Unit 5: Oral communication.

Elements and rules that govern oral

discourse. Frequent routines and formulas. Characteristic
strategies in oral communication.

Introduction
What is language if it is not communication? Communication is what has allowed
man to evolve and develop and it can occur through speech, music or other means.

Oral communication and conversation are a common part of our everyday lives that
we take it for granted. It would be impossible for us to go about our daily business of
interaction without being able to communicate with others.

It is not only on a personal level at which oral communication is important. When we

watch the television or listen to the radio… we are participating in an oral
communication act.

The first section of this unit looks at the different factors involved in oral
communication and examines Hymes’ model for oral communication. The second
section deals with the norms and conventions of oral discourse. Moving on to the
third section, this unit studies some typical routines and formulas used in oral
communication along with typical opening and closing sequences. The fourth section
looks at strategies used in communication and conversation. Eventually, there is the
relation of the topic with the teaching practise and the conclusions.
 1. Oral communication

1.1. General considerations

Oral communication is an interactive process between a speaker and listener or
group of listeners, in which the speaker encodes a message and the listener decodes
it in order to understand it. Also, many linguistic and extra-linguistic factors come into
play in oral communication, and the communication may take place in any number of
situations and contexts, within a theoretically unlimited number of participants.

There are factors which are common to all effective oral communication:

1. The speaker has a message which he wants to get across to his audience.
2. There is a communicative purpose to his message.
3. The language must be appropriate for the purpose and context of the
situation.

These factors are important for a teacher when planning oral communication
activities. Any communicative task should contain a message which the student
should feel the need to transmit using appropriate language for the context. A typical
example is an information gap activity in which the students work in pairs and have to
perform a complete text by asking and responding.

What is more, various levels can influence communication. The syntactic level deals
with the formal properties of the signs/signals involved in the communication. The
pragmatic level is concerned with the context and the relationships between the
participants. The semantic level seeks to define the meaning of the signs involved.

1.2. Hymes’ speaking model

One of Hymes’ principal contribution to the study of communication was his
speaking model of the components of a speech event. Hymes likened the speech
event in verbal communication to the sentence in grammar. These interactions can
take place in any social context. The speaking model can be summarized as follows:

S – Settings and scene: Settings refers to the physical surroundings of the speech
act (e.g. the workplace). Scene is the psychological background to the scene (e.g.
the conversation can take place between an employer and an employee, with
different ranges of formality).

P – Participants: who is involved (the addresser (the employer) and the addressee
(the employee)).
E – Ends: it is the purpose of the communication and its results (e.g. to instruct the
employee in a specific task).

A – Act: This refers to the form and content of the speech event, which will normally
follow conventional norms and sequences.

K – Key: The tone or manner in which acts are done, for example, serious or playful.

I – Instrumentalities: The particular language varieties used and the mode of

communication (spoken/written)

N – Norms: They are the rules of speaking, who can say what, when and how.

G – Genres: They include the categories or types of language used (interview, a

joke, a conversation, etc.)

Besides that, Hymes lists the functions that are present in communication and that
have a direct relationship with the needs and purposes of the participants:

Expressive This function transmits feelings and emotions.

Directive This function is used to request or demand.
Referential To convey meaning and content, either true or false.
Poetic The function of aesthetic in communication.
Phatic To transmit empathy and solidarity.
Metalinguistic Referring to language itself

2. Elements and rules that govern oral discourse

All speech communities possess an underlying set of non-linguistic rules and norms
which govern how oral communication takes place in that community. It is therefore
important that these norms can be effectively taught int the English language
classroom. This extralinguistic knowledge is under normal circumstances acquired
naturally by native speakers. However, for second language students it is something
that has to be included in their learning of the language.

2.1. Conventional maxims

According to Grice (1975), despite the fact that oral communication is spontaneous,
humans must apply the cooperative principle for communication to be effective.
This means that we assume, without realising, that we, and the people we are talking
to, will be conversationally cooperative in an attempt to reach mutual goals. This
principle is divided into four maxims of conversation:
  Maxim of quantity: say neither more or less than the discourse requires.
 Maxim of relevance: be relevant.
 Maxim of manner: be brief and orderly; avoid ambiguity and obscurity.
 Maxim of quality: Do not lie or make unsupported claims.

However, in the real word many conversations involve varying levels of disagreement
and resistance. This disagreement can serve as a motivating and maintaining factor
in communication.

2.2. Speech acts

Speech acts deal with the question of the intentions of the speaker and the functions
of the language used in encoding these intentions in messages. Four categories of
common speech acts can be determined:

1. Constatives. The function of these acts is in making statements, for example

giving responses, giving information, predicting, etc.
2. Directives. These serve to have an influence on the listener, through
requests, advice, orders, warnings, etc.
3. Commissives. These acts express action on the part of the speaker, for
example agreeing, inviting, offering, promising, etc.
4. Acknowledgments. These acts express recognition on the part of the
speaker, for example, through apologies, condolences, congratulations, etc.

2.3. Turn taking

Turn taking is a basic form of organisation for conversation. A conversation involves
two or more people, and there are a series of norms and conventions to which
speakers should adhere in order to achieve successful communication. Some basic
concepts of turn taking in conversations are:

1. There are changes between speakers. So, when one speaker’s utterance is
seen to have come to an end another is invited through a rising intonation, a
question tag, etc.
2. Normally, only one participant speaks at the same time.
3. Transitions from one turn to the next with no gap and no overlap are the most
common form on moving from one speaker to the next.
4. The order and length of turns is not fixed. However, one needs to use his turn
effectively to transmit the desired message.
 5. Repair mechanism can be used to deal with error and violations in turn taking;
if two participants self-select at the same time and begin to speak
concurrently, normally one will stop in order to allow the other to continue.

2.4. Topics
Topics in conversations are important. To choose appropriate topics means to have
effective communication. Between strangers the opening topic is the weather,
between friends and family is a common opening topic and in forma situations, the
topic may be specified in advance.

2.5. Formal features

Grammar and syntax of oral communication are different from written language. The
written text is planned, so it can be carefully structured and, more importantly,
corrected and started again before the reader sees it. By contrary, oral text is
produced in real time, and thus has imperfections. It also contains many fillers, words
whose purpose is to give the speaker time to arrange his thoughts.

In terms of vocabulary and lexis, oral communication is likely to be much more

informal than written communication, and much less precise. Likewise, structurally
speaking, spoken language has a tendency to string together chains of coordinated
clauses, often with simple conjunctions such as and, so and but, instead of
containing subordinate sentences. There are frequent repetitions of words, and
omissions of grammatical forms, including subjects and auxiliaries, for example:

- Make sure you finish that for next week, ok?

- Will do.

Nevertheless, thanks to new technologies, oral and written communication merge at

some point. Nowadays, thanks to apps like WhatsApp we can have spontaneous
written communication with feedback as well as non-verbal communication by means
of the emojis. On the other hand, we can have oral communication without non-
verbal communication like in a telephone conversation.

3. Frequent routines and formulas

3.1. Routines
Routines are fixes structures that cannot be usefully broken down into their
component parts; the meaning is given by the whole. Moreover, routines can be
single syllables, like “hi” or short phrases such as “Have a nice day”. In oral
communication, routines can also involve a question: “How do you do”?

A routine is often devoid of denotative meaning, and it simply has a phatic function in
the communicative event. When native speakers say “How are you?”, normally they
are not asking about the health of the interlocutor, it is just part of a routine.

An interesting case in English is that of condolence routines, since there is a natural

tendency to avoid routines such as “my condolences” in spoken language. Instead,
native speakers often say is “I don’t know what to say”, which has become a routine.

Many routines are based on cultural knowledge, and therefore present problems for
language learners. For instance, when someone sneezes, the accepted routine in
English is to say “bless you”, which has its roots in the belief that the sneezer was
possessed by an evil spirit. Humour in jokes is also based on well-known routines.
For example:

A. You know I can’t live without you.

B. So why aren’t you dead?

All the above shows the importance of teaching these routines to language learners
as a part of the speaking component of a language course. Only this way will
student’s speech sound natural and will they interact correctly in diverse situations.

3.2. Adjacency pairs

Prototypical adjacent pairs are question-answer or offer-acceptance. Thus, adjacent
pairs occur when a particular first part in a conversation requires a particular second.
Moreover, they are considered the fundamental unit of conversational organization.
Various norms apply to adjacency pairs:

1. They have to be produced by different speakers.

2. The first part must precede the second.
3. The first part requires there to be a second part.
4. After a given first part, there is a limited choice of second parts. For example,
as a response to the following first pair part:
A. Do you fancy a cup of tea?

The range of possible replies is normally limited to an acceptance or a refusal,

often with some explanation. For example:

B. Yes, that’d be lovely.

 C. No thanks, I must be off now.

In this case, B’s response is known as the preferred answer, while C’s
response is a dispreferred second.

Adjacency pairs are often used for starting and closing a conversation. For instance,
a typical greeting-greeting. They are also used in a conversation to pass the turn to
the next speaker, for example by asking a direct question. Eventually, these pairs
can be used in repairing breakdowns in a conversation, typically:

A. Sorry, I didn’t catch that. Would you mind repeating it?

B. Of course not. I was just saying that I feel…

What is more, it is natural to try to interpret any two subsequent turns as related,
even if there is apparently little cohesion between them:

A. There isn’t any milk left.

B. John’s just gone.

In this case, we assume that B is saying that John has just gone out to buy some
milk, because of the simple fact that the utterances are in sequence.

3.3. Openings and closings

The routines used to structure conversations can be divided into various different
levels. The highest of these is known as an encounter, which is often divided into
three phases: an opening, a central phase and a closing.

The aim of the opening is always to set the basis to be able to continue the
conversation effectively. To do this, one participant will often use a pseudo-apology
(e.g. excuse me) in order to start the conversation. After this, the participants will
have to ask questions to find a common ground between them.

Regarding closings, participants usually make a comment about what has been said
in the central phase of the conversation as a sort of recapitulation. For this purpose,
they use pre-closing signals, such as “ok then” before the leave-taking at the end of
the conversation, e.g. “bye bye”.

Within the central phase of the conversation, the structure can be broken down into
various exchanges, in which the main purpose of the conversation is carried out.
 3.4. Conversation Gambits
Conversation gambits are routines which are used in everyday oral communication,
as for example:

To initiate a turn or a conversation Sorry, excuse me

To introduce undesired information To tell the truth
To give an opinion If you ask me
Introducing a contrasting idea Actually
Expressing surprise You’re pulling my leg!

4. Characteristic strategies in oral communication

Strategies in oral communication deal with the need to maintain communication when
problems occur. These problems may occur owing to lack of competence in the
language, especially in the case of language learners. When communication
problems arise, there are various strategies available:

4.1. Avoidance strategies

Avoidance strategies are the ones used when a speaker recognises that he cannot
communicate exactly what he desires. As such, they are generally seen as the last
resort, as they always lead to a certain degree of watering down of the message that
the speaker wishes to transmit.

For example, if a speaker has difficulty in pronouncing a certain phoneme in a word,

he may use a different word which does not contain this sound. For instance,
Spanish speakers who have difficulty with the phoneme /w/ in “would”, they might
change to a different modal form such as “should”, even though this means changing
in meaning. By doing so, the other participants must make more effort to maintain the
communication process.

At a more extreme level, these strategies may mean leaving a message unfinished.
In these situations, the speaker may have to abandon his utterance and start
another.

4.2. Compensatory strategies

Compensatory strategies involve speakers attempting to compensate for gaps in
their language ability by using substitutes. This can be done in various ways:

1. Time fillers. It refers to the use of words such as “umm” or “well” to win time
and organize thoughts.
 2. Using general terms. Thus, the speaker uses terms which are less specific.
For example, verbs like “make” and “do” are used for specific actions: “I make
sport” instead of “I play sport”.
3. Describing. Speakers can give a description of an object which they do not
know how to express. A good example would be: “the thing you put your head
on in bed” for “pillow”.
4. Using an approximate term. Speakers can use a related term from the same
lexical set if they don’t know the specific term they need. For instance, “spoon”
for “coffee spoon”.
5. Translation. For example, a Spanish speaker speaking English might say
“speaking of the king of Rome” instead of saying “speaking of the devil”.
6. Mime. It is common for speakers to have to resort to mime and gesture in
order to try and transmit the desired message.

4.3. Repair strategies

By using repair strategies, both the speaker and the listener can help to maintain
communication when a breakdown occurs. The need for these strategies is usually
signalled by the listener, who will show lack of understanding to the speaker. There
are various types of repair strategies:

1. Non-linguistic repairs: mime, gesture and facial expressions.

2. Checking: “got that?” or “ok?”
3. Repetition: One of the participants can repeat a word or phrase to check that
the other one has understood. If the listener did not understand the utterance,
the speaker must explain the message in a different way, often using an
introductory phase like “what I mean is…”.
4. Contrastive stress: For example:
A. I’m going to the cinema on Friday.
B. On Saturday?

A: No, on FRIday.