Oral communication: - Oral communication is by word of mouth it describes any type of inter-action that makes use of spoken words.
(13.11.09)
Having a meaningful conversation with someone requires the development of skills and social co-ordination, this mean showing an interest in the conversation and actually being interested in the conversation and also having the ability to start and end conversations.
When communicating orally with others in a care setting we may have several purposes. For example at a GP Surgery or a Health Care Centre to give information to the service user to tell them what services are available and when they are available.
It is also important to obtain the information e.g. while enrolling a child at a playgroup, nursery school or childminder to make sure that the parents/carer’s name, address and contact number are accurate.
One of the main purposes for oral communication is exchanging ideas, experiences and thoughts etc e.g. at a day care centre when a group of older people are talking about present or past experience as well as sharing current news items.
Giving and obtaining information is important because the content must be accurate. If incorrect ‘facts’ are given, the person who requires the information will be misinformed and this could lead to serious consequences.
At a day care centre when groups of older people are talking about their present and past experiences and sharing current news items, the purpose of this communication is to exchange ideas.
When talking to people, non-verbal signals, such as gestures or smiles, as well as speech, are often used. This is known as ‘body language’ and is a form of giving massages to those with whom we are speaking, for example smiling will convey friendliness.
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When we communicate with one another we are sending massages and disclosing information. When communicating orally, massages are encoded b a sender and decoded by the receiver. (Fisher et al 2006)
The diagram below shows this process:
Advantages and Disadvantages of oral communication
The advantages of the oral communication would be that it is a more effective way to communicate with people as well as effective it is also a more quicker and understandable use of communication. It helps colleagues n a care setting to understand the service users e.g. ask questions if something is not understood or to clarify something and its also cheap and isn't expensive.
Some of the other advantages of oral communication can be that its:
- Fast – useful for obtaining information
- Based on two-way communication and therefore promote an understanding of the real information need(s) and the communication of relevant information.
- Flexible
- Simply and facilitate the transmission of information between two people working in different subject areas
- Easy and pleasant to use
However there are some disadvantages as you will need an active listener, the information may be hard to store and retrieve and can have difficulty in finding words to correctly convey meaning in a short period of time.
The listener may find it easier to visualise the flow of information or may simply be find it easier to organise information through writing.
Other disadvantages for oral communication:
- Its not open to everyone
- Can lead to misconceptions because information is sometimes incomplete (lack of details)
- Difficult to maintain and therefore unstable
- Can also lead to mis-belief/mistakes
(14.11.09)