Oral Communication Strategies Quiz

Oral Communication in Context: Communication Strategies

• Learning Competency: Engage in communicative situations using acceptable, polite, and meaningful strategies.
• Topic Control: A communication strategy that keeps the conversation focused on one central idea. This benefits both the speaker and the listener.

Topic Control Example

• A main speaker introduces a topic/message while others contribute ideas for the discussion.

Topic Definition

• Topic refers to the main idea or point of a text or speech (specific or general).

Two Types of Topics

• Sentence topic: Specific to the main idea of a single sentence.
• Discourse topic: Refers to the overall topic of a conversation.

Topic Control Strategies

• Main speaker uses statements like "let's focus on..." or "let's discuss..." to maintain the conversation's topic
• Main speaker uses statements like "as I was saying..." or "going back to..." to return to an original topic
  • Participants should be mindful of verbal cues used by the speaker.

Guidelines for Topic Control

• Clearly introduce the scope and context of the topic.
• Explain the reason for limiting the discussion.
• Be attentive to the speaker's verbal cues.

Topic Shifting

• Definition: Changing the direction of a conversation. This is done suddenly from one topic to another.
• Purpose: Allows the speaker to move the conversation in a new direction.
• Common situations for topic shifting:
  • When there is silence.
  • When the current topic is unfamiliar to the speaker or uninteresting to them.
  • When a speaker wants to talk about a related subject or idea instead.

Ways to shift a topic

• Speaking topically: Listener notices phrases from speaker's last statement and the idea develops along the same lines as the topic.
• Speaking on the topic: Listener focuses on a word, but the introduced idea may not correlate with the topic.

Guidelines for Topic Shifting

• Use transitional signals to link the new topic to the current one.
• Emphasize when shifting is due to clarification or elaboration.
• Establish unity of ideas by shifting to different but related topics in communication.

Violations in Communication Situations

• Definition: Actions that disrupt or cause misunderstandings during conversation.
• Examples:
  • Grabbing the floor: Interruption by one participant while another's turn is not over.
  • Overlapping: Simultaneous speaking from two or more participants.
  • Hogging the floor: Speaker continues speaking without giving others chances to join or take over the discussion.
  • Being silent (dead air): No one speaks or wants to take over the discussion
  • Difficulty in Speaking, Hearing, or Understanding: Issues with articulation, using incorrect words, incorrect listener comprehension, trouble understanding the speaker.

Causes and Effects of Violations:

• Personal Aggrandizement: One individual tries to look better by interfering with others' remarks or turns.
• Social Pressure: Speaker goes beyond their role due to expectations and engages in inappropriate actions such as interrupting or speaking over someone else.
• Lack of Confidence: Hesitation to speak or express ideas due to speaker's self-doubt.
• Lack of Knowledge: Lack of clarity when speaking, unable to engage meaningfully with others.

Importance of Fixing Violations

• Understanding violations allows participants to identify them and find solutions to communication breakdowns.

Repair and Termination

• Repair: Fixing a communication problem.
• Termination: Ending a conversation.

Types of Repair

• Self-initiated self-repair (Speaker fixes the problem)
• Other-initiated self-repair (Someone else intervenes and the speaker fixes the problem)
• Self-initiated other-repair (Speaker notices a problem but someone else fixes it)
• Other-initiated other-repair (Different individual notices a problem and fixes it for the speaker)

Guidelines for Repair/Termination

• Recognize the violation.
• Shift back to the main topic.
• Ask leading questions (to let others know the topic is back on track).
• End the conversation through a break, rescheduling, or using statements that signal the interaction's end.

Politeness and Consideration

• How to show politeness and consideration when changes affect others (in conversations).

Test your understanding of communication strategies, focusing on topic control in discussions. This quiz will help you engage in communicative situations with appropriate and meaningful strategies. Explore different types of topics and learn how to maintain a focused conversation.