Clarifying language involves restating what the speaker said to check for understanding. It ensures the listener understands correctly by resolving any confusion. Clarification reduces misunderstanding and reassures the speaker the listener wants to understand. When clarifying, suppose what is meant if unsure, ask for repetition, restate the speaker's meaning, ask for examples, and use open questions if appropriate.

1. Topic: Clarifying Language
Subject: Effective Communication Skills
BY: MUHAMMAD TALHA (BSSE 2nd)

2. In communication, clarification involves offering back to the speaker
the essential meaning, as understood by the listener, of what they have
just said.
Thereby checking that the listener's understanding is correct and
resolving any areas of confusion or misunderstanding.

3. Ensure that the listener's understanding of what the speaker has said is
correct, reducing misunderstanding.
Reassure the speaker that the listener is genuinely interested in them and is
attempting to understand what they are saying.
The purpose of clarification is to:

4. Clarification is the skill we use to ensure that we have understood the message of
the speaker in an interpersonal exchange. When using clarification follow these
guidelines to help aid communication and understanding.
1. Suppose, if you are unsure about what the speaker means.
2. Ask for repetition.
3. State what the speaker has said as you understand it, and check whether this is what they really
said.
4. Ask for specific examples.
5. Use open, non-directive questions - if appropriate.
Guidelines For Clarifying

5. UNDERSTANDING A MODEL
Most people talk in ways that make it very difficult for others to fully understand their
experience. The facts are that different people draw on very different experiences and that
words very rarely mean exactly the same thing to others that they mean to you. Four important
language patterns prevent people from really understanding each other:
1. Deletion
2. Vague pronouns
3. Vague verbs
4. Nominalizations

6. Deletion
You don’t know exactly what the speaker means, but you fill in the blanks with your
own set of assumptions. You can deal with deletions by asking for the information
that is missing. For example
Statements Questions
“I’m confused.” About what?
“I’m ready.” What are you ready to do?
“I want help. What kind of help do you want?

7. Vague Pronouns
Confusion and misinterpretation are the usual results when a speaker relies on vague
pronouns.
Statements Questions
“It’s unbelievable.” “What is unbelievable?”
“It’s unfair.” “What is unfair?”
“It’s going wrong.” “What is going wrong.”
“That’s a hard way to find happiness.” “What am I doing that makes happiness
unlikely?”

8. Vague Verbs
“I grew a lot last year,” By challenging a speaker with the question “How did you
grow last year?” you get clarification of the other person’s experience and model of
the world.
Statements
“She makes me so mad!”
“My parents pushed me push you
toward medicine?
“He just faded away.
Questions
“In what way does she make you
mad?”
“What did your parents do to
become a doctor.”
“How did he leave? Where did
he go?”

9. Nominalizations
Nominalizations are abstract nouns that give the false impression of being concrete
things or events. “The problem,” “our relationship,” “this discussion,” and “your guilt”
are examples of nominalizations.
Statements Questions
“Our relationship seems
strained.”
“How are we relating that you’re feeling
strained?”
“Work is nothing
but problems.”
“Exactly what kind of problems have
been plaguing you?”
“The day was full
of rejection.”
“How were you rejected during
the day?”

10. CHALLENGING THE LIMITS OF A MODEL
There are three important language patterns that artificially restrict your experience:
absolutes, imposed limits, and imposed values.
1.Absolutes
2.Imposed Limits
3.Imposed Values

11. Absolutes
Absolutes are overgeneralizations typified by words such as “always,” “never,” “all,”
“none,” “everyone,” and “no one.” You can challenge a speaker’s absolutes by
exaggerating them with your tone of voice and by adding even more absolutes.
Statements Questions
“Nobody cares about me.” “There’s not a single person on earth who cares
about you? Not even one?”
“I never win.” “There has never been an instance when you
won?
“She’s always brusque with me.” “She’s always brusque with you? Do you ever
recall her being cordial?”

12. Imposed Limits
Imposed limits are words or phrases that suggest you have no choice. Examples of
such words are “can’t,” “must,” “have to,” “should,” “ought,” “it’s necessary,” and “it’s
impossible.”
Statements Questions
“You must not say things like that.” “What will happen if I say things like
that to you?”
“I have to do what my boss says.” “What would happen if you didn’t do what your
boss says?”
“I can’t cook.” “What about cooking is too difficult ?

13. Imposed Values
When people state a generalization about the world, they make a judgment based
on their personal model. Essentially, they are taking values that they find appropriate
to themselves and applying them to other people.
Statements Questions
“That’s a worthless piece of junk.” “For whom is it worthless?”
“Communism is evil.” “To whom does communism seem evil?”
“Walking out was the wrong thing to do.” “For whom was walking out wrong?”

14. CHALLENGING DISTORTIONS IN A MODEL
When your personal model of the world is distorted, it cuts you off from considering
other alternatives and your experience becomes severely impoverished.
Three language patterns that distort reality
1.Cause-and effect errors
2.Mind reading
3.Presuppositions

15. Cause-and-Effect Errors
Cause-and-effect errors result from the belief that one person can cause another to
experience some emotion or inner state and that the second person has no choice
about how he or she will respond.
Statements Questions
“You make me sad.” “How did I make you sad? What am
I doing that you get sad about?”
“Your silence makes
me angry.”
“How does my silence anger you?
What is it about my silence that irritates
you?”
“The work bored me.” “What was it about the work that you.”

16. Mind Reading
Mind reading is the belief that you can know what another person is thinking or
feeling without direct communication with that person.
Statements Questions
“My coworkers think . I’m lazy.” “How do you know that your coworkers
think you’re lazy?
“My husband knows what I want.” “How do you know that your husband is
aware of what you want?”
“He only married her for her money.” “What makes you feel that he only
married her for her money?”
“Please don’t be mad at me.” “What gives you the impression that
I’m mad at you?”

17. Presuppositions
Presuppositions are parts of a statement that must be true in order for the whole
statement to be valid.
Statements Questions
“Your dog menaces my children. Either lock
up or put him to sleep.”
“How does my dog seem to menace your
children?”
“She’s not much of a mother and the children. “What does she do that indicates she’s a
poor mother?”
“I’m in serious trouble, so I need an
immediate.
In what way is the trouble serious?”

18. Thank you for your Attention
May Allah Bless You
Presentation By: Muhammad Talha (BSSE 2nd )