“Communicating_Effectively_in_Spoken_English_in_Selected_Social_Context”

“Communicating Effectively in Spoken English in Selected Social Context” Much of this communication with people of different languages is done in English. When a German does business with a person from Italy it is in English. Some 98% of the world is learning English from an early age through college. So for a business major, English is a necessity. It is well known that English nowadays play important role in our daily life especially in the society. On top of that speaking English are not just for fun but it now necessary for every person. There are some important reasons why we need to speak English. The main reasons are for study and work purposes. If we look in term of finding a job, for those who have effective communication in spoken English, it likes a ticket to employment for them. Meanwhile, it helps newcomers obtain better jobs, get involved in their communities and participate in event. Other than that, the purposes of speaking is a must in study. As we know, these days most of institution uses English in the learning session. Because of that, it is very essential to learn English to make all the business become smooth and to get better understanding. However, its not something that we can satisfied if we know English but we also have to know how to communicate effectively when we spoke in English with the people in selected social context. In daily life, we interact with people. Sometimes we also talk with stranger even is just a small talk. After all, for those to be able to compete, English oral communication skills are important to success. To succeed in any field, the ability to convey or share knowledge and interact with other people is a concern. Communication comes in different situation, therefore it is a necessity to communicate effectively and to convey meaning accurately especially when we talk or speak in English. According to Julia T. Wood (2009), communication can be described as a systematic process in which people interact with and through symbols to create and interpret meanings. Beside that, in a simple word communication means the activity of conveying meaningful information. There are three types of communication that we should know. According to Camp and Satterwhite (2002), there are three types of communication which is oral communication, written communication and non-verbal communication. As for today, we just want to explore and take a deep look about oral communication. And the main purpose of this talk is about how to communicate effectively in spoken English in selected social contexts. Now, we look into the meaning of oral communication.”Oral communication” is a two-way process that requires a speaker and listener. It is most effective when the sender has good speaking skills and has good listening skills. So what we got here is oral communication involved speaking and listening. How oral communication works' It works well and effective if the sender has good speaking skills and the receiver has good listening skills. For oral communication, it’s related to transactional model. There are three major implications in the transactional model. (a) “Transactional” define as the communication is an ongoing and constantly changing process. Meaning that, we are changing, the people with whom we are communicating are also changing and yet the environment is also continually changing. (b) Each element in transactional process exists in relation to all other elements. There is this interdependence where there can be no source without a receiver and no message without a source. (c) Every person in the communication process react depending on factors like their background, prior experiences, attitudes, cultural, beliefs and self esteem. To reach a good communication skill in English, there is several speaking and listening skill that we need to be concern. Before we go more deeply to the basic principles of effective speaking and listening skill, let categorize the various form of oral communication. The fact says there are seven forms that oral communication often takes; there are intrapersonal communication, interpersonal communication, small group communication, public communication, mass communication. Corporate communication and last but not least are intercultural communication. To communicate effectively in English in the selected social contexts, we should know the very basic principle of speaking and listening skills. For speaking skills, the first skills are “interpretation of symbols that create meaning”. What I can explain about the first point are we as a speaker should concern more about listener understanding. Try to convey or interpret what you want to deliver clearly. As a result, the listener can get the actual meaning on what you want to deliver. The second skills of speaking are to recognize the “rules of communication”. It includes regulative rules and constitutive rules. The regulative rules tell when, where, how and with whom you have conversation. For example, in Asia culture homes basically the elders speak first while the younger’s listening without interruption. That mean, if we want to speak we should concern about how to speak in a good manner. Same goes when we want to communicate with people in English. We should have some respect to our listener. Speak will with a good attitude. Furthermore, constitutive rules can be derives as communication that shows us the meaning behind certain kind of symbols. The third skills in speaking are “punctuation affect meaning”. The meaning is, if we want to drop/end the conversation with other, we should give clear signal for them to understand that we want to end the talk. The last skills are speech quality or voice attribute. Four things that need to be concern are your voice volume must be clear; your pitch of voice must be stable. Neither too loud nor too low. Intonation also must be good and lastly your voice reflects your emotions and attitude. A cheerful and pleasant tone usually appreciated by your listener. Now we move back to the form oral communication. There are intrapersonal communication, interpersonal communication, small group communication, public communication, corporate communication and last but not least intercultural communication. What I plan to focus today is about interpersonal communication, small group communication and public communication. Interpersonal communication is a communication between several people. The forms of communication may range from the impersonal and very personal. Interpersonal and personal are very different. Impersonal communication is when you talk with person you do not really care about, for example stranger. Let say you he/she wants to ask you about direction. Then is often a coldness and indifferent in your attitude when you engage in this kind of communication. Practice as much as you can. Any practice is good – whether you speak to someone who is a native English speaker or not. In contras to personal communication, it is related to social communication where you engage niceties with people you meet in social context. Like someone that close to you, your friend, family and your colleagues. The other forms of oral communication are small group communication. In this selected social context we often engage in small group communication especially students in college. Usually, small group communication takes places in group and consists of 5-10 people. The example is the discussion among the officemate to resolving or discussing in the workplace. When you get involve in this kind of communication, there are many things that you need to be familiar with. There are many example of small group in social context for example in college. Student always make a small group communication. The purpose is to discuss about their subject or project given by their lecturer and also when the students have to present their oral communication test. To success in spoken English while doing a small group communication, members of the group discussion has to participate actively by asking questions, reacting to questions, contribute opinions and etc to make the discussion successful and achieve the objective. There are several strategies in answering and questioning. However, there is usually one person that manages the discussion or talk. This person has to open the discussion. To get a better outcome all of the group members must play their own roles a good as possible. On top of that, each of them has to know the group interaction skill. There are some tips to be share where we can speak effectively in small group communication and achieve the goal. The first skills are to asking and responding to question. That includes some ways in asking and responding question which is, the members should use different ways of asking question like to ask Wh-question when you wish to get more information or look for clarification about the issue. Beside, try to answers in complete sentences when it comes yes/no question. Use the polite form, so that it can help you to get the information in a polite way. Not to be forgetting, the members of small group communication supposed to know the purpose of question and responding to them. The second skills are to expressing opinions, agreeing and disagreeing. Don’t afraid to express your opinion and give your respond or feedback to other’s opinion. To make your opinion sound rational and creditable, mention reason and fact. The most important thing are you know how to use suitable expression and know how to analyzing the conversation. In addition, you must try to analyze the conversation. The third skills are “negotiating. When we discuss with people, we cannot just thing about your opinion only. There are times when other members at the group of meeting take opposing sides on particular subject. When this situation happened, negotiation can solve it. Negotiation is aim to resolving the conflict among members. But you must remember, to use some suitable phrase to negotiate with others member. The other skills that u must know are skill when you “arguing and conceding. That means when you are disagree or compromise with others group member’s opinion. Try to use respectable phrase when you want to arguing or conceding. You also should the interaction skills when you want to explain and justify your opinion about the issues or subject that you’re discussing. When the others fellow members asked for your opinions. Try to give the best reason and fact to support your opinion or idea. There are several ways to support your opinion by giving fact, statistics, and example and also to share your personal stories. Let me show some helpful phrase to show support. There are, “for instance”, “the reason for my opinion” and etc. The last interaction skills that you must apply in small group communication are the skills when you want to “interrupt and expressing disagreement” toward your group members. It is more convincing to the listener if your disagreement is support by facts. Active participation among members is very important to make the discussion successful. The last subject that I want to touch is the other form of oral communication which is public communication (or public speaking). First, let take a look at the meaning of public communication, Public communication is a communication that involves speaker and audience. Mainly, the audience may range from just a few people to thousand or even millions people. In our social context, there are many example of public communication. The example is when a student representative want to give a talk/speech in an event conducted by his/her university or college. The function of the talk is usually to give some tips, or to share opinion and thought about particular issues. The main function of public communication are to improve your social skills, academic and professional skills and finally to improve your public speaking skill. The skill of speaking is very important for every people especially when speaking in English. It’s not difficult to achieve effectiveness in spoken English when you have to do public speaking. As long as you put some effort on it and practice some skills so that you can speak effectively in front of people. There are some tips that I want to share on how to build confident in public communication. First and foremost you must change the way you think. Do not feel underestimate when you want to talk in front of many people or other speaker. Change your mind set to the positive side and talk with confident. Preparation is like a medicine to gains effectiveness in speaking. So, learn more about oral presentation skills to gain confident. “Practice make perfect”, practice your speech frequently before you talk at the actual event. Tension or nervous always occur when we want to speak in front of people especially for newcomer. However, it still has a way to avoid the situation and the simple one is to take breath deeply and then exhale slowly. The last tips to gains confident and get effectives communication are to gain experience. Try to get as much as public speaking experience and learn from the experience every time you want to communicate. Just before, we learn about tip to build confident and now we move to some tips for giving an effective speaking. Appearance is the first thing that audience will focus when speaker start to come in front. Attire is very important to be take care off. Try to dress properly for the occasion. Dress formally when you talk in formal event and if the event is informal, make an effort to adapt with the environment and the listener. Pronunciation, intonation and articulation are the major things when we spoke in English. The speaker must attempt to speak well in a good pronunciation and intonation to deliver the message accurately and correctly to audience. You suppose to remember if you want to become a credible and speaker with good quality. All the above tips must always be use. And also you need to control your voice when communicate with people. Speak loud enough so that you can be heard by your entire listener. Before I end up the talk, I want to briefly talk about how to make an oral presentation. It’s not hard to make an oral presentation as long as you follow the right ways. There are some simple ways to make a good oral communication and to present it confidently. The first thing you have to know are how long you want to speak and to whom your audience are. Well prepare contains help you to put up confident. First ways are to introduce the topic, where you should express a proper introduction to the topic of the speech. Te next ways are to show the contents of your presentation in an organized manner. Try to spend more time to organize your presentation. Other than that is to note down the outline what you going to speak. In addition, at the before your end your presentation, give a suitable summary to your presentation or in the other word give some conclusion based from the main idea of your topic. And lastly is “inviting participation”. That mean you can open for Q and A session or questions and answers session to get some feedback from the listener. Moreover, audience’s analysis is also very important for effective communication. You can often get clues to what people think by looking at their body language. Respond to them in a natural way. Now, I will jump into the conclusion regarding to the topics. To communicate effectively in spoken English is not as easy as an ABC. Yet, we can still be successful if we have the determination to do so. As I mention communication always occurs no matter what kind of communication we involve. Whether there are interpersonal communications, small group communications and public communication there always a way to improve and to achieve effectiveness in those communications. It might be some complexity in speaking process, but all of them can be cure as long as we know all the skills that I mention before. We as a speaker, we much attempt to distinguish all knowledge, skills and also strategies due to the different social context. You must remember to always developed and practiced the speaking speech. Train yourself to become victorious speaker in spoken English. The last important in speaking speech training are to pronounce the word properly where you must improve your pronunciation so that you are understood. Eenunciate the word clearly and use the correct intonation, word and sentence stress. Employ rhythm where speaker can’t speak too fast. It's important to use a natural rhythm when speaking English, but if you speak too fast it will be difficult for people to understand you. Last but certainly not least are to adjust your voice using correct projection. Don’t scare or shy to talk in English - the more you do it, the more confident you'll become. With all the above explanation, it can be very helpful in communicating effectively in Spoken English in selected social context.