Oral Communication in Context | Types of Communicative Strategies

Are you wondering on how to start a good quality conversation? Are you looking for ways on how you can improve your communication skills? Don’t worry! Communication like other skills has the different formulated strategies to enhance it. You just need time and  patience in applying these strategies that I am going to share today.

Communication strategies are not only about grammar and fluency in using one’s language. It has also something to do with your skills in creating a well chosen topic that will develop an environment of free exchange of ideas and turn taking. Without further ado, let’s talk about those strategies that we can apply whenever possible.

1. Nomination

When beginning a topic in  conversation, especially if it does not arise from a previous topic, you may start off with news inquiries and news announcements as they promise extended talk. Most importantly, keep the conversational environment open for opinions until the prior topic shuts down easily and initiates a smooth end. This could efficiently signal the beginning of a new topic in the conversation.

2. Restriction

When communicating in the classroom, in a meeting or while hanging out with you friends, you are typically given specific instructions that you must follow. These instructions confine you as a speaker and limit what you can say.

3. Turn-taking

Sometimes people are given unequal opportunities to talk because others take much time during the conversation. Turn-talking pertains to the process  by which people decide who takes the conversational floor. Giving others the chance to speak is must to remember.

4. Topic Control

Topic controls covers how procedural formality or informality affects the development of topic in conversations. For example, in meetings, you may only have a turn to speak after the chairperson directs you to do so.

5. Topic Shifting

Topic shifting, as the name suggests, involves moving from one topic to another. In other words, it is where one part of a conversation ends and where another begins.

6. Repair

Repair refers to how speakers address the problems in speaking, listening, and comprehending that they may encounter in a conversation. For example, if everybody in the conversation seems to talk at the same time, give way and appreciate other’s initiative to set the conversation back to its topic.

7. Termination

Termination refers to the conversation participants’ close initiating expressions that end a topic in a conversation. Most of the time, the topic initiator takes responsibility to signal the end of the discussion as well.

These are the strategies that we can apply in our daily conversation. You can’t master this in a short period of time but it’s better to have this in mind whenever possible.

If you have other communication strategies that are working with you so far, feel free to share it here.