ORAL COMMUNICATION

ORAL COMMUNICATION

Oral communication stands for words uttered through the mouth and excludes nasal resonance. It encompasses both speaking and listening. Spoken words are powerful weapons for influencing others to accomplish objectives. Powerful speakers can inspire or dispirit, build or relax tensions, incite quarrels or make friends, turn hostile group in to a supportive one and vice versa, stir people to revolt or become docile, persuade people to take long march or stay at home etc.

A good speech should have clarity, be informal, personal and conversational. It should be concrete, vivid, brief, interesting, jovial and humorous. A good speaker is honest, committed to his subject, has sense of responsibility to audience and commitment to fellow speakers. He is balanced, keeps his cool and has a sense of humour and leadership. He is focused, intense, enthusiastic and spirited.

Oral communications result in immediate interchange of opinions, instant feedback and participation by all present. Of the three basic styles of oral communications – submissive, aggressive and assertive, assertive style is considered to be the best as it is the most positive. Such persons are open to new ideas and willing to accept changes if needed.

It is said that one is as good as his thought – positive thoughts bring in positive self-recognition and self-confidence and negative thoughts result in negative self-confidence, submissive or aggressive behaviour. Everyone must learn to determine his style of communication and make all out efforts to change over to assertive style of communication.

A few time-tested strategies for assertive style of communication are making first good impression, clarifying / building image of the goal, making purposive statements and using language that is straight, direct from heart to heart. Other tried strategies are speaking with empathy, paraphrasing from time to time, collecting feedback while speaking and sustaining listeners‟ interest.

Individuals with assertive style of communication have high level of listening skills, are good at making new contacts, are quick in their responses and are persistent with issues while remaining flexible all the time.