Oral communication and importance of speaking assessment [A view from veteran English speaking coach]

In the field of education, training, and development, special attention is paid to public speaking and communication.

When individuals have direct conversations with others via telephone, speeches, presentations, discussions, these all constitute a part of oral communication.

Many of the English speaking coaching programs highlight that when the content is short or temporary in nature, the help of oral communication is required. One to one interaction, through seminars, conferences, interviews or lectures, builds the confidence and trust of the audience.

Merits of Oral communication:

1. Understanding and transparency with clear speech

2. Delegating crucial jobs, oral communication is essential for teamwork and group settings

3. For any kind of decision-making, flexibility and flow of content help implement the plans better

4. Importantly, feedback and correction is possible without negating the entire idea

5. In scenarios of disputes or disagreements, over several issues, a possible solution can be chalked out by means of oral communication

6. Oral communication reassures receptive and encouraging morale among peers

7. Information and important content can be directly delivered

Towards the end of the twentieth century, communication skill programs began to develop. The focus was not entirely on speaking but writing and listening, which was helpful in theoretical, career, and community development.

As researched by various English coaching centers in schools and universities, communication across the curriculum was adopted for speaking and writing for beginners.

Later for students or individuals pursuing higher qualifications, these skills were modified as prerequisites in their respective fields. As and when you engage in oral communication by yourself or with your peers or colleagues, you bond and socialize.

Moreover, experts of English speaking coaching advise you to develop the discipline to deliver and communicate contexts that are vital, relevant, and successful in your field.

Speaking Assessment through Micro and Macro skills

A range of speaking skills can be selected for classification purposes that can define the assessment tasks objectives. These can serve as a taxonomy of skills.

The micro and macro skills with few goals to assess in speaking are described.

*Source- Brown, H. Douglas. 2004. Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practice. San Fransisco State University.

In most of the English coaching classes, the model of language dynamism has pragmatic effects on individual learner qualities; thus, they need to incorporate changes to facilitate the learning progress.

Linguistic experts have carved four basic language skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing. These four language skills are called the "macro-skills".

Listening and reading are brain input aids but, speaking and writing are brain output abilities as some English speaking coaches. With the help of these four pillars, effective communication skills shine out.

Apart from this, English coaching centers suggest that adapting other skills like pronunciation, fluency, grammar, and vocabulary will also play a vital role in effective English communication.

Macro-skills of Speaking

The macro-skill indicates that the orator's aim is on the essentials such as precision, presentation techniques, cohesion, logical organization of ideas discourse, non-verbal communication, and calculated content.

1. Based on varied scenarios, audiences, and targets, one must have the ability to achieve communicative function

2. For face-to-face conversations, use conventional methods, appropriate styles, grammatical rules, reduce redundancies, and other sociolinguistics elements

3. Ability to focus on connections and links on various events where ideas, expression, information, observations can be presented

4. Body language and facial expressions conveying ideas along with verbal and non-verbal cues

5. Adopting speaking strategies and using techniques like emphasizing on keywords, paraphrasing, intonations, and assessing your own language proficiency for effective communication

While the macro-skills have the presence of being more complex than the micro-skills, both include components of difficulty, task responses, lexicon, and, depending on the events, valid and logical content.

Micro-skills of Speaking

Micro skills edification begins with teaching basic communication skills, such as rephrasing, expression, generalization, questions focused on context, presenting a fact, opinion, or information.

This is done using minimal filler words and sounds and using body language to get the attention of the listener and clarity of content presented to the other person.

1. Producing clusters of words at deferential gaps

2. Producing language stresses, words that need emphasis, articulation, and intonation contours

3. Producing concise ways to deliver different forms of words and phrases

4. Having an appropriate and relevant number of lexicons to achieve logical presentation of content

5. To deliver a clarified message, one needs to monitor his/her own oral narratives using strategic plans -pause, fillers, and avoiding self-corrections

6. Grammatical range and accuracy with noun, verb, adjective, etc., appropriate usage of tenses, and ability to produce complex sentence structures utilizing pluralization, word order, phrases, and brief forms

7. Producing speech with fluency, with exact phrases, a group of words, a breather space, and pauses as and when necessary, as per the grammar rule

8. Logical sequencing of information to avoid distractions and choices of sentences to support discourse

The aim of English coaching classes is for speakers to be part of situations to develop proficiency, fluency, vocabulary with minimum errors in grammar and presentations.

“To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.”~Anthony Robbins

About the Author

I have been mentoring working professionals and students in proficiency skills and the IELTS exam for a long time now. I am a certified trainer, Masters in business studies and have rich experience in the corporate and education fields. I hope my articles help the readers to gain strong confidence in their learning process.