ORAL COMMUNICATION

Oral communication means communication by word of mouth. This is the primary

form of human communication. It is the use of spoken language that gave humans a
great advantage over the animals.

• Advantages of Oral Communication

1. It is a learnable and improvable human activity.

2. It is a more accurate reflection of thought and attitude of the speaker.

3. It creates and sustains warm, interpersonal relationships.

4. It combines sight and sound, thus enabling participants to benefit from both
verbal and non-verbal stimulus.
 5. It allows for instantaneous exchange of ideas, information, opinions,
feelings and attitudes.

6. It enables participants to seek immediate clarification whenever in doubt of

the meaning being negotiated.

7. It provides for instantaneous feedback, thereby making it possible for the

par- ticipants to assess the success, or failure, of their communication
efforts and so decide whether or not to modify their needs of
communication interaction.

• Disadvantages of Oral Communication

1. It lacks permanence.

2. It does not allow participants’ thought to crystalise, thus resulting in impre-

cise communication and even outright errors which could be avoided in
writ- ten communication.

3. There is possibility of distortion of meaning.

4. It can easily be denied.

5. It has little weight as contractual evidence.

2.2. Verbal messages and misunderstandings

Misunderstandings are a fact of life. The process of encoding and decoding isn’t
perfect. Because the most basic language problems involve misunderstandings, we
will begin by looking at how to prevent this type of miscommunication.

1. Use unequivocal terms to avoid misunderstandings Equivocal terms are

those with two different meanings that are both acceptable and common.
Most equivocal misunderstanding arises in casual conversation, where
statements seem perfectly clear until you discover that others can interpret
them differ- ently. Some equivocal problems can be avoided if you double
check your understanding of terms that might be interpreted more than one
way if you agree to meet on Wednesday, mention the date to ensure there is
clarity.

2. Use lower level abstraction when clarity is necessary Any object or idea can
be described at various levels, some very general and others quite specific
low-level abstraction are specific concrete statements that refer directly to object or
events that can be observed. On the other hand, high-level abstrac- tions cover a
broader range of possible objects or events without describing them in much detail.
High- level abstractions can create problems because they are often subject to a mode
variety of interpretations. For example, if you tell your boss the job will take a little
longer, you need to clarify how much longer, hours, days, weeks?
Another type of ambiguous language that causes problems is the use of relative words
such as soon, often, large and short that have meaning only in relation to other
(unspecified terms). Telling your supervisor you will do the memo soon can cause
problems.

3. Use slang with caution Casual slang-laden speech may be fine when
convers- ing with friends, family or other informal communication
situations. But it can create the wrong impression with bosses, teachers etc.
some slang may simply not be understandable to some people.

4. Use jargon judiciously Every profession has its own specialized vocabulary
called jargon. In many cases, jargon serves a useful purpose. First, it can
save time. It’s quicker to use a short term in place of the longer definition
of a complex idea. Second, jargon can be used to evaluate people’s
expertise on a subject. If your goal is to explain yourself, the ideal mixture
may be a combination of clear language sprinkled with a bit of professional
jargon.

2.2.1. Working on your verbal communication

As you set out to communicate verbally, you will be more successful if you use words
that have the same meaning to the person you are communicating to. For you to
improve your verbal communication, you will need to consider the following:

1. What do you want to say? When you are involved in one-on-one communi-
cation, you often have a chance to clear up misunderstandings. You can tell if the
other person is confused, annoyed and so on from their facial expression,
body movement or other one-verbal cues. When you are talking with a big
group, it may not be so easy to clear up misunderstandings. In order to clear
up any confusion, especially in public speaking, you must consider what it is
you want to say. Speakers who do not know exactly what they want to say end up
confusing their audience.

2. How do you want to say it? Once you have figured out what you want to say,
you must choose the language you are going to use. It’s also important for you
to determine to what extent you have to define the terms you have used. If you
are giving a speech about justice, for example, you have to consider the
language you use very carefully. This is because justice is an abstract word as
well as an emotional one. When you use the language of abstraction and
emotion, you must be careful to define your language from your point of view
as it relates to the subject you are talking about.

3. To whom are you talking When you seek a specific response from a listener,
your words have to have meaning within the person’s identity. For example, if
you are talking about the beach to a person from Northern Kenya, he is likely
to have little idea of how it feels to be on the beach even though he may
understand the concept intellectually. Some knowledge of the listeners’
interests, experiences and expectations will help a speaker to choose words
and arrange ideas in the way that will be most effective.

4. Metamessages Metamessage is the meaning a part from what the actual word
expresses. Sometimes, you might have had a conversation that made you feel
uneasy – the words all sounded right, but there was something also going on.
Metamesages take many forms. For example, at a meeting of branch managers
countrywide held in Mombasa, the CEO introduces all the man- agers except,
the Kitale branch manager. The manager assumes that this was a simple
oversight. He was wrong because he was fired the following month. Language
is filled with metamessages and you have to listen for the kind of talk and
understand its meaning if you are going to have accurate communi- cation.

2.2.2. Language choices

Although you are often told that you should use clear and precise language, you might
not know how to go about it. Since It’s impossible to lay down strict rules that govern the
choice of language for all occasions and all circumstances, the discussion
here is limited to four important aspects of langue choice: clarity, power, vividness
and morality.

1. Clarity Sometimes our meaning is unclear because our sentence structure is

faulty. We might be able to pass messages even when the clarity of the issue
is unclear but some communication instances demand for clarity more than
others. If you are making a formal speech you may need to be as precise as
possible because the audience may not get an opportunity to clarify your
point. Avoid Jargon, slang or other complicated words that may only be
understood by a specific group rather than the general population.

2. Powerful talk. Powerful talk is the talk that comes directly to the point- talk
that does not use hesitation. People who engage in powerful talk are found to
be more credible, more attractive and more persuasive. To achieve powerful
talk, you should avoid hedges and qualifiers (such as ‘I guess’ and ‘kind of’)
eliminate hesitation forms (such as ‘um’ and ‘you know’). You also need to
stay away from tag questions (such as isn’t it? Wouldn’t it?).

3. Vividness By creating an experience for the receivers of your messages, you

can often make them feel what you felt, a technique for making our language
more vivid. Vividness also comes from unique forms of speech. When we say
language is vivid. We often mean that someone had found a new way of
saying old things.

4. Moral choices We can cause considerable damage to others by choosing the

wrong words. Language choices can also influence people’s perceptions of
themselves. Insulting words can reduce an individual to a mere trait (calling
someone fat or ‘four eyes’) or even (pig or dog). We need to remember to
make moral choices in our use of language. Many of the choices we make not
only determine how are present ourselves to others but also decide the nature
of our relationships in the years to come.

2.2.3. Improving your verbal style

1. Increasing your vocabulary. When you hear a new word they try understand-
ing it in its context. As you listen to politicians or advertisers speak, you can
pick up on new words that will help build your vocabulary. When you
increase your vocabulary, you increase your chances of getting your intended
message across to your listener. The more words you have at your command, the
more precise you will be.

2. Adapting your oral language As you talk to people, become conscious of them
as particular individuals for whom you need to adapt your message. Note the
language environment in which your conversation is taking place and make
the adjustments that are saying as this will increase your sensitivity to other
people as well as your awareness of language choice and use.

3. Breaking bad habits Although someone may tell you that you are making
languages mistakes such as poor grammar, you will probably find it hard to
correct yourself because you are so accustomed to talking this way. If you are
also in an environment where mistakes are constantly being mad it is even
more difficult. The only way to correct such mistakes is to have someone
constantly point them out.

Example ✐. Give 5 advantages and 5 disadvantages of the television as a means of

communication in Kenya.
Solution:
ADVANTAGES
-Gives a clear picture thus creating a lasting impression on the audience
-The information passed is more accurate as the oral message is accompanied by
pictures
-It gives a variety of news presented by different people thus breaking monotony.
-Major business target markets watch television more than any other means of com- munication.
-It is more economic as a large audience can be addressed at the same time.
DISADVANTAGES
-It is very expensive.
-The coverage is limited to the urban setup.
-Its use is limited to those who can hear and see altogether.
-Some of the images shown can be of adverse effect especially on the youth.
-The images of the products being advertised can be exaggerated making informa-
tion unreliable.
-Not everybody can afford a Television set.