Page 25 - DENG102_COMMUNICATION_SKILLS_II

Communication Skills-II

notes at the right moments. Incorrect use of pauses can create problems. A pause can be highly
effective in emphasizing the upcoming subject and in gaining the listener’s attention. But it
must also be noted that frequent, arbitrary pauses spoil the speech and distract the listener’s
attention. It is, therefore, very important for a speaker to carefully monitor his pauses.
4. Non-fluencies: Speech is not always a continuous string of meaningful words. There
are, as we have noted above, pauses scattered at intervals. These pauses are very often
inserted with sounds or utterances like ‘ah’, ‘oh’, ‘uh’, ‘um’, ‘you know’, ‘ok’ etc. They
are also sometimes inserted with laughing, yawning or chuckling. Sometimes they may
be effective by inviting the listener’s attention or by giving a nonverbal edge to the verbal
communication. They are called ‘non-fluencies’. It is rather interesting to see that carefully
and sparingly used they add to the fluency of the speaker, give him time to breathe or relax,
make the listener more alert and get the message conveyed overtly or covertly. But too
frequent insertion of these non-fluencies irritates the listener.

5. Volume variation: Volume is another voice quality that frequently conveys meanings,
especially in conjunction with rate. We must speak loud enough for all of our audience to
hear, but not too loud. The loudness of our voice should be adjusted according to the size of
our audience. Softness and loudness in volume determines the meaning specifically. Voice
volume tends to vary with emotional and personality characteristics. Loudness of voice
seems to occur in conjunction with anger, cheerfulness, joy, strength, fearlessness, activity,
and high status. Softness in volume appears with affection, boredom, sadness, intimacy,
empathy, fear, passivity, weakness, and low status.
6. Pronunciation: People pronounce words differently. There variations in pronunciation
convey different meanings to different people.
Word Stress

Word stress is of crucial importance in communication or transmission of the intended meaning.
By putting stress or emphasis on a word here or a word there in the same sentence or utterance
we can change the whole meaning.

Example: Let us read the following series of statements, emphasizing the underlined
word in each:
Vaishnavi sings like a nightingale.
Vaishnavi sings like a nightingale.
Vaishnavi sings like a nightingale.
Vaishnavi sings like a nightingale.

Even though the same words are used in these sentences/statements, we give different meaning
to them by concentrating on the underlined words.
It is not always whole words that are emphasized in this way. Stressing or emphasizing syllables
or parts of spoken words also changes the meaning as, for example, in the following words:
Conduct (Noun) Conduct (Verb)
Accent (Noun) Accent (Verb)
This way of looking at language takes us into the area of phonetics that is the science of speech
sounds. Every educated speaker knows how important it is to put stress or force or emphasis on
the word or part of word concerned.

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