Models of

Oral Communication

Communicatio
n
Grade 11
Aristotle’s Model of Communication
• Aristotle was the first to take an initiative and design the
communication model.

• The great philosopher Aristotle already created this linear

model before 300 BC, placing more emphasis on public
speaking than on interpersonal communication.

• It is the speaker’s task to give a speech to the public. The role

of the audience is passive. This makes the Aristotle Model of
Communication a one-way model, from speaker to receiver.
 Aristotle’s Model of
Communication Diagram
• Aristotle argues that we should look at five elements of a
communication event to analyze how best to communicate:
speaker, speech, occasion, target audience and effect.

• According to this model, the speaker plays a key role in

communication. The speaker is the one who takes complete
charge of the communication. The sender first prepares a
content which he does by carefully putting his thoughts in
words with an objective of influencing the listeners or the
recipients, who would then respond in the sender’s desired
way.
• The speaker must analyze his audience and prepare his
speech accordingly. At the same time, he or she should
assume the right body language, as well as ensuring proper
eye contact and voice modulations.

• In order to entice the audience, blank expressions, confused

looks, and monotonous speech must be avoided at all times.
The audience must believe in the speaker’s ability to easily
put his money where his mouth is.
Example:
A politician (the speaker) gives a speech on a market
square during an election campaign (the occasion). His
goal is the win the votes of the citizens (the audience)
present as well as those of the citizens potentially watching
the speech on TV.

The people will vote (the effect) for the politician if they
believe in his views. At the same time, the way in which he
presents his story is crucial in convincing his audience.
Alexander gave brave speech to his soldiers in the war
field to defeat Persian Empire.

Speaker – Alexander
Speech – Invasion
Occasion – War
Audience – Soldiers
Effect – Defeat Persia
• The Aristotle model of communication is the widely accepted
and the most common model of communication where the sender
sends the information or a message to the receivers to influence
them and make them respond and act accordingly.

• Aristotle model of communication is the golden rule to excel in

public speaking, seminars, lectures where the sender makes his
point clear by designing an impressive content, passing on the
message to the second part and they simply respond accordingly.
Here the sender is the active member and the receiver is passive
one.
Berlo’s SMCR Model of
Communication
• David Berlo’s SMCR Model of Communication represents
the process of communication in its simplest form. The
acronym SMCR stands for Sender, Message, Channel,
and Receiver.

• Berlo’s SMCR Model of Communication (1960) describes

the different components that form the basic process of
communication because this communication tool also
emphasizes the coding and decoding of the message, it can
be used for more efficient communication.
Berlo’s SMCR Model of Communication
Diagram
Berlo’s SMCR Model of Communication includes four components that
describe the communication process. The different components in the model
are influenced by various factors.

• Sender

The sender of the message is the source who creates and sends the message to
the receiver. The source is the start of the communication process and is the
person who encodes the message.

Factors that may influence the sender are also applicable to the receiver.
Consider how the message is interpreted, for example.

Berlo’s SMCR Model of Communication identifies the following factors that

affect the source:
• Communication skills - Communication skills include:
reading, listening, speaking etc.
• Attitude - One’s attitude in relationship to the audience,
receiver and subject changes the meaning and consequence of
the message.
• Knowledge - Familiarity with the subject of the message
makes communication more effective.
• Social systems - Values, beliefs, religion and rules influence
the way in which the sender communicates the message,
alongside location and circumstances.
• Culture - Cultural differences may result in the message being
interpreted differently.
• Message

The message is the package of information or meaning that is sent

from sender to receiver. The message can be sent in various
forms, such as audio, speech, text, video or other media.

The sender of the messages always wants the receiver to interpret

the message in a certain way. The source’s intention is therefore
translated into a coded message. The receiver should understand
the message with reasonable accuracy. The message is influenced
by:
• Content - The content of the message from beginning to end.
• Elements - Elements are (non)verbal aspects, such as
gestures and signs, that may influence the message.
• Treatment - Treatment refers to the way in which the
message is sent, the message’s packaging.
• Structure - As the word suggests, the structure of the
message refers to the way in which it is structured.
• Code - The code of the message is the form in which the
message is sent. This may include text, language, video,
gestures, music, etc.
• Channel
The channel is the medium used to send the message. The medium must be able
to be picked up by the sensory system of the receiver and may therefore involve
vision, sound, smell, taste or touch. Humans have the following senses:

• Hearing
• Seeing
• Touching
• Smelling
• Tasting

Mass communication always involves technical tools, such as phones, the

Internet and television. In these cases, the transmitted information is assimilated
via vision and sound.
• Receiver

The receiver is the person who receives and subsequently decodes the
coded message. In a linear communication process, the receiver is
always located at the end.

In order to make communication as effective and smooth as possible,

Berlo’s SMCR Model of Communication assumes the receiver’s
thinking pattern must be in accordance with that of the sender.

The same factors therefore influence this component in Berlo’s SMCR

Model of Communication. After all, the receiver decodes the message
him/herself and gives it their own meaning.
Criticism of Berlo’s SMCR model of communication:
1.There is a lack of feedback. The effects are practically unknown.
2.It does not mention the barriers to communication.
3.There is no room for noise.
4.It is a rather complex model.
5.It is a linear model of communication.
6.It requires people to be on the same level for effective
communication to happen. However, that rarely happens in
everyday life.
7.The main drawback of the model is that it omits the usage of
sixth sense as a channel of communication, which is an asset to
human beings (thinking, understanding, analyzing etc.)
Shannon and Weaver Model of
Communication
• The Shannon and Weaver Model of Communication is a
mathematical theory of communication that argues that human
communication can be broken down into 6 key concepts:
sender, encoder, channel, noise, decoder, and receiver.

• It is known as the “mother of all models” because of its wide

popularity. The model is also known as ‘information theory’
or the ‘Shannon theory’ because Claude Shannon was the
main person who developed the theory.
 Shannon and Weaver
Model of Communication Diagram
• Sender - The originator of message or the information
source selects desire message
• Encoder - The transmitter which converts the message into
signals

Note: The sender’s messages converted into signals like waves

or Binary data which is compactable to transmit the messages
through cables or satellites. For example: In telephone the
voice is converted into wave signals and it transmits through
cables
• Decoder - The reception place of the signal which converts signals
into message. A reverse process of encode.

Note : The receiver converts those binary data or waves into message
which is comfortable and understandable for receiver. Otherwise receiver
can’t receive the exact message and it will affect the effective
communication between sender and receiver

• Receiver - The destination of the message from sender.

Note : Based on the decoded message the receiver gives their feed back
to sender. If the message distracted by noise it will affect the
communication flow between sender and receiver
• Noise - The messages are transferred from encoder to decoder
through channel. During this process the messages may
distracted or affected by physical noise like horn sounds,
thunder and crowd noise or encoded signals may distract in the
channel during the transmission process which affect the
communication flow or the receiver may not receive the correct
message.

Note : The model is clearly deals with external noises only which
affect the messages or signals from external sources. For example:
If there is any problems occur in network which directly affect the
mobile phone communication or distract the messages
Example:
Thomson made call to his assistant “come here I want to see you”. During his call,
noise appeared (transmission error) and his assistant received “I want” only. Again
Assistant asked Thomson (feedback) “what do you want Thomson”.

• Sender - Thomson
• Encoder - Telephone (Thomson)
• Channel - Cable
• Noise - Distraction in voice
• Reception - Telephone (Assistant)
• Receiver - Assistant.

Due to transmission error or noise, Assistant is not able to understand Thomson’s

messages.

*The noise which affect the communication flow between them.

Criticism of Shannon-Weaver Model of Communication:

1. One of the simplest model and its general applied in various communication
theories
2. The model which attracts both academics of Human communication and
Information theorist to leads their further research in communication
3. It is more effective in person-to-person communication than group or mass
audience
4. The model based on “Sender and Receiver”. Here sender plays the primary
role and receiver plays the secondary role (receive the information or passive)
5. Communication is not a one way process. If it’s behaved like that, it will
lose its strength. For example: Audience or receiver who listening a radio,
reading the books or watching television is a one way communication because
absence of feedback
6. Understanding Noise will helps to solve the various problems in
communication
Lasswell’s Model of Communication
• The Lasswell’s Model of Communication is a
framework for critiquing and deconstructing the
elements involved in mass communication. The model
asks 5 questions: Who? Said what? In which channel?
To Whom? With what effect?

• It is best known as the original ‘linear model‘ because

it conceptualizes learning as moving in only one
direction.
Lasswell’s Model of Communication
Diagram
Example
:A nightly news broadcast in the United States:
• Who: The Fox news anchor
• Said what: Criticized a democratic position on healthcare
• In which channel: On television
• To whom: The entire nation of viewers
• With what effect: Propagation of a conservative political
viewpoint
Schramm’s Model of Communication
• The Wilbur Schramm Model of Communication was suggested to explain the
flow of communication effectively. Wilbur Schramm proposed it as a
communication model that emphasizes the interactive nature of
communication. It highlights the importance of feedback and the mutual
exchange of information between the sender and receiver.

• The recipient and sender can also be one and the same. This is called intra-
personal communication. The former is called interpersonal communication.
Where several other models and theories about communication are linear in
nature, the Schramm Communication Model is circular. This means at least
two parties are required to send and receive a message. Both the sender and
the recipient have to encode and decode the message to interpret the message
correctly.
Schramm’s Model of Communication
Diagram
The Encoder or Carrier, Decoder or Listener, Interpreter, and
Message are components of the Schramm communication model.
According to this concept, information travels in both directions
between the sender and the recipient during communication. The
message is sent from the sender to the Receiver, but one model
component claims that when the Receiver sends a message back to the
sender, the roles are switched. Both the transmitter and the recipient
switch roles.

The recipient typically tries to understand what the sender is

attempting to say when information is sent. The whole method of
communication is useless if the recipient cannot understand or decode
the sender’s message.
Decoding and encoding are, therefore, two essential
components of good communication. The paradigm states that
sending a message is only half-completed until receiving
feedback from the recipient. In the past, communication
would stop when the recipient received the information, and
the flow of communication was unidirectional.

In contrast, this concept is built on a two-way communication

process in which the roles of the sender and Receiver are
switched back and forth. According to Schramm, who was
adamant about communication being a two-way process.
 The Characteristics of
Schramm’s Model of
• Source - The sender isCommunication
referred to as the message’s source because he creates
and transmits the message to the recipient. The sender’s responsible for ensuring
that the communication is legible, clear, and easy to grasp by the recipient.

• Receiver - The individual to whom messages are sent is known as the Receiver,
while the Receiver is frequently referred to as the message decoder. It is crucial
to consider several factors to ensure the recipient can decipher the message.

• Message - The message, which might be written, audio, video, or a

combination of all three, is the communication’s central idea. The
communication sent from the sender to the Receiver is the message.
• Feedback - Feedback occurs when the sender and
Receiver start exchanging information based on the input
they received. The sender needs to determine whether the
recipient has correctly absorbed the information.

• Semantic Disruption - Because of the noise, the recipient

may not understand the sender’s intended intent when
sending messages. Noise also has the potential to change
the meaning of the message.