ORAL COMMUNICATION

TYPES OF COMMUNICATIVE STRATEGY

Mr. Darwin M. Cuyos, MaEd

MAYOR TOMAS V. RIVERA MHS
Masbate, Philippines
 LEARNING COMPETENCIES
Learners will be able to…

• distinguish various types of communicative strategies;

• use acceptable, polite, and meaningful communicative strategies;
• engage in a communicative situation;
• explain the effects of a shift in communicative strategy;
• demonstrate effective use of communicative strategy in a variety of
speech situations;
• practice learning and thinking skills, life skills, and ICT literacy; and
• reflect on your learning on the types of communicative strategy.
LET’S WARM UP
For the entire lesson, you will go on an imaginary field trip.
• • Below is the link to “Tara Na Biyahe Tayo,” an MTV performed by
various Filipino artists with the common goal of encouraging Pinoys to
visit and explore the wonderful places in the Philippines. While watching
the video clip, think about what for you is a must-see in the country.
• “Tara Na, Byahe Tayo” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbO6LPZ9N8Q
• After watching the video, group yourselves into five members each.
Decide on the “Most Exciting Tourist Spot” in the country. Assign a
speaker who will share your decision and reasons for this with the class.
You have 10 minutes.
• As soon as all the groups have presented their decisions, you will vote for
the “Most Exciting Tourist Spot in the Philippines.”
Let’s Work and Learn
People communicate every day to establish and maintain
relationships, know and understand themselves, and find meaning
in the daily grind. Moreover, since humans are social beings who
survive more effectively through sensible discourses, they are
always driven to learn the skills of creating and sustaining
meaningful conversations. Successful communication requires
understanding of the relationship between words and sentences
and the speech acts they represent. However, a conversation may
be complex at times; that is why some people get lost along the way
and misunderstand each other. It is only when we willingly
cooperate and speak in socially-approved ways that we can make a
conversation meaningful.
Types of Communicative Strategy
Since engaging in conversation is also bound
by implicit rules, Cohen (1990) states that
strategies must be used to start and maintain a
conversation. Knowing and applying grammar
appropriately is one of the most basic strategies
to maintain a conversation. The following are
some strategies that people use when
communicating.
 Nomination
A speaker carries out nomination to collaboratively and
productively establish a topic. Basically, when you employ this
strategy, you try to open a topic with the people you are talking to.
When beginning a topic in a conversation, especially if it does
not arise from a previous topic, you may start off with news
inquiries and news announcements as they promise extended talk.
Most importantly, keep the conversational environment open for
opinions until the prior topic shuts down easily and initiates a
smooth end. This could efficiently signal the beginning of a new
topic in the conversation.
 Restriction
Restriction in communication refers to any limitation you
may have as a speaker. When communicating in the classroom, in
a meeting, or while hanging out with your friends, you are
typically given specific instructions that you must follow. These
instructions confine you as a speaker and limit what you can say.
For example, in your class, you might be asked by your
teacher to brainstorm on peer pressure or deliver a speech on
digital natives. In these cases, you cannot decide to talk about
something else. On the other hand, conversing with your friends
during ordinary days can be far more casual than these examples.
Just the same, remember to always be on point and avoid
sideswiping from the topic during the conversation to avoid
communication breakdown.
 Turn-Taking
Sometimes people are given unequal opportunities to talk because
others take much time during the conversation. Turn-taking pertains to
the process by which people decide who takes the conversational floor.
There is a code of behavior behind establishing and sustaining a
productive conversation, but the primary idea is to give all communicators
a chance to speak.
Remember to keep your words relevant and reasonably short
enough to express your views or feelings. Try to be polite even if you are
trying to take the floor from another speaker. Do not hog the conversation
and talk incessantly without letting the other party air out their own
ideas. To acknowledge others, you may employ visual signals like a nod, a
look, or a step back, and you could accompany these signals with spoken
cues such as “What do you think?” or “You wanted to say something?”
 Topic Control
Topic control covers how procedural formality or informality affects the development of
topic in conversations. For example, in meetings, you may only have a turn to speak
after the chairperson directs you to do so. Contrast this with a casual conversation with
friends over lunch or coffee where you may take the conversational floor anytime.
Remember that regardless of the formality of the context, topic control is achieved
cooperatively. This only means that when a topic is initiated, it should be collectively
developed by avoiding unnecessary interruptions and topic shifts. You can make
yourself
actively involved in the conversation without overly dominating it by using minimal
responses like “Yes,” “Okay,” “Go on”; asking tag questions to clarify information briefly
like
“You are excited, aren’t you?”, “It was unexpected, wasn’t it?”; and even by laughing!
 Topic Shifting
Topic shifting, as the name suggests, involves moving from
one topic to another. In other
words, it is where one part of a conversation ends and where
another begins.
When shifting from one topic to another, you have to be very
intuitive. Make sure that the
previous topic was nurtured enough to generate adequate views.
You may also use effective
conversational transitions to indicate a shift like “By the way,” “In
addition to what you said,”
“Which reminds me of,” and the like.
 Repair
Repair refers to how speakers address the problems in
speaking, listening, and comprehending that they may
encounter in a conversation. For example, if everybody in
the conversation seems to talk at the same time, give way
and appreciate other’s initiative to set the conversation
back to its topic. Repair is the self-righting mechanism in
any social interaction (Schegloff et al, 1977). If there is a
problem in understanding the conversation, speakers will
always try to address and correct it. Although this is the
case, always seek to initiate the repair.
 Termination
Termination refers to the conversation participants’
close-initiating expressions that end a topic in a
conversation. Most of the time, the topic initiator takes
responsibility to signal the end of the discussion as well.
Although not all topics may have clear ends, try to
signal the end of the topic through concluding cues. You
can do this by sharing what you learned from the
conversation. Aside from this, soliciting agreement from
the other participants usually completes the discussion of
the topic meaningfully.
Other communicative strategies that second language learners use can be classified as
avoidance and achievement strategies (Dobao and Martinez, 2007).
. Examples of avoidance strategies are the following :
™
Semantic avoidance – The speaker communicates something different from what he/she
originally intends. Example: “The eye was wounded” (black eye)
Message reduction – The message is expressed, but it is less accurate than the original
idea. Example: “The woman was wearing a sort of long dress” (to describe a woman
wearing a gown)
Message abandonment – The message is totally discontinued. Example: “She was walking
in that... I don’t know.”
. Examples of achievement strategies are the following:
™
Coinage – The speaker makes a new word to express his/her idea. Example: “Houseshoes”
for slippers
Circumlocution – The speaker describes the object or the action instead of using the
actual word. Example: “I want to buy... the thing that you wear when your hands feel
cold” (to refer to gloves)
Borrowing – The speaker uses a word from his/her native language to express his/her
message. Example: “I saw a... bruha in the forest.”
Appeal for assistance – The speaker turns to a native speaker of the target language to
learn the word. Example: (speaker points to his ankles) “What do you call this?”
Exercise # Turn-taking. Nomination. Restriction. Topic-Control, Topic Shifting.Repair, Termination
Identify the type of communicative strategy in each statement.
1. “Do you have anything to say?”
2. “One of the essential lessons I gained from the discussion is the importance
of sports and wellness to a healthy lifestyle.”
3. “Excuse me? I think we should speak one at a time, so we can clearly
understand what we want to say about the issue.”
4. “Go on with your ideas. I’ll let you finish first before I say something.”
5. “Have you heard the news about the latest achievement of our
government?”
6. “Hey, how are you? I missed you!”
7. “Best regards to your parents! See you around!”
8. “Good to see you. Anyway, I came to visit you because I want to personally
offer apologies for what I did yesterday.”
9. “Sorry, I can’t decide on that now. I am still focused on my writing
assignment. Let’s talk next time, okay?”
10. “Now, it’s your turn to ask questions.”