time for the young members of the family. So the kids grow being deprived of the company of their parents. They have very limited scope to talk with. Parents must take this issue very seriously and should find ways to solve the problem.
While the institutes and families need to be serious about communication skill, individual students themselves need to be aware. Certain things students can do to develop their communication skill are talking with themselves, keeping diaries and thinking a lot in tranquility. Talking to oneself is very helpful. One can sit in front of the mirror and talk on various issues. Issues can be related to daily life, from the textbooks and other intellectual aspects. This will help one gain more clear thoughts and the confidence to express oneself. Second, when students write diaries regularly, they gain more mastery over the language and in real life they can clearly express themselves. Third, students need to think a lot in tranquil environment. They need to think their academic issues as well as matters related to the practical life. Such habit of thinking will give them the power to connect their ideas and they will be able to express whatever they need to. Eric Maisil's famous quote can be remembered in this regard:
"To create you must quiet your mind. You need a quiet mind so that ideas will have a chance of connecting."