Communication Theory

Minimising Misunderstanding

Minimising Misunderstanding

How should we communicate to avoid or at least reduce misunderstandings? This is the idea behind learning Maritime English and developing and practising skills in continuously receiving and giving instructions. This first lesson will take off in daily work and also bring up some common misconceptions.

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Basic Words and Phrases

Basic Words and Phrases

This lesson will focus on learning important words we use onboard the ship. You need to understand and know how to use many of these words to be able to handle both everyday situations and potential emergencies.

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Communicating Using Maritime English

Communicating Using Maritime English

The purpose of this lesson is to give examples of how to (and how not to) communicate during the daily work onboard.

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Safety Communication

Safety Communication

In this final lesson, the focus is on ships with passengers onboard. We will provide a general picture of escape routines, general announcements, and how to communicate during an emergency.

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Step 1 of 217 minutes read

Communication Theory

Communication Theory.mp3

00:00 00:00

Communication is the imparting or exchanging of information by speech, writing, or using some other medium."

Oxford English Dictionary, 2023.

Effective communication onboard ships is not merely a matter of convenience, it is a matter of life, safety, and the smooth operation of vessels in an often challenging maritime environment. Miscommunicating simple instructions or directions can lead to groundings, fires, incorrect maintenance and just about any other mistake that can be conceived of. The ability to convey information accurately and promptly can mean the difference between a safe voyage and a maritime disaster.

Ships are microcosms of diverse nationalities and cultures, with crew members hailing from different linguistic backgrounds. Good communication, often facilitated through a common language like Maritime English, becomes the glue that binds these multinational teams together. It ensures that everyone on board can understand and be understood, fostering teamwork, harmony, and a cohesive working environment. This must be supplemented by effective forms of communication, conforming to strict theoretical guidelines, to ensure messages can be understood by the intended recipient.


The Basic Communication Model

The goal of any communication is to transfer information from one person to another. This is true regardless of the medium of communication, the language used, or any other influencing factor. As such, we can consider any such interaction with a simple model.

A basic communication model that can be applied to any communication.

The directness of this model makes us believe that this is enough to understand communication. The model suggests that one party, the ”sender”, has a ”message” that they transmit to another party, the ”recipient”. By the terms of this model, if the message is intact, the transfer is complete and therefore the communication was a success. However, let us put this to the test and see if we can consider communication in such simple terms. 

In this model, the sender has put no thought to the method of communication of the message. For example, they say out loud "Kailangan ko ng tulong". This is just transmitted, with no thought to how this will be received or by what means it will be communicated.

As we know the message sent was "Kailangan ko ng tulong" which translates as "I need help". Is this a good message? Need help with what? Why do you need help? It is an emergency or you just would like some assistance with a task? 

This model has placed a large burden on the receiver to pick up, translate, and then interpret the message correctly. If they are far away, or expecting a written message, will they even hear the message. If not, has communication even taken place?


A Reflective Communication Model

When communicating, it is important to consider the methods of communication as well as the actual message. The sender needs to consider the receiver and how they are going to interpret the information and, just as critically, how they are to signal that they have understood. In taking this approach, we end up with a much more reflective model of communication.

The comprehensive communication model.

Encoding

The sender considers the language used, ensuring the message can be understood by the intended recipient.

Message

The message is clear and precise, leaving no room for interpretation or misunderstandings.

Channel

The sender considers the method of communication such as radio or email to communicate the message in a way the the recipient is equipped to receive the message.

Decoding

Having recieved the message, the recipient must check that they understand what has been sent so there is no confusion. 

Feedback

The recipient sends confirmation of the received message, which reaffirms to the sender that the message has been transmitted effectively and understood.

In an ideal world, this would work every time because the message has been clearly considered, transmitted in an appropriate way, understood, and then confirmation given back to the sender. 


Interference and "Noise"

Various levels of noise or disturbance can occur within and in between every box in the model.

Possible Sources for Disturbance

To minimize the impact of sources of misinterpretation, or disturbances, a shared language plays a very important role. This course deals with communication using such a shared language, a simplified English (or a subset of English) called Maritime English. The channels we will focus on are limited to radio communications and face-to-face interactions, but the latter with the support of body language. Let’s explore possible disturbances to radio versus face-to-face communication. 

Radio Communication

The Technical Element 

  • A disturbance within the system.
  • Malfunction of equipment.
  • Poor propagation (≈transfer) conditions.
  • External noise.
  • Environmental interferences (macro-level).

The Human Element 

  • Incompatible Maritime English competence between sender & recipient.
  • Accents/dialects.
  • Neglecting Radio Regulations.
  • Ethnic-cultural interferences.
  • Error in operating the equipment.
  • Deficiencies in education/training.
  • Emotiv-psychic stress.
  • Environmental interferences (micro-level).

Source: The IMO Standard Maritime Communication Phrases – Refreshing the Memories to Refresh Motivation (Prof. Dr Peter Trenkner, Wismar University, Dept. of Maritime Studies Germany).

Decrees such as VHF Radio Regulations are essential to handle many of the disturbances that can occur in radio communication. Technical disturbances, like noise and distortion, are met by regulations such as formalized turn-taking, closed-loop communication (you will learn more on that soon), and tools for orally spelling numbers and letters so that they can be distinguished even over a weak link (= poor propagation). 

The seemingly straightforward message above – I need help! – can suffer badly from technical disturbance. The receiver on a noisy and static connection may ask herself, ”why call out that you need kelp, the sea is full of it?”

Human sources for disturbance over radio communication, such as stress or deficiencies in language skills or pronunciation, are met by providing a shared set of message markers and procedures that can be practised and rehearsed. This will be explored in the following lessons.

Face-to-Face Communication

The Technical Element 

  • Noise.
  • Distance between communicators.
  • Environmental interferences (macro-level).

The Human Element 

  • Incompatible Maritime English competence between sender & recipient or vice versa (p ≠ q).
  • Accents/dialects.
  • Ethnic-cultural interferences.
  • Deficiencies in education/training.
  • Emotiv-psychic stress.
  • Environmental interferences (micro-level).

Source: The IMO Standard Maritime Communication Phrases – Refreshing the Memories to Refresh Motivation (Prof. Dr Peter Trenkner, Wismar University, Dept. of Maritime Studies Germany).

Maritime English, and specifications such as the SMCP, address all oral communication (face-to-face or via other channels) at sea in a somewhat similar way that VHF Radio Regulations do. In that sense, it can be helpful to regard face-to-face communication as radio communication to avoid misunderstandings. 

Communication is a shared responsibility. Illustration: Annika Modigh.

Communication Is a Shared Responsibility

In work-life communication, the responsibility of being understood and helping understand is shared. It is essential to take the other party’s view – is the message I am “sending” clear? Perhaps, I can express myself in a more direct and easy-to-understand way. It is equally important to ask and ask again if something seems uncertain. There are even formal ways of doing so, which we will explore later on in this course. Let’s stress this one more time:

Be sure to raise your voice if you don’t understand, or if any disturbance makes it challenging to be sure of what is said to you. The lives of people and the well-being of our environment may depend on you doing so.

That the responsibility is shared results in that highly skilled or native English speakers, have to adjust or “downsize” their vocabulary to ensure successful communication. At the same time, the shared responsibility puts extra weight on not as proficient speakers to practice their skills and take advantage of the limitations of Maritime English being a standardisation and simplification of language.