15 Strategies for effective communication and speaking skills

Main ideas, concepts, and lessons

1) What speaking skills are and what they do

• Speaking is a core communication tool that lets speakers and listeners:
  • Transform ideas
  • Express feelings
  • Explain discoveries and research results
  • Participate in discussions
• Speaking supports the speaker becoming a well-rounded communicator and a proficient user of the four language skills.
• Speaking helps learners:
  • Gain and hold the audience’s attention until the message is complete
  • Achieve career success (career advancement, scholarships, conferences, travel opportunities)
  • Connect with audiences and influence others’ decisions
• Speaking is described as cross-cultural communication, helping regulate consensus and coordinate social, political, and economic functions across countries.
• Speaking in a foreign language builds:
  • Strategies/behaviors for handling challenging situations
  • A stronger sense of membership, respect, and self-worth
  • Personality development
• Speaking is framed as interactive and context-dependent:
  • Meaning depends on context, participants, and purpose
  • Speaking relies on producing, receiving, and processing information

2) Definitions of speaking (sources quoted in the subtitles)

• Anne Burns (educationist/linguist; British-born Australian):
  • Speaking is the most important skill among language skills.
  • Speaking skill = an interactive process of constructing meaning involving producing, receiving, and processing information.
• Oxford Dictionary:
  • Speaking = action of conveying information or expressing thoughts and feelings in spoken language.
• Jonah Baker and Hea Westrup (authors of a guide on speaking skills):
  • Speaking skill = a person’s ability to use language for a purpose.
• Henry Gunda Tarigan:
  • Speaking develops in childhood, produced by/listened through listening skill.
• Michael N.L. (professor emeritus, University of California):
  • Speaking is interactive by nature and differs from listening/reading/writing.
  • Form/meaning depend on participants, experiences, physical environment, and purpose.
• Lindos (author; from The Essential Speaking and Listening):
  • Learners explore/practice new structures and build workable knowledge.
  • Oral learning uses intonation, gestures, and body language to convey meaning and understanding.
• Speaking is not just word strings; it occurs in three situations:

3) Three speaking situations

1. Interactive (two-way)
   • Typical: face-to-face, phone, video conferencing.
   • Includes dialogue where speakers can:
     • Seek clarifications
     • Ask for repetitions
     • Request a slower speech rate
     • Receive instant feedback (questions about understanding, agreement, sympathy)
   • Also involves nonverbal communication: facial expressions, gestures, body movements.
2. Partially interactive
   • A speaker addresses a group who generally do not interrupt.
   • The speaker leads; listeners primarily receive.
3. Non-interactive
   • No access to interaction.
   • Example: recorded speech for radio broadcast.

4) Essential components and micro-skills of speaking

A) Components of speaking skill (Fred Davidson)

• Pronunciation
• Grammar
• Vocabulary
• Fluency
• Comprehension

Details included in subtitles:

• Pronunciation
  • How words are spoken; hardest due to tongue/mouth coordination.
  • Includes intonation, stress, rhythm.
• Grammar
  • How words combine to form sentences; accuracy in oral/written output.
• Vocabulary
  • The “power of words” to express ideas/feelings/thoughts in both speech and writing.
• Fluency
  • Speaking communicatively fluently and accurately with speed/ease.
  • Able to take part without stopping the flow.
• Comprehension
  • Perceive and understand speech/discourse and produce meaningful responses.
  • Shared understanding between speaker and listener is emphasized.

B) Fluency types (John Carol)

• Word fluency: recalling words with given phonetic/orthographic traits
• Ideational fluency: remembering names/ideas/appropriate words for semantic needs
• Expressional fluency: composing grammatically appropriate sentences quickly
• Oral speaking fluency: using integrated linguistic abilities tied to psycholinguistic mechanisms

C) Additional speaking-related skills (H. D. Brown)

• “Almost 16 skills” are referenced, including:
  • Producing speech chunks of different lengths
  • Producing phoneme/alphabet variants (in spontaneous/impromptu speech)
  • Using stress patterns and rhythm/intonation
  • Using contracted forms (informality in communicative English)
  • Using an adequate number of lexical units for communication purposes
  • Speaking at different delivery rates
  • Managing oral production using strategic devices:
    • pauses, fillers, self-corrections, backtracking
  • Using correct grammatical words (tense, syntax, word order)
  • Producing appropriate phrases/groups/breath groups/sentences
  • Using cohesive devices in spoken discourse
  • Macro skills for communicative functions (register, pragmatic conventions, sociolinguistic features)
  • Linking ideas: main idea, supporting ideas, new/given information, generalization, exemplification
  • Using facial features and kinesics/body language
  • Using vocabulary strategically (rephrasing, context setting, improving accuracy)

5) Communication strategies (the “how” of solving speaking problems)

What communication strategies are

• Strategies = ways/means used when communication fails or is difficult:
  • Can’t express what you want
  • Can’t understand what is being said
• The subtitles frame speaking strategies as tools language learners use to solve communication problems in real time.

Common sources of problems

• Linguistic: lacking language knowledge
• Cultural: not coping with cultural demands
• Contextual: environment/noise or unclear articulation by others

How strategies help (Luciano Marian)

• Used to manage/solve linguistic, lexical, grammatical, phonological, sociolinguistic, pragmatic, and cultural problems.
• Learners may:
  • Solve directly
  • Explicitly appeal to the partner for help
  • Use cooperation/negotiation to move conversation forward
• Uses resources such as:
  • Native + second/foreign language
  • Nonverbal communication (gestures, eye contact, facial expressions)
• Strategies may also be part of ongoing negotiation of meaning and intentions.

Types of communicative strategies (Cl. F. & Gabriel Casper)

• Achievement strategies: alternative ways to achieve the goal using available resources
  • Includes:
    • Compensatory strategies (e.g., code-switching/interlingual transfer)
    • Retrieval strategies (when learners have difficulty retrieving meanings/structures)
    • Cooperative strategies and nonlinguistic strategies
• Reduction strategies: avoid the problem / reduce attempts
  • Formal reduction: reduce/avoid non-fluent or incorrect utterances
  • Function reduction: give up the message or avoid a topic

Theory-based view (Trica Hede / researcher in classrooms)

• A competent speaker uses verbal and non-verbal strategies when they can’t express something due to lack of resources:
  • Verbal circumlocution, clarification
  • Non-verbal expressions and gestures
• Used to compensate breakdowns and enhance effectiveness.

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Practical techniques for developing speaking skills (detailed bullet list)

1. Speaking through descriptions (picture-based tasks)

   • Use pictures to generate sentences.
   • Sentences may involve:
     • describing
     • comparing
     • predicting
     • finding differences
   • Turn-taking: each learner produces a sentence in group.

2. Task-focused interaction

   • Learners interact around specific tasks.
   • They can clarify unknown items during interaction.
   • Negotiation supports learning:
     • direct learning of new forms
     • opportunities to learn from others
     • adjust outputs during interaction

3. Fluency through repetition and rehearsal (recorded speaking)

   • Speak about:
     • a previous experience, or
     • a picture set
   • Record and repeat over multiple days until the learner is satisfied with fluency level.
   • Emphasizes both:
     • focus on messages
     • quantity of production

4. Free discussion

   • Group discussion on topics of interest:
     • opinions, histories, experiences
   • Learners express:
     • agreement/disagreement
     • preferences
     • comparisons
   • May use prompts like a picture or quotation.
   • Encourages using language needed to sustain conversation over time.

5. Role play

   • Learners assume roles in given situations.
   • Can range from:
     • simple prompt-card dialogues
     • to complex simulations requiring impromptu speaking
   • Supports real-life transactional and interpersonal speaking.

6. Gap activities / information gap

   • Pair/group activity where each learner has different information.
   • Learners must share information to complete a task.
   • Produces outcomes useful for:
     • problem-solving
     • information gathering
     • research skills and people skills (noted for future sessions).

7. Loud reading (chunking practice)

   • Focuses on:
     • appropriate chunking
     • pauses/placing meaning into sense groups
   • Learners (in pairs) listen, then analyze a quote/paragraph considering:
     • spelling pronunciation
     • intonation
     • grammar

8. Debate

   • Group debate on a chosen motion.
   • Two groups:
     • one supports
     • one opposes
   • Builds spontaneous “spirited argument” skills, including oratorial skills.

9. Engagement in interaction / small talk

   • Short casual conversations on practical topics:
     • weather, traffic, vocations, sports, casual events
   • Builds social communion and message exchange.
   • Helps learners create discourse aligned to real-life intentions.

10. Present extemporary speech (impromptu speaking)

    • Learners speak spontaneously on an unprepared topic.
    • Process described:
      • pick up a slip with a topic
      • speak in the moment
    • Tests logical sequencing of ideas during speech progression.

11. Storytelling practice

    • Learners:
      • summarize a story heard from someone, or
      • create and tell their own stories
    • Improves:
      • creative thinking
      • logical/coherent expression

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Speakers / sources featured (as named in the subtitles)

• Anne Burns
• Oxford Dictionary (source/entity)
• Jonah Baker
• Hea Westrup (co-authors)
• Professor Henry Gunda Tarigan
• Michael N.L. (Professor Emeritus, University of California)
• Lindos (author referenced)
• Fred Davidson
• David Crystal
• John Carol
• H. D. Brown
• Luciano Marian
• Close F and Gabriel Casper (authors referenced; name appears as “close F and Gabriel Casper”)
• Trica hedge (researcher referenced)
• [Video narrator / course presenter] (implied “dear friends welcome…”, no specific name given)