TYPES OF COMMUNICATIVE STRATEGY

Emalyn R. Chua, LPT

Vianne Bonville T. Simbulan, LPT
John Mark B. Angeles, LPT

Contributors
 TYPES OF COMMUNICATIVE STRATEGY

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN?

This module has been designed to help you:
• distinguish various types of communicative strategies.
• use acceptable, polite, and meaningful communicative strategies.
• engage in a communicative situation.
• explain the effects of a shift in communicative strategy.
• demonstrate effective use of communicative strategy in a variety of speech
situations.
• practice learning and thinking skills, life skills, and ICT literacy; and
• reflect on your learning on the types of communicative strategy.

WHAT MATERIALS DO YOU NEED?

• Oral Communication CM No. 5
• Notebook
• Pen

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 Dear Bullpup,
Welcome to a new year of learning communication! After gaining information
from the writing process, we will be applying your written learning in this oral
communication course.
Among other things, this course will help you do the following:

• defines communication.
• explains the nature and process of communication.
• differentiates the various models of communication.
• distinguishes the unique feature(s) of one communication process from the other.
• explains why there is a breakdown of communication.
• uses various strategies in order to avoid communication breakdown.
• demonstrates sensitivity to the sociocultural dimension of communication situation
with focus on culture, gender, age, social status, and religion.
• discusses the functions of communication.
• identifies the speaker’s purpose(s);
• watches and listens to sample oral communication activities.
• ascertains the verbal and nonverbal cues that each speaker uses to achieve
his/her purpose.
• comprehends various kinds of oral texts.
• identifies strategies used by each speaker to convey his/her ideas effectively.
• evaluates the effectiveness of an oral communication activity.
• identifies the various types of speech context.
• exhibits appropriate verbal and nonverbal behavior in a given speech context.
• observes the appropriate language forms in using a particular speech style.
• engages in a communicative situation using acceptable, polite and meaningful
communicative strategies.
• distinguishes types of speeches; and
• uses principles of effective speech delivery in different situations.

I know this might sound challenging for you, but I believe you will flourish again
in this course.
Let’s get it started!

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 WHAT’S INSIDE THIS MODULE

LESSON 5: TYPES OF COMMUNICATIVE

STRATEGY

▪ Types of Communicative Strategy

- Nomination
- Restriction
- Turn-taking
- Topic Control
- Topic Shifting Repair
- Termination

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 PRE-TASK

• For the entire lesson, you will go on an imaginary field trip.

• Below is the link to “Tara Na Biyahe Tayo,” an MTV performed by
various Filipino artists with the common goal of encouraging Pinoys
to visit and explore the wonderful places in the Philippines. While
watching the video clip, think about what for you is a must-see in
the country.
“Tara Na, Byahe Tayo”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbO6LPZ9N8Q
• After watching the video, group yourselves into five members
each. Decide on the “Most Exciting Tourist Spot” in the country.
Assign a speaker who will share your decision and reasons for this
with the class. You have 10 minutes.
• As soon as all the groups have presented their decisions, you will
vote for the “Most Exciting Tourist Spot in the Philippines.”

People communicate every day to establish and maintain

relationships, know, and understand themselves, and find meaning in the
daily grind. Moreover, s i n c e h u m a n s a r e s o c i a l b e i n g s who survive
more effectively through sensible discourses, they are always driven to
learn the skills of creating and sustaining meaningful conversations.
Successful communication requires understanding of the relationship
between words and sentences and the speech acts they represent.
However, a conversation may be complex at times; that is why some
people get lost along the way and misunderstand each other. It is only

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 when we willingly cooperate and speak in socially- approved ways that
we can make a conversation meaningful.

Types of Communicative Strategy

Since engaging in conversation is also bound by implicit rules, Cohen

(1990) states that strategies must be used to start and maintain a
conversation. Knowing and applying grammar appropriately is one of
the most basic strategies to maintain a conversation. The following are
some strategies that people use when communicating.

1. Nomination
A speaker carries out nomination to collaboratively and productively
establish a topic. Basically, when you employ this strategy, you try to open
a topic with the people you are talking to.
When beginning a topic in a conversation, especially if it does not arise
from a previous topic, you may start off with news inquiries and news
announcements as they promise extended talk. Most importantly, keep
the conversational environment open for opinions until the prior topic shuts
down easily and initiates a smooth end. This could efficiently signal the
beginning of a new topic in the conversation.

2. Restriction
Restriction in communication refers to any limitation you may have as
a speaker. When communicating in the classroom, in a meeting, or
while hanging out with your friends, you are typically given specific
instructions that you must follow. These instructions confine you as a
speaker and limit what you can say.
For example, in your class, you might be asked by your teacher to
brainstorm on peer pressure or deliver a speech on digital natives. In
these cases, you cannot decide to talk about something else. On the
other hand, conversing with your friends during ordinary days can be far
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 more casual than these examples. Just the same, remember to always be
on point and avoid sideswiping from the topic during the conversation to
avoid communication breakdown.

3. Turn-taking
Sometimes people are given unequal opportunities to talk because others
take much time during the conversation. Turn-taking pertains to the
process by which people decide who takes the conversational floor. There
is a code of behavior behind establishing and sustaining a productive
conversation, but the primary idea is to give all communicators a chance
to speak.
Remember to keep your words relevant and reasonably short enough to
express your views or feelings. Try to be polite even if you are trying to take
the floor from another speaker. Do not hog the conversation and talk
incessantly without letting the other party air out their own ideas. To
acknowledge others, you may employ visual signals like a nod, a look, or
a step back, and you could accompany these signals with spoken cues
such as “What do you think?” or “You wanted to say something?”

4. Topic Control
Topic control covers how procedural formality or informality affects the
development of topic in conversations. For example, in meetings, you may
only have a turn to speak after the chairperson directs you to do so.
Contrast this with a casual conversation with friends over lunch or coffee
where you may take the conversational floor anytime.
Remember that regardless of the formality of the context, topic control is
achieved cooperatively. This only means that when a topic is initiated, it
should be collectively developed by avoiding unnecessary interruptions
and topic shifts. You can make yourself actively involved in the
conversation without overly dominating it by using minimal responses like
“Yes,” “Okay,” “Go on”; asking tag questions to clarify information briefly
like “You are excited, aren’t you?”, “It was unexpected, wasn’t it?”; and
even by laughing!

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 5. Topic Shifting

Topic shifting, as the name suggests, involves moving from one topic to
another. In other words, it is where one part of a conversation ends and
where another begins.
When shifting from one topic to another, you have to be very intuitive.
Make sure that the previous topic was nurtured enough to generate
adequate views. You may also use effective conversational transitions to
indicate a shift like “By the way,” “In addition to what you said,” “Which
reminds me of,” and the like.

6. Repair

Repair refers to how speakers address the problems in speaking, listening,

and comprehending that they may encounter in a conversation. For
example, if everybody in the conversation seems to talk at the same time,
give way and appreciate other’s initiative to set the conversation back to
its topic.

Repair is the self-righting mechanism in any social interaction (Schegloff

et al, 1977). If there is a problem in understanding the conversation,
speakers will always try to address and correct it. Although this is the case,
always seek to initiate the repair.

7. Termination
Termination refers to the conversation participants’ close-initiating
expressions that end a topic in a conversation. Most of the time, the topic
initiator takes responsibility to signal the end of the discussion as well.
Although not all topics may have clear ends, try to signal the end of the
topic through concluding cues. You can do this by sharing what you
learned from the conversation. Aside from this, soliciting agreement from
the other participants usually completes the discussion of the topic
meaningfully.

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 WHILE-TASK
Identify the type of communicative strategy in each statement.

1. “Do you have anything to say?”

2. “One of the essential lessons I gained from the discussion is the

importance of sports and wellness to a healthy lifestyle.”

3. “Excuse me? I think we should speak one at a time, so we can

clearly understand what we want to say about the issue.”

4. “Go on with your ideas. I’ll let you finish first before I say
something.”

5. “Have you heard the news about the latest achievement of our
government?”

6. “Hey, how are you? I missed you!”

7. “Best regards to your parents! See you around!”

8. “Good to see you. Anyway, I came to visit you because I want to

personally offer apologies for what I did yesterday.”

9. “Sorry, I can’t decide on that now. I am still focused on my

writing assignment. Let’s talk next time, okay?”

10. “Now, it’s your turn to ask questions.”

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 TIME TO REFLECT

Reflect on what you have learned after taking up this lesson by completing the
chart below.

What were
I thought…
your thoughts
or ideas about
the topic
before taking
up a lesson

on types of
communication
strategy?

I learned that…

What new or
additional ideas
have you had
after taking up
this lesson?

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 SUMMARY

• Different Types of Communicative Strategies

o Nomination
o Restriction
o Turn-taking
o Topic-Control
o Topic Shifting
o Repair
o Termination

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 REFERENCE

Sipacio, P., Balgos, A. (2019). Oral Communication in Context for Senior High
School. Quezon City. C & E Publishing Inc.

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