COMMUNICATION SKILLS -- MCM 301
Department of Mass Communication
Virtual University of Pakistan SEMESTER SPRING 2018
ASSIGNMENT NO.1 MARKS: 15
Graded Assignment
Assignment Question:
Given below are three situations. Your task is to thoroughly go through all situations
and identify the type of barrier causing communication lapse in each situation. You are
required to submit your answer in the table given below.
You will first identify the barrier and would mention its name in 2nd
column and in third
column you will give a brief explanation of how your selected barrier type is hindering in
the communication process in each of the three situations.
SITUATION 1
An Australian couple goes to an Electronics store in Pakistan. The man asks from a staff
member if they had a place where we kept our navis. “Navi?” Though the staff member was
able to speak English fluently still he had no idea what he was asking about. The man further
described that he is just trying to get somewhere to do business and needed directions, so he
might just have to stop and print some out. It suddenly clicked sales man. Navi means
Navigation. He wanted to get somewhere with a navi. This man wanted a GPS. Sales man
took him to the section with the GPS devices. The man told that in Australia “navi” is a
common abbreviation for navigation devices.
SITUATION 2
A guest speaker lecture is arranged by a local school on the importance of showing good
behavior towards non-Muslims. On his arrival, speaker warmly meets and shakes hand with
all students but maintains a distance with the only Christian student of the class. Throughout
the lecture he talks about how much emphasis Islam gives on being equally nice to non-
Muslims. All the students were found listening the lecture attentively except that Christian
student. Identify the communication barrier in given situation.
SITUATION 3
A village farmer hires a lawyer for setting his land dispute. After first hearing, the lawyer tells
him that the case has been adjourned as per our request. The farmer is unable to understand
what his lawyer is saying?
Formatting guidelines
• Use the font style “Times New Roman” and font size “12”.
• Compose your document in MS-Word format. Any file created in any other
version will not be accepted and marked zero.
• Use black and blue font colors only.
Solution:
| Scenario | Identify the type of Barrier | Justification/Explanation |
| SITUATION 1 | Sender and Listener barrier | Language differences between Australia and Pakistan, Cultural differences, style and abbreviation differences. |
| SITUATION 2 | Sender barrier | A teacher had a prejudice for Christian student showed by his behavior. |
| SITUATION 3 | Listener barrier | A language barrier between lawyer and a farmer. The farmer can’t understand the technical and legal words. |
