Communication Skills Class 9 Notes

Introduction to communication
What is Communication?
The word ‘Communication’ comes from the Latin word commūnicāre, meaning ‘to share’. communication
is the exchange of information through signs, signals, speech, writing, or other forms of media.
Importance of communication
Communication is an ability to communicate clearly and share thoughts, feelings and ideas to others,
some of communication skills are needed –
 Inform: You may be required to give facts or information to someone.
 Influence: You may be required to influence or change someone in an indirect but usually
important way.
 Express feelings: Talking about your feelings is a healthy way to express them.
What are the different elements of communication?
Communication is a two-way exchange of information, i.e., giving and receiving. Speaking and writing to
someone are examples of giving information.
 Sender – The communication process starts with a sender.
 Message – A sender sends a message (giving or asking for information).
 Channel – A Channel (for path), such as phone/ face-to-face (talk/writing) is used to transfer the
message
 Receiver – The message is received by the receiver.
Perspectives in communication
Perspectives are ideas, views, or fixed ways of thinking. These sometimes affect our communication. For
example, if your teacher or father is strict, even when they are being friendly, you may think they are
scolding you even though they are polite.
Factors affecting perspectives in communication
 Language – In case of use of incorrect words, unfamiliar language and lack of detail, language can
act as a barrier.
 Visual Perception – Visual perception is the brain’s ability to make sense of what we see through
our eyes. For example, partially drawn pictures.
 Past Experience – Letting our earlier experience stop us from understanding or communicating
clearly. For example, “This shopkeeper cheated me last time.
 Prejudice – Fixed ideas, such as thinking “No one in my class likes me” may stop a student from
communicating openly in the class.
 Feelings – Our feelings and emotions, such as lack of interest or not trusting the other person
affect communication. For example, “I am not feeling well”.
 Environment – Noise or disturbance in the surroundings may make communication difficult.
 Personal factors – Personal factors include your own feelings, habits and ways of thinking.
 Culture – Signs’ which have a different meaning in different cultures, such as showing a thumb
may mean ‘good job’ done for some people but may be insulting to others.
What are the principles of effective communication?
Effective communication can happen if we follow the basic principles of professional communication skills,
It is also known as 7c communication.
 Clear – Be clear about what you want to say.
 Concise – Use simple words and say only what is needed.
 Concrete – Use exact words and phrases.
 Correct – Use correct spellings, language and grammar.
 Coherent – Your words should make sense and should be related to the main topic.
 Complete – Your message should have all the needed information.
 Courteous – Be respectful friendly and honest.

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Verbal Communication
What is verbal communication?
Verbal communication is the sharing of information by using words. It is what most people use as a
method of communication and most important because if you do not use the right words, you will cause
confusion and you will not be able to communicate what you want.
There are two different types of verbal communication –
 Oral or Spoken Communication – exchange the information and ideas using spoken words.
 Face-to-face conversation
 Talking on a phone
 Classroom teaching
 Business discussion and public speeches
 Written Communication – convey the information through written words like emails, letters, notes
etc.
 Writing letters, notes, email, etc.
 SMS (Short Message Service)
 Using email to share news, thoughts, documents and files (including photos, videos, music,
etc.)
 Books and newspapers
Advantages of verbal communication
Verbal communication is easy and quick. It is an easier form of communication when you have to
exchange ideas. You keep changing your communication as per the other person’s reply.
Disadvantages of verbal communication
The most common disadvantage of verbal communication is the cultural differences between the sender
and receiver of the information. Verbal communication depends on words, sometimes the meanings
become confusing and difficult to understand if the right words are not used.
What do you mean by public speaking?
Speaking in front of a large group is known as public speaking; the most difficult part in public speaking is
fear and nervousness behind the large people. You can use the 3Ps (Prepare, Practice, Perform) method
to get over your fears and become a confident and effective speaker.
3Ps of Public Speaking
 Prepare –
 Think about your topic
 Think about what your listeners need to know about the topic
 Think about the best way to make your listeners understand your topic
 Write what you plan to say
 Practice –
 Practice by yourself first,
 Talk in front of a mirror
 Talk in front of your family and friends and ask them what they think
 Speak clearly, loudly and at the right speed (not very fast nor very slow)
 Perform –
 Take a few deep breaths if you are feeling nervous
 Think about what you have prepared and start speaking confidently

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Non-Verbal Communication
What is Non-Verbal Communication?
Non-verbal communication is the message we send to others without using any words. In nonverbal
communication, we communicate through signals, expressions, gestures, and body postures or using a
body language.

Importance of non-verbal communication

In our day-to-day communication, it is observed that most of the communication is done using body
movements (face, arms, movements, etc.) and voice control (voice, tone, pauses, etc.). The maximum
communication is done using nonverbal communication. Please check the figure below.

Different types of Non-Verbal Communication?

Non-verbal communication makes our message stronger. Using the right gestures while speaking makes
our message more effective. The different types of Non-Verbal communication are –
 Facial Expression – A facial expression shows the feelings of a person.
 Posture – Postures are positions of the body. They show our confidence and feelings.
 Gestures or Body Language – Gestures describe movements of parts of the body, especially
hands or head, to express an idea or meaning.
 Touch – We communicate a great deal through our touch, such as shaking hands patting on the
back.
 Space – Maintain proper space between two persons depending on the closeness with the person
with whom you are talking.
 Eye Contact – Maintaining an eye contact with the person you are talking indicates interest,
whereas, looking away can make the other person feel ignored.
 Paralanguage – Paralanguage is the tone of our voice, speed and volume that makes a difference
in the meaning of the communication.

What is Visual communication?

Visual communication involves sending and understanding messages only through images or pictures.
The main advantage of this type of communication is –
 Easy to understand.
 It can convey the message to large audience.

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Examples of Visual Communication

Note: Dear students you have to write till Visual Communication in

your AI notebook.

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Session 4: Writing Skills: Parts of Speech
What is sentence and phrase?
 Sentence – A sentence is a group of words that communicates a complete thought (Example: Raju
goes to school).
 Phrase – A group of words, which does not make complete sense, is known as a phrase
(Example: Raju goes).
A sentence always begins with a capital letter, and it always ends with a question mark, full stop or
exclamation mark.
Using capitals
We know that all sentences begin with capital letters. These capitalization rules can easily be understood
using ‘MINTS’: ‘MINTS’ is a set of simple rules that help you capitalize words correctly.

Punctuation
It is a set of marks, such as the full stop and the comma, which help us separate parts of a sentence and
explain its meaning. Some common punctuation marks are –

Punctuation
Sign Use
name

Full stop (.) Shows the end of a sentence.

Sometimes, we use a comma to indicate a pause in the

Comma (,)
sentence.

Question
(?) We use a question mark at the end of a question.
mark

Exclamation We use an exclamation mark at the end of a word or a

(!)
mark sentence to indicate a strong feeling.

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 Punctuation
Sign Use
name

We use an apostrophe followed by an ‘s’ to show that

Apostrophe (‘)
something belongs to someone.

Basic parts of speech

There are eight basic parts of speech in the English language. These are noun, pronoun, verb, adjective,
adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection.

Parts of
What they do Example sentences
Speech

Nouns are words that refer to a person, – ‘Reema wrote a letter.’

Noun place, thing or idea. These are ‘naming – Both Reema and letter are
words.’ nouns.

– “Reema wrote a letter. She is

A pronoun is a word used in place of a tired.”
Pronoun
noun. – ‘She’ is used in place of the
noun Reema, it is a pronoun.

– “Reema wrote a long letter.”

Adjectives are words that describe
Adjectives – Long is an adjective that
other words
describes the noun ‘letter’.

– “Reema wrote a letter.”

Verbs Verbs are words that show action – Wrote is the verb. It tells what
action Reema did.

– “Reema quickly wrote a letter.”

–
Adverbs are words that add meaning
Adverbs – Quickly is an adverb. It tells us
to verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.
how Reema did the action
(writing).

Supporting parts of speech types

Along with the main ‘Parts of Speech’, there are some more words we need for making a sentence.

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 Supporting
Parts Use Examples
of Speech

The car stopped

suddenly because a cat
The words ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’ are known as ran in front of it.
Articles articles. Articles are generally used before – A book
nouns. – An apple
– An umbrella
– The sun

Conjunctions are words that join two nouns,

Do you want oranges or
Conjunctions phrases or sentences. Some common
apples?
conjunctions are ‘and’, ‘or’ and ‘but’.

Prepositions connect one word with another to Some common

show the relation between them. They usually prepositions are ‘on’,
Prepositions
answer the questions ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘at’, ‘under’ and ‘in’.
‘how’. – The cat is on the roof.

Wow!
These words express strong emotions, such Oh!
Interjections as happiness, surprise, anger or pain. They Oh no!
have an exclamation mark at the end. Thanks!
Help!

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Session 5: Writing Skills: Sentences
What is subject, verb and object?
All English sentences have a subject and a verb. Some also have an object.
 Subject – A subject is the person or thing that does an action.
 Verb – A verb describes the action.
 Object – Object is the person or thing that receives the action.
For example, “Divya reads a book”.
 Subject – Divya
 Verb – Reads
 Object – a book
Different types of objects?
The object in a sentence can be either direct or indirect. Direct objects are the ones directly ‘acted on’ by
the action word (verb). An indirect object answers questions, such as ‘to whom’ and ‘for whom’.
For example, what did Abdul give? The gift. To whom did Abdul give the gift? To his mother. Here, ‘gift’ is
the direct object and ‘his mother’ is the indirect object.
Different types of sentences?
A sentence is a group of words that communicates a complete thought. There are two different types of
sentences Active voice and Passive voice.
 Active voice – Sentences where the subject does an action are known to be in the Active voice.
 Passive voice – Sentences in which the subject receives an action are known to be in the Passive
voice.
Types of sentences according to their purpose
This is the most common type of sentence. It provides
Statement or Declarative
information or states a fact. It always ends with a ‘full-stop’
Sentence
(‘.’).

Question or Interrogative This type of sentence asks a question. It always ends with a
Sentence question mark (‘?’).

An exclamatory sentence expresses a strong emotion, such

Emotion/Reaction or
as joy, sadness, fear or wonder. It always ends with an
Exclamatory Sentence
exclamation mark (‘!’).

These sentences show an order, command, request, or

Order or Imperative
advice. It can end with a full stop or an exclamation mark (‘.’
Sentence
or ‘!’).
What do you mean by paragraphs?
A group of sentences forms a paragraph, or paragraph is a group of sentences focused on single topic.
While writing a paragraph, make sure the sentences have a common idea.

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Session 6: Pronunciation Basics
What is pronunciation?
Pronunciation is the way you say a word; correct pronunciation will help you express yourself in a clear
and confident manner. It will also help others to understand your words easily.
What is phonetics?
Phonetics is the study of the sounds that we make when we speak, we use more than 26 sounds when
we speak English. For example, the word dog is made of three sounds put together: d-o-g.
All English words are made of three basic types of sounds as shown in below table –

Diphthongs (combination
Vowels Consonant
sound of two vowels)

The English alphabet has five vowels

We make a diphthong
(a, e, i, o and u) but 12 vowel A consonant sound
sound when we combine
sounds. This means most vowels is any sound that is
two vowels. Diphthongs
can be pronounced in different ways. neither a vowel nor
start as one vowel sound
We make a vowel sound when we a diphthong sound.
and go to another.
read a vowel in a word.

Session 7: Greetings and Introductions

What is greeting?
There are many ways to greet a person, greeting is a polite method to acknowledge someone when you
meet them.
Different types of greetings?
There are two types of greetings formals greetings and Informal greetings.
 Formal greetings – Formal greetings are used if you do not know the person. for example, like
greetings to teachers or customers. This is used more often in schools, colleges and offices.
 Informal greetings – Informal greetings are used when you talk to friends, family or a known
person.

Session 9 & 10: Asking Questions I & II

What is asking questions?
A question is a sentence, phrase, or word that either asks for information or is used to test someone’s
knowledge. We always use a question mark (?) at the end of a question.
Different types of questions?
There are two different types of questions, Open ended questions and Close ended questions.
 Open ended questions – When we ask a question, we expect an answer with more details is
known as open ended questions. For example, if the answer is “I like to watch movies on TV.” here
the answer is not limited or closed.
 Close ended questions – Questions that can be answered with a “yes” or a “no” are called close-
ended question. For example, when we ask “Do you have a TV at home?”, the answer could be
either “Yes” or “No”.

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