Oral communication is the ability to transmit ideas from your brain to either one person or a group of people. Good use of verbal skills means
presenting an idea clearly while each thought is articulated in a cohesive manner. It has everything to do with the language that we choose to use.

Oral communication is communicating with spoken words. It’s a verbal form of communication where you communicate your thoughts, present ideas and share information.

Examples of oral communication are conversations with friends, family or colleagues, presentations and speeches.

Types of Communication

1. Face-to-face conversations.
2. Telephone conversations.
3. Discussions that take place at business meetings.

The 5 elements of oral communication

1. Sender: The sender is the person who initiates communication to the receiver.
2. Medium: The medium is the format in which the message is being sent. For example, a voicemail, a face-to-face conversation or a Power Point presentation.
3. Channel: The channel is the platform on which the message is delivered. For example, a podcast, a telephone or a meeting.
4. Receiver: The receiver listens and decodes the message sent by the sender. The receiver then generates feedback for the sender in response to the message.
5. Feedback: This final stage is the reaction of the receiver, such as oral or written communication. No response from the receiver is also a type of feedback. This completes the entire oral communication cycle.

Types of oral communication

1. One-on-one conversations: Conversation between two friends, employees or with one’s manager. This could be personal, professional or just sharing motivational quotes between each other.
2. Meetings: Decision-making meetings and information-sharing meetings, often applicable to business meetings.
3. Group discussions: Book club gathering, small group project.
4. Speeches: Political debate, motivational speech.
5. Presentations: Teaching students in a classroom, instructional presentation or elevator pitch.
6. Electronic: Talking over the phone, listening to a show on the radio.

Advantages of oral communication:

1. Less chance of any misunderstanding
2. Allows for easy, clear vernacular
3. Face to face communications promotes better understanding, patience and productivity.
4. Promotes discussion and encourages streamlined banter

Principles of Oral Presentation:

1. Well-Planned: Before presenting something, there should be proper planning regarding the audience, topics to be delivered, timing, and other factors: So, a person must be well-prepared to deliver his speech.
2. Clear pronunciation: To make oral messages meaningful to receivers, words should be clearly and correctly pronounced. There should not be any lack of clarity, otherwise, the communication would be confusing.
3. Brevity: Effective oral communication desires that a message should be brief. If the sender took a long time for talking, his message may not get the attention of the receiver.
4. Precision: Precision is needed to make oral communication effective. There should not be any confusing words rather a message to be delivered should be specific so that there is no misunderstanding.
5. Natural voice: Any sort of unnatural voice may distort the message. A natural voice can do a lot to make oral communication effective.
6. Logical sequence: Ideas should be organized in a sequential way to make the message communicative and attractive. Unorganized ideas do not provide a clear sense while a logical sequence of ideas gives a clear sense.
7. Suitable words: Words have different meanings to different people in different situations in oral communication, a speaker should use common, simple, and familiar words so that the receiver can react to the message without any problem.
8. Courteous: Courtesy costs nothing but can earn many things. So, a speaker should be courteous while addressing listeners. It helps create a good impression in the mind of listeners regarding the speaker.
9. Attractive presentation: It is another principle to make oral communication effective. A speaker should deliver his speech in very nice and sweet language so that the receiver is attracted to take part in the communication.
10. Avoiding Emotions: Speaker must control his emotions to make oral communication effective. Too much emotion will take the speaker away from the main subject.
11. Emphasis: The speaker must be knowledgeable regarding the portion of the speech where he should give emphasis. Giving emphasis on respective points will help draw the attention of the audience.
12. Controlling Gesticulation: The speaker on many occasions, consciously or unconsciously, gesticulates for expressing his ideas or thoughts. This is a habit and should be avoided. Otherwise, the application of such a habit may lead to % disinterest of the audience.

Besides, objective information, the capacity of the listener, interesting language, and proper fluency should be considered also as the principles of oral communication.