M.RAMAKRISHNA CHARY asked:
SPEAKING SKILL: A SUCCESS MANTRA
‘Communicate or Perish’ that happens to be the new success mantra in the present day competitive world irrespective of the nature and domain of one’s work. Academic intelligence having its base mostly on bookish knowledge has lost its earlier supremacy in fetching one’s chosen vocation. Concepts like ‘Practical intelligence’, ‘emotional intelligence’ and more recently, the more inclusive one ‘Multiple intelligence’ have been brought under the scanner while examining the eligibility of employability.
Speaking is one of the important skills which is very important for a person’s professional survival and growth. Everyone needs this skill to be a successful in one’s academic and pursuits. What ever the profession it may be an engineer, a business executive, a scientist, a teacher or a student. He needs effective speaking skills in order to take an active part in oral communicative process.
We require effective oral communication skill in several formal communicative situations that is in meetings, conferences, group discursions, interviews, seminars, workshops. Several factors have contributed to the increased importance of speaking skills today. The information revolution along with globalization and other social and economic changes in the new millennium has increased the importance of speaking skills. The growth and expansion of service oriented industry has also increased the significance of oral competence for professionals in different fields like, call centers, soft skills trainer. So everyone needs to develop speaking skills if they are to be successful in careers.
In fact, success in the highly competitive environment will depends not just on professional knowledge but also on the ability to present that knowledge in suitable oral form. Speaking is an interactive communicative process that involves speakers and listeners. While communicating a message orally, the speaker is concerned with five factors. They are message, audience, speech style, encoding and feedback.
1.The Message:
The speech process begins with selection of message. It includes everything that the speaker says both verbally and non-verbally. Here the speaker is concerned with the content of specific message that he wants to convey. Speaker’s knowledge, experiences, abilities and the overall objectives of speaking generally determine the scope of the message. Here the speaker should be clear about what message he wants to get across. To make the message more impact its contents must be clear and relevant.
2.The audience:
To be an effective speaker, familiarity with audience is necessary. The important thing for the speaker is to know the listeners thoroughly in order to decide how to present his ideas. Professional situations such as seminars, conferences, meetings, discussions, interviews demand a careful audience analysis. Regarding the audience the following should be considered.
a) Who are the listeners.
b) Their age, educational background.
c) Purpose of listeners.
d) Knowledge of audience about the topic.
e) What the audience are expecting from the speaker.
3.The Speech Style:
Speech style is the manner in which the content of the speech is presented. It is the manner of speaking, which could be formal as in conferences and very informal as in casual conversations. It is totally depending up on the relation between the speaker and the listener.
Eg. Formal: The discussion between a superior and a subordinate.
Informal: The discussion between two friends.
4. Encoding:
Encoding involves in oral communication in selecting language. Verbal message needs a common language code which the listener may easily understand. If the listener cannot understand the message, communication fails. So, selecting the common language is a must.
5.Feedback:
Feedback is the process through which the speaker receives information about his message which has been received be the listeners. The feedback process will be completed with response of the speaker.
TOOLS FOR IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILLS
To improve our speaking skill we have to get the below mentioned soft -tools.
1. Good pronunciation
Good pronunciation is one of the tools for improving speaking skills. Pronunciation is the manner of uttering words. Phonetics, a scientific study of articulation helps to learn good pronunciation. We may find different ways of speaking English, like American and British pronunciations. The speaker has to choose the suitable pronunciation to the audience.
Any dictionary would give acceptable English pronunciation of words. As dictionary gives the pronunciation of a word in phonetic transcription it is essential to familiar with transcription.
3. Voice Quality: It is essential to refine the quality of one’s voice. An impressive voice may be a God’s gift but voice quality can be improved by proper voice training and regular practice. In oral presentations required pitch level has to be maintained.
4. Body Language: Body Language is an integral part of oral communication. It is the mirror which reveals our level of confidence. It includes Facial Expressions, Body Movements, Eye Contact and Mannerisms.
a) Facial Expressions: Face is the index of our innermost feelings. It shows how we feel. While we are presenting some points should be followed.
i) Our feelings should be hidden like stage fear or any other fears.
ii) Our expressions should be matched with the topic like exclamations and exaggerations.
b) Eye Contact: Our eyes reveal our innermost feelings. That is why we normally trust people who maintain where as we do not believe who fails to maintain eye contact. While we are presenting some points should be followed.
i) Use eye contact to show our sincerity while speaking or listening to
someone. It indicates that you are paying attention.
ii) If listeners are more than one, like in meetings, interviews, group
discussions the speaker should look at all the listeners.
iii) If any listener fails to maintain eye contact he should not be pointed
out.
c) Body Movements: Our body movements reveal our personality. It
tells that we are bold, confident, dynamic a timid or submissive.
i) Avoid making of funny or confusing body movements
ii) Ensure that our body movements are consistent with the verbal message.
iii) Dress code also one of the important things in our body movements.