Classifications of Speech Situations ~ StudentNiche

Understanding varied speech situations is one of the prerequisites of learning the communicative competence strategies. These varied speech situations can be classified according to context, style, and intention of the utterances.

Speech Context

The environment, socio-economic conditions, atmosphere, and circumstances can be defined altogether as the context of communication. Speech Context is categorized into four. These are also known as levels or types of communication.

Intrapersonal

“The message is made up of your thoughts and feelings. The channel is your brain, which processes what you are thinking and feeling. There is feedback in the sense that as you talk to yourself, you discard certain ideas and replace them with others.” (Hybels & Weaver, 2012, p 16)

This refers to communication that occurs within oneself. Talking to oneself often happens when making a decision, praying, reflecting, and writing diaries.

Interpersonal

“The inter part of the word highlights how interpersonal communication connects people… when you engage in interpersonal communication, you and another person become linked together… The personal part means that your unique qualities as a person matter during interpersonal communication…” (Solomon & Theiss, 2013, p 5)

Interpersonal can be classified into two:

Dyad - occurs between two people.
Small Group - involves a group engaging in face-to-face interaction for the purpose of achieving a common goal.

Public Communication

“In public communication, unlike in interpersonal and small group, the channels are more exaggerated. The voice is louder and the gestures are more expansive because the audience is bigger. The speaker might use additional visual channels such as slides or a Power Point presentation.” (Hybels & Weaver, 2012, p 19)

Message is delivered before an audience and there is less to no chance of interaction in this type. In any types of public speech, the speaker is always responsible in preparing for the speech and in taking control during the actual delivery.

Mass Communication

The message in this type is sent through particular media such as television, radio, internet, newspapers, magazines, and billboards.

Speech Style

Every speeh context demands a different style of communication. Speech style mainly talks about the levels of formality in language use as described by Martin Joos (1961).

Intimate

It is a private conversation which occurs between or among close family members of individuals. Most of the messages shared at an intimate level must be dealt with privacy.

Casual

This often occurs among friends, peers, and acquaintances. One may use colloquial expressions, informal language, slang, and vernacular.

Consultative

It is a standard form of communication that utilizes a professional tone and a mutually acceptable language. This type of communication often occurs between students and teachers, doctors and patients, among others.