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FAA-H-8083-9B, Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Effective Communication

The elements of communication, the four barriers that cause misunderstanding, and how instructors develop listening, questioning, and instructional skills.

Read the chapter in the FAA PDFGo to the quiz

Chapter summary

Chapter 4 explains that technical knowledge is not enough: an instructor needs the ability to communicate it. Communication is effective when the idea received by the learner is similar to the idea the instructor transmitted, and it is a two-way process. The process has three dynamically related elements: the source, the symbols used to compose and transmit the message, and the receiver. The source depends on feedback from the receiver to tailor the message, and also gives the receiver feedback that reinforces desired responses. Praise builds self-confidence, while negative feedback should be given in private, as a nonjudgmental description of actual performance.

The effectiveness of a source depends on the ability to select and use language the receiver understands, on what the communicator reveals about self-image and attitude, and on speaking from accurate, up-to-date, and stimulating material. Symbols are oral, visual, or tactile codes, perceived through visual, auditory, or kinesthetic channels, and using a variety of channels helps gain and hold attention. To communicate well, the instructor also needs to understand three characteristics of the receiver: abilities, attitudes, and experiences. Aviation learners are usually motivated adults who bring prior knowledge, life experience, and decision-making skills.

The handbook identifies four barriers to effective communication. Lack of common experience is probably the greatest single barrier, because words are only stimuli and carry meaning only when the learner has experience with what they refer to. Confusion between the symbol and the symbolized object occurs when a word is mistaken for what it represents. Overuse of abstractions leaves learners picturing different things, so concrete, specific terms are better. External factors, which may be physiological, environmental, or psychological, also interfere. Interference can disrupt, truncate, or add to a message, and additional feedback and confirmation reduce its effects.

Communication skills do not occur automatically; they are developed through experience, beginning with role playing during instructor training and continuing through actual instruction. The chapter connects role playing to scenario-based training and advises instructors to teach what they know well, to use personal experience with restraint, and to make sure learners know both how and why something is done. Good instructors work at listening and teach learners to listen, including listening for main ideas, avoiding daydreaming, and taking useful notes. Focused, open-ended questions, along with paraphrasing and perception checking, confirm that instructor and learner understand things the same way.

Main topics

  • The three basic elements of communication: source, symbols, and receiver
  • Feedback in both directions between instructor and learner
  • Sensory channels: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic
  • Receiver characteristics: abilities, attitudes, and experiences
  • The four barriers to effective communication
  • Physiological, environmental, and psychological external factors
  • Interference with a message and how to reduce it
  • Role playing and scenario-based training in developing communication skills
  • Listening skills for instructors and learners
  • Questioning techniques, paraphrasing, and perception checking

Key terms

Source
The sender, speaker, writer, encoder, transmitter, or instructor in the communication process.
Symbols
Simple oral, visual, or tactile codes, such as words, gestures, and facial expressions, used to compose and transmit a message.
Receiver
The listener, reader, decoder, or learner to whom the message is directed. Effective communication has taken place when the receiver understands and changes behavior according to the intent of the source.
Lack of common experience
Probably the greatest single barrier to effective communication. Communication is effective only to the extent that the experiences of the participants are similar.
Confusion between the symbol and the symbolized object
A barrier that results when a word is confused with what it is meant to represent, as when calling an aviation maintenance technician a mechanic calls up the wrong image.
Abstraction
A word that is general rather than specific and stands for an idea that cannot be directly experienced. Overuse of abstractions is a barrier to communication.
Concrete words
Words or terms that refer to objects people can relate directly to their own experience, specifying an idea that can be perceived or a thing that can be visualized.
External factors
Barriers outside the instructor's control, including physiological, environmental, and psychological elements, that the instructor should consider and mitigate where possible.
Interference
Disruption, truncation, or addition to a message somewhere in the communication sequence. Additional feedback and confirmation reduce its harmful effects.
Role playing
A method of learning in which a person is given a general description of a situation and applies new skill or knowledge to perform a role, such as an instructor playing the learner for an instructor applicant.
Scenario-based training (SBT)
An approach that lets learners understand and then apply their knowledge by participating in realistic scenarios, moving from theory to practical application.
Listening
Hearing with comprehension: interpreting what is heard, processing it to a level of understanding, and relating it to the task at hand.
Open-ended question
A question, often beginning with why or how, that encourages a full, meaningful answer using the learner's own knowledge and perceptions.
Closed-ended question
A question that encourages a short or single-word answer, such as yes or no, and tends to evaluate understanding only at the rote level.
Paraphrasing
Restating what the learner's statement meant to the instructor so the learner can correct or expand on it.
Perception checking
Stating the perceptions the instructor has of the learner's behavior so the learner can clarify them. It gets to the feelings of the learner.

Revision quiz

10 questions. Pick an answer to see whether it is right and why.

Answered 0 of 10
  1. 1.What are the three basic elements of the communication process described in the handbook?
  2. 2.Which barrier does the handbook describe as probably the greatest single barrier to effective communication?
  3. 3.An approach is going badly and the instructor tells the learner to "take appropriate measures." According to the handbook, what would be a better instruction, and why?
  4. 4.Which three characteristics of receivers does the handbook say an instructor needs to understand?
  5. 5.A maintenance learner's safety wire installation is not acceptable. How does the handbook recommend the instructor deliver this negative feedback?
  6. 6.Which statement about open-ended and closed-ended questions is consistent with the handbook?
  7. 7.An aviation maintenance technician is introduced as a "mechanic," and listeners picture someone working on an automobile. Which barrier to communication does this illustrate?
  8. 8.Engine noise in a light training aircraft makes it hard for the learner to hear the instructor. How does the handbook classify this barrier, and what solution does it suggest?
  9. 9.An instructor tells a learner, "You seem uneasy whenever we practice stalls," so the learner can confirm or correct that impression. Which technique is the instructor using?
  10. 10.According to the handbook, what reduces the potential harmful effects of interference in communication?

This page is a study aid written from Aviation Instructor's Handbook (FAA-H-8083-9B), Chapter 4. The handbook is the authoritative source; read the full chapter in the official FAA PDF.

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