Oral communication is age-old communication. It has an ancient foundation. Its roots go back to the Greeks and Romans and even earlier. This means oral communication is not new.
Throughout each day, in our personal lives and the world of business, we orally communicate with customers, colleagues, associates, supervisors, employees, employers, and others. Much of the oral communication that goes on in business is informal.
But some of it will be formal, as in speeches, lectures, oral reports, meetings, interviews, and dictation.
This may be done in conferences, committee meetings, seminars, group discussions, or oral interviews with job applicants. It takes extra attention and care to perform all these more formal oral communication.
Let’s Understand and Learn All About Speech in Oral Communication!
What is a Speech?
Speech is the most difficult kind of oral communication for most people. Making speeches is difficult for most people. The greatest obstacle is nervousness.
Almost everyone who stands before an audience for the first time or the thousandth feels it. Pre-speech nervousness can be minimized but never totally cured.
With effort, we can improve our speaking before others. We first learn the techniques of speaking and then practice those in real-life situations in business.
8 Characteristics of a Good Speech
Speech is the most widely used form of oral communication in business organizations. Business executives use speech for directing, informing, motivating, and mobilizing opinion, among other purposes.
They use it for leading the behavior of people toward the intended goals of the organization. Therefore, a speech must be of high quality. What makes a speech good?
The qualities are not definitively set as of now, but the following characteristics will obviously make a speech good and successful:
Precise and Specific
A good speech should be precise and specific. A long speech tests the audience’s patience. A speech typically should not take more than fifteen to twenty minutes. It should also be specific so that the audience can allocate their time for the speech. For example, stating, “I shall talk about four major issues that cause problems in our marketing,” would make the speech specific. The issues should be discussed in a precise manner.
Dynamic
A good speech is dynamic. It should be a combination of various dimensions of interest and should not be monotonous. People become interested and engaged with this sort of diversity. The tone, voice, style, and approach should be dynamic and adaptive to the audience’s environment.
Vivid
A speech should be vivid and lively. Abstractions can dull a speech. It should contain concrete facts that are easy to comprehend and visualize.
Interesting
A good speech should be interesting to the audience. This helps maintain the audience’s attention during the speech. Quotations, anecdotes, and humorous elements may make a speech interesting. However, they should be familiar and not overused. Anecdotes should be new, brief, and in good taste. Humor should be topical, spontaneous, and gentle.
Informal
Speech should have an informal flavor. It should be closer to a more intimate, personal climate. There should be a perfect rapport between the speaker and the audience.
Clear
A good speech should be clear in terms of content and language for the audience. It should effectively convey the ideas, emotions, facts, or arguments the speaker wants to express. Therefore, the language must be familiar, and facts must be unambiguous.
Audience-Oriented
A good speech should be audience-oriented. The language, facts, information, explanation, and presentation style should align with the characteristics of the audience.
Uninterrupted
A good speech should not have any disruptions in the flow of speaking, the sound system, the surrounding environment, or pronunciation. The audience must receive a continuous presentation of facts and ideas. Any interruption would disrupt the audience’s understanding.
7 Advantages of Speech
Speech is widely used in oral communication in every organization, especially in business organizations. Numerous occasions are effectively addressed with speech. There are some obvious reasons for its popular use. The advantages of speech are stated below:
Effective
Speech is the most effective form of persuasive oral communication. It can convince a large number of people directly. The speaker can employ various modes of speaking to influence the audience, thus facilitating mass persuasion.
Prompt Feedback
Speech allows for direct feedback from the audience. There is no delay in receiving a response from the audience regarding the subject of the speech. The speaker can ask questions directly to the audience about their opinions or reactions to the matter of the speech. They will receive answers promptly and can assess the effectiveness of their speech.
Less Time Consuming
Speech requires little time to convey a message to the audience, whether it’s large or small. The speaker can precisely present the subject in a convincing manner in the shortest possible time.
Prompt Correction
Mistakes can be corrected right on the stage during the speech without any delay.
Dialogue
Speech provides an opportunity to invite questions from the audience and to provide answers. This type of dialogue eliminates many misunderstandings about the subject of the speech.
Mass Communication
Speech offers the opportunity to address both large and small audiences, making it an effective mass communication tool.
Less Costly
Speech is a form of oral communication that requires minimal expenditure on materials, money, and effort compared to written communication. Therefore, it is a cost-effective means of communicating a message to any number of people.
4 Disadvantages of Speech
Speech is not free from demerits. In comparison with other oral communication media, speech has some definite disadvantages, which are discussed below:
Short Presentation
Speech is essentially a concise oral presentation. Therefore, many things cannot be presented, and elaboration on various issues cannot be provided due to the limited time available.
Speakers often lack the opportunity for further explanation of presented topics, leaving many points unexplained to the audience.
Emotional Influence
The emotional aspect of the speaker can significantly influence speech. Unrestrained emotions or ineffective control of emotions may lead to noise or distortion of the communication’s meaning. It can also impact the accurate expression of the message, potentially leading to communication breakdowns.
Risk of Distraction
Speech is highly susceptible to audience actions, making it prone to distractions that can detract from the message and presentation.
A disruptive environment may cause the speaker to lose track of their speech and fail to communicate the intended message effectively, especially when dealing with unruly audiences.
Vulnerability to Physical Factors
Physical factors can limit the effectiveness of speech presentations. The condition of the microphone, seating arrangements, airflow, temperature, and other environmental elements can all affect the speech and its reception by the audience.