Page 113 - SREENARAYANAGURU OPEN UNIVERSITY

f Summarise at the end: It is always yourselves with the help of a smart phone. You
good to make it clear about what can also request your friends and colleagues
was discussed or agreed during to record your conversations with them. The
the conversation. This will further recording should not be too long as it may be
put everything understandable by difficult for you to analyse it later. Five to ten
reducing any possible misunder- minutes is ideal.
standings.
Once the recording is done, you can work
on the following points:
f Ask, if you don’t understand: It is
always wise to use this idea while f Observe the speed at which you
communicating via telephone. spoke. Was it suitable for the sit-
If the native language is not the uation? Was it similar to the pace
communication language, there of the person you were speaking
will be chances of not getting the to?
points the other person wants to f Watch on the hesitation phrases
share. Or there may also be ex- (such as hum, Mmm, ahh, etc.)
ternal factors such as background that appeared in your talk. It
noise. The reason doesn’t matter, won’t matter much if you use it
just ask for clarification, then the sometimes, but try to avoid using
communication will be effective. it too often.
f Does your intonation suit the emo-
tion of the words that you use?
3�2�2 The Practice of Self-recording For example, if you are speaking

There are three things to be taken care of about something good, does your
intonation sound positive?
while speaking a language: knowing the apt Could you respond appropriately
words (vocabulary), arranging the words in f
the correct order (grammar), and uttering the to the other person in the conver-
sation? If they raised a question,
words properly (pronunciation). Problems
associated with all these three can be solved by did you answer it? Similarly, if
they shared some new informa-
adopting the self-recording strategy. Self-anal- tion, did you respond to it with
ysis is a major pathway in learning something
new. By doing self-recording, you understand befitting phrases expressing grat-
itude?
your level of improvement and make multiple
attempts of self-correction. Now, why should f Were you giving the other person
a chance to express their views
we record our speaking? Recording own voice and ideas? Or were you just re-
and then listening back to it has a number of
benefits in communication. It is only when we sponding to what they said rath-
er than contributing any of your
can listen back to something we have spoken
own suggestions?
that we get the exact understanding of our Were you able to listen to the vo-
manner of speaking, fluency, timing, accuracy f cabulary you have used? Were
etc.
those words apt for the situation
It is very convenient these days to record and person you were speaking

SGOU - FYUGP - SLM - English for Communication 107