By Whether you speak with some over the phone or face to face, people often relate verbal communication with what’s being spoken. They often pay attention to the words of the speaker. But does verbal communication is all about the words?
Think about it, when you observe the speaker, don’t you notice their body language, their tone of speech, or whether they are making eye contact? Most of us notice these small signs during conversation or speech. These signs, after all, say more than your words do. And to know about these signs, to be a good speaker, you should know what is verbal communication first.
What is verbal communication?
In technical terms, verbal communication is a process of sharing information by using speech. Now, let’s bust some common myths about verbal communication here.
First is verbal communication involves more than just words being spoken. It involves tone of voice, language, as well as speech. And second, the important thing to know is verbal communication involves spoken as well as written communication.
However, as with every process of information sharing, be it digital transmission or broadcasting, the communication process involves barriers that can hinder your experience of gaining knowledge or information.
For instance, you choose to speak in a language your audience can’t understand. This type of barrier is called the language barrier.
Before we talk more about verbal communication and its types, let’s know about the different communication barriers. So you can manage and control those to ensure your audience receives and understands most of what you are saying.
Communication barriers
- Language barrier
- Cultural barriers
- Gender barrier
- Interpersonal barrier
- Physical barrier
- Emotional barrier
Now that you briefly know about the verbal communication barriers that you have to manage, let’s discuss the types of verbal communication to choose from depending on the purpose of your communication.
Types of verbal communication
- Intrapersonal communication
As the name suggests, this communication is extremely private and restricted to the people involved in the communication – you and yourself.
You might have guessed already; intrapersonal communication is the communication we have with ourselves, self-talk, if you may call it. This form of communication often helps us to listen to our thoughts and analyze and process them in the right way. This often helps understand certain subjects or situations better.
An example of it is something we all have tried during our school years, reading about a certain concept and repeating it to ourselves to make sure we have understood the concept.
- Interpersonal communication
Interpersonal communication happens between two individuals. You may also call it a one-on-one conversation. Here, both the speaker and listener may swap the roles to communicate ideas or information clearly.
- Group communication
Whether it is a team meeting that you attended yesterday, coffee conversations with friends or colleagues, or a client conference, all of these conversations are a form of group communication.
Group communication involves two-way communication among a group of more than two people. However, the group is small enough, so everyone involved has a chance to participate in a conversation, team meetings, for example.
However, you should hold group discussions with proper agenda in mind. Group communication without a proper goal or direction can turn into chaos. As a result, the information or idea shared can either be lost in chaos or misunderstood by the listeners.
- Public communication
Imagine an auditorium full of the audience while one or few speakers are addressing the audience. Election rallies and public speeches are good examples of public speaking.
In this form of communication, receivers usually don’t get a chance to participate in the conversation actively.
Choosing a form of communication depends on the purpose of communication. Whether you choose to share your thoughts with your colleague, a team, or the whole company, make sure you use 7 C’s of communication to deliver your ideas or information in a clear, concise, and confident manner.
