How important is oral communication skill? It is one of the primary skills a person should have or develop. Unless your words translate your thoughts and ideas effectively to the listeners, how can you express yourself to the world? Your thoughts, intellections, and persuasions are part of your personality. Impaired or ambiguous communication creates wrong impression about you on others. One thing that is worth mentioning in this context is that communication is not one sided. Communication is a process that involves expressing your views and also listening to others. Effective communication, regardless of the language and context, is important to maintain healthy relationships, both personal and professional. Imagine how the process of learning would go on if the teacher did not have effective communication skills? Can you imagine a workplace wherein a manager is not able to communicate what he really wants from his group? Let us not forget that communication is not just speaking, but is sum of your body gestures, facial expressions, and also pitch and tone of your voice. Check out this write-up to know more on how you can spike up your oral communication skills.
Oral Communication Skills
Working On The Basics
-
Learn to distinguish between contrasting sounds, consonants and vowels. Concentrate on the phonic qualities of words. It is also important to identify the differences between contrasting word stress patterns and tones for better pronunciation.
-
Learn to distinguish the intonation between questions, answers, command, request, etc. As mentioned earlier, modulation is very important in oral communication. You should also keep a tab on natural rhythm and accent of your language.
-
To develop good communication skills, you should have a fair idea about basic vocabulary and common connectors.
-
It is very important that you have a basic understanding of the formal and informal languages and the context. You should develop a good vocabulary and should be able to understand the words in the normal speed conversation.
-
You should be able to understand the emotional nuances in the conversation and should be able to make out abstract relationship between the thoughts and ideas. It is important to have an idea about the colloquial usage and idioms of the language and you should be able to differentiate sarcasm, rudeness, politeness, etc. Make sure that your idea has a logical flow and you use the tenses properly.
Getting Along With People
-
Usage of presuppositions like again, no longer, etc. makes your conversation vivid and unambiguous. For example, when you say ‘he no longer writes poems’, you are pointing that he used to write poems earlier. You should also consider avoiding more ambiguous adverbs like ‘may’, ‘can’, etc.
-
Try to avoid double binds and stick on to positive attitudes. Contrasting opinions create emotional dilemma in the group or individuals, which takes away the interest from the conversation.
-
Giving choice can do wonders rather than giving orders. For instance, asking ‘would you like working on a new assignment?’ give the counterpart a feeling that he/she is been provided with a choice although it would an order in disguise.
-
It always helps to think from the angle of a listener. People usually have short-spanned attention. So, to make your conversation more effective, try to deliver it in short modules, preferably embellished with metaphors and analogies, to which people can relate faster. This makes your conversation lively.
-
Positive attitudes are part of good communication. Usually people do not like negatives. For instance, instead of using ‘this is not the way to do this’, you can use ‘try doing it like this’. You are communicating the same thing but in a constructive way.
-
Importantly, listen to what others say. Unless you show interest in what others say, they will lose interest in what you say. Communication should be mutual, not one sided.
Developing better oral communication skill is not a big task if you follow some basic rules and put some extra effort to get along with the natural style of the language. Also, check out personalitytutor.com to know more on how you can spike up your oral communication skills.
