UNIT 7 Speaking Skills of a Tour Guide PDF

UNIT 7- SPEAKING SKILLS OF A TOUR GUIDE At the end of this chapter, you are expected to: 1. Describe the qualities of a successful speaker. 2. Explain the advantages of a good posture. 3. Enumerate the importance of eye contact as a speaking technique. 4. Explain the meaning of...

UNIT 7- SPEAKING SKILLS OF A TOUR GUIDE At the end of this chapter, you are expected to: 1. Describe the qualities of a successful speaker. 2. Explain the advantages of a good posture. 3. Enumerate the importance of eye contact as a speaking technique. 4. Explain the meaning of pitch, resonance, and volume. 5. Discuss the common annoying habits of speakers. 6. Describe the proper use of microphone QUALITIES OF A SUCCESSFUL SPEAKER a. Body Language- The body is an effective communicator with a language of its own. Body language which includes posture, movements, gestures, eye contact and dress has a greater force than the spoken word. b. Posture- posture shows much about a person’s self-esteem, health and level of interest in his surroundings. Tense, stiff posture is as unappealing as a slouched posture. c. Body movement and gestures- gestures such as the movement of the body, face and hands are strong communication tools. Nervous moments and unnatural gestures can diminish the trust people have in a guide. Repetitive movements can be very distracting. d. Eye contact- eye contact is one of the most important speaking techniques. Making an eye contact to many is difficult to learn. However, once mastered, eye contact becomes an energizing tool for a speaker because it gives immediate feedback and supports. e. The Voice- The voice is the speaker’s most important asset. Thus, it must be cared for, Tourist usually listen to a guide’s voice for eight or do not have pleasant speaking voice. f. Pitch- pitch is the low quality of the voice. It is the musical position of speech sound. The range of the pitch of a person’s voice is fixed although it may be widened through practice. g. Resonance- resonance is the resounding quality of the voice. The most common problems with resonance are nasality and denasality. Nasality is more common among women. h. Volume- volume is the loudness of sound. The qualities of good voice volume include not only the ability to be loud the also to control volume and to produce volume without straining the vocal cords. Taking care of the voice- The voice needs continuous care especially by those who depend on their voice for their livelihood such as singers, speakers and guides. According to Dr. Lillian glass, a popular voice coach, the common irritants to the voice include smoking, excessive use of alcohol and other drugs, sleeping with the open mouth, talking loudly or too much, shouting and screaming.  Characteristic s of Vocal Style/Vocal Variety- Successful speakers have the ability to change qualities of the voice and speaking style. a. Intonation- Intonation is the melody of speech. It is personal quality that often reveals a speaker’s geographic background, personality and enthusiasm. b. Articulation- Articulation is the process of producing clear and distinct sounds. It is the manner by which a speaker utters the vowels and the consonants. c. Vocabulary- A good vocabulary is the use of basic words appropriately and not amazing people with high sounding words. d. Pronunciation- pronunciation is the sound of a person gives to words. Spoken words are sound symbols of meaning. e. Rate of speaking- Rates of speaking vary from one language to another, from one region to another within a language and from one situation to another. How to overcome annoying habits- Example of common annoying habits of speakers are; playing with hair, jewelry or clothing, persistent “um’s” and “ah’s”; jerky eye movements; overuse of slang or colloquialisms; overuse of expressions such as “you know” and “like” or superlatives like “incredible”. How to use microphones- The guide should check the microphones for volume and quality before passengers arrive. Once passengers are seated, the guide should check the sound again before departing. It is also advisable to encourage passengers to inform the guide at once if a problem with the sounds develops. Listening- A discussion of speakers skills includes the importance of listening to the audience. For the tour guide, listening includes careful attention to the questions, attention span, posture, eye movements and gesture of the group. Ending- Many guides find it difficult when or how to end since they are more inclined toward drama and talkativeness. Communication The word communication is defined as an integration of two activities i.e. generation of signals, transfer of signals farm one place to another or sending signals, receiving signals, understanding meaning of signals. Communication for a tour guide is like the spinal cord in a human body. A Tour guide cannot survive without good communication. Guide is the person who communicates hidden story behind a place, monument, market, and handcraft to the tourists. The English word 'communication' has been derived from the Latin word, 'Communicare' which means to impart or participate or to transmit. The word 'Communicare' is derived from the root 'Communis' which means to make common or to share.  Communication means to frame a message in your mind, to speak and listener listens to the message and interprets in the brain. So, it is a process which passes on some information from speaker to listener. Communication is complete when speaker speaks (what he wants) and listeners understand (the same message). We are incomplete without communication. Communication is the backbone of tourism and travel industry. Without communication we cannot think of any activity n tourism. Right from designing of a tour package to completion of tour, communication is involved in every step. A tour guide must have good idea about communication. He must also have good command for better communication. Toru guides must practice verbal and non-verbal communication. He must understand gesture, tone, and lingual, and posture, verbal, formal and informal communication. Communication must be given weight during training of a tour guide. Toru guide must also learn the use of icons and their meaning. Tour guides must create a good content for the destinations they are visiting quite often on tour packages. They must practice meet and greet exercises with the tourists. They must know how to handle a big group using gestures, how to display confidence in front of tourist, how to handshake, how to gather and disburse people at the destination. A tour guide must also learn to write formal letters, e-mails, small messages, texting over electronic media. He must also learn English and other major languages they are concerned with. If your company is dealing with French group, you must also learn French and non-verbal communications of people of that country. Good hand writing used to improve communication between travel company and tour guide. Communication can be improved by rehearsing regularly. Medium of communication Medium means channel or system of communication between sender and receiver. It is the means by which information is transmitted from speaker (i.e. tour guide) to the listener (i.e. tourists). It can be divided into two classes’ physical media and mechanical medium. Physical medium It means channels where the person speaking can be seen or heard by the group members or tourists. Here, tourists not only hear the message, he can see or feel body language also and feel the climate of tourist place/ monument/ site. In majority of situations tourists expect physical communication with the tour guide. Mechanical medium In this type of communication medium is mechanical. It means written or electronic channels. Examples of mechanical mediums are: a. E-Mails b. Letters c. New Letter d. Travel brochures e. Billboard f. Intranet g. SMS h. Social Media for example: FaceBook, WhatsApp etc. Communication in Tour Guiding A tour guide job is based on communication only. Communication is a process, which requires a huge collection of abilities in relational handling, tuning in, watching, talking, addressing, investigating, motions, and assessing empowers joint effort and cooperation. Communication is the backbone of any activity in tourism and travel trade. Without communication, we cannot complete the task. Communication synergies speed of any activity. A tour guide must have good verbal and non-verbal communication. Verbal communication helps in commentary making and non-verbal communication is useful for communication with the travel agency. Communication also deals with the era of signs, exchange of signs cultivate one place to another or sending signals, getting signals, understanding significance of signs. A tour guide must know meaning of symbols, icons found at many places. A tour guide is an individual who imparts story behind (related to) a place, landmarks, markets, and handcrafts to the tourists/ visitors. The word communication is related to the word impart (it intends to share). Classification of communication There are many channels of communication. Channel means medium. These channels are: Verbal and Non-verbal  1. Verbal What is verbal communication? Verbal communication means message conveyed through the voice from sender to receiver. It depends on voice, pitch, rhythm, volume and way of speaking. Most of the messages/ information are conveyed verbally in travel agencies, hotels, monuments, railway stations, airports. For example: you must be familiar with railway station announcement system or announce at airport. If information is the clearly audible and understand by the passenger, there are chances that passengers will not be able to catch the train or flight. One-way communication A message is passed one from sender to receiver is one-way communication. One-way communication is used when authorities pass on the message to a group of people. You must be familiar with travel channels in TV, these channels are one-way communication. E-mail is a one-way communication. The Receiver has time to think and respond in one-way communication. Two-way communication If there is a message from one side and simultaneous receiver is also responding, it is two way communications. Communication trough telephone, mobile is two way communications. Receiver has to respond immediately to two way communication. Message is acknowledged in two way communication. Two way communications is fast, reliable. 2. Non-verbal communication Verbal means speaking. Communication in which we communicate without speaking is non-verbal communication. Non-verbal communication is very important for day to day life. It has immense less significance in tourism and travel industry. For example: folding hands to welcome the tourist in place of saying Namaste is non-verbal communication. It includes eye to eye contact, handshake, winking etc. Speech (verbal communication) also contains non-verbal segments known as paralanguage, e.g. musicality, emphasis, beat, and stress. It impacts communication most at the instinctive level and develops trust. In like way, formed works fuse nonverbal segments, for instance, handwriting style, spatial strategy of words and the use of emoticons to pass on feelings. Nonverbal communication delineates the systems of passing on a sort of information as non-semantic depictions. Instances of nonverbal communication consolidate haptic communication, chromatic communication, signals, non-verbal communication, outward appearances, eye to eye connection, and how one dress. Tourists coming from faraway places cannot understand spoken words (if there is different language and that language speaking guide is not available), so here non-verbal communication is more powerful. Nonverbal communication furthermore relates to objective of a message. There are many reasons to justify that why non-verbal communication expects a vital part in communication: a. Non-verbal communication is present everywhere. b. They are fused into every single communication show. To have indicated communication, all non-verbal channels, for example, the body, go up against, voice, appearance, touch, partition, timing, and other environmental forces must be secured in the midst of eye to eye affiliation. c. Created communication can similarly have non-verbal qualities. Messages and web visits empower individual's the contrasting option to change content literary style shades, stationary, emoticons, and capitalization with a particular ultimate objective to get non-verbal prompts into a verbal medium. d. Non-verbal communication is multifunctional. e. Many particular non-verbal diverts are secured meanwhile in communication acts, and empower the likelihood for synchronous messages to be sent and got. f. Non-verbal communication may outline a broad vernacular structure. g. Smiling, crying, coordinating, stroking, and glaring are non-verbal practices that are used and grasped by tourists/ travelers (any individual) paying little regard to nationality. h. Non-verbal signs allow the most major kind of communication, when verbal communication is not effective in view of vernacular obstructions. Posture and movement Posture and movement of a person tells/ implicates number of things. It is a kind of informal communication. Your movement defines your confidence level. You must also know personal distances to be kept keeping in mind cross cultural issues. Tour guides’ body language and posture provides important information to supplement words. Facial Expressions Being a tour guide, we must welcome our guest with Namaste and smile. If tourists do not understand the meaning of Namaste, but, he can understand by your smiling face that you are welcoming him. Facial expressions are very important in the tourism industry. Tourists understand your feeling through your facial expressions. Our face is very expressive. It can communicate countless emotions without speaking or saying a single word. Facial expressions for happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, disgust etc. are almost same in every culture. It is valuable for a tour guide to use an appropriate facial expression. Emoticons are used in social media in place of facial expressions in real time situation. Gestures The Gestures implicate your focus area and what you wish to point out. Gesture is a form of non-verbal communication and non-vocal form of communication in which bodily action communicate a message. It is used either in place of in conjunction with speech. Being a tour guide, you must know hand gestures and other body actions. Hand gestures make group members (members of tour group) to listen you. You should know how to make your gestures purposeful. You must be careful and aware cross culturally. Gestures are attention directing, requesting information, reference specifying, supporting, answering questions in yes or no. You can use hand gestures for: a. Listing b. You are determined c. Everything d. Listen up e. Small, medium, large f. Let me tell you g. Just a part h. Me i. Growth j. You k. This and that l. Come together m. Its’ just go n. I am not hiding anything o. You listen to me p. Stop q. We Verbal communication Verbal communication is communication through spoken words. Verbal communication is the talked or made transport out of a message. Verbal communication is the use of sound and words to express something. It is the opposite of expression through manners and/ or gestures. For example: saying Namaste to tourists is a verbal communication. It can also be defined as sharing the information with clients/ tourists using speech is a verbal communication. Toru Commentary is a form of verbal communication. Tourists easily understand spoken words, so verbal communication is very powerful. Good or effective verbal communication depends on a number of factors. These factors are:- 1. Clarity of speech If you are guiding at any tourism destination. Your speech/ commentary must be clear. Otherwise, tourist will not understand what you are saying or what do you want to say or express. Pronounce every word clearly (as probably tourist is from some other place/ state/ region/ country). Tourist might be having some other language for example: Malayalam, French, and Spanish etc. 2. Cool and Calm Remain cool and calm while speaking to the tourists. If you are cool and calm, you will be able to decide what to speak and what not to speak. You will be able to speak in better way. A cool and calm person can speak with patience and deliver the message properly. 3. Focused Talk to the point. As you have limited time to interact with the tourists, be focused and should know what to speak. Speak to the point. If you are focused, you can give more examples related to tourism, tourist place, traditions, rituals, festivals, monuments, peoples, political scenario, weather, geography etc. A focused tour guide can easily satisfy tour group members. (https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/verbal- communication.html accessed on 30th July’2017) 4. Diction Diction choosing words. Diction makes a lot of difference in commentary making of a good tour guide is the style of speaking or, the way you select words in your commentary and general speaking with the group member cerate difference. 5. Clear linguistic Linguistic is the study of language and its forms. It is about structure and use of psychology of language. 6. Tone Tone means vocal sound of a person with reference to the quality, strength and pitch; attitude of a place or writing. It gives strength of firmness to your voice. 7. Volume A tour guide must have habit to speak in the voice, which can be heard by all group members. You can use cordless phone or collar mice ( if the tourist place is overcrowded). 8. Rate It is related to the speed of which you are speaking in front of the client or tourists. If rate is more, client will not be able to understand your words or sentences. If the rate is too slow, you will take much time to cover the topic. The Rate must be according to the tourists and their background of language. When you are reading through a side show in presentation, rate is lower than normal. Normally, we speak about 125 words per minute. Rate of speech is very important while delivering commentary to the group. It is less in the case of a group interaction and more in case of single or Fit’s. *****