Oral communication is one of the most important skills you can have, whether you’re talking to a colleague, giving a presentation or just having a casual chat. There’s a common myth, based on research by Professor Albert Mehrabian, that only 7% of professional communication is verbal, with 93% being non-verbal. While this statistic is often misquoted and misunderstood, one thing is clear: verbal communication still plays a huge role in how we connect and get our ideas across.
In fact, any successful and self-respecting person knows that they won’t get very far without strong oral communication skills. Whether you’re leading a team, pitching an idea, or simply having a conversation, the way you speak can make all the difference. Words matter – they help us clarify our thoughts, express our emotions, and build relationships, both in our personal lives and in our careers.
In this article, we’ll look at 12 proven ways to improve your oral communication skills. These simple but effective tips will help you speak with confidence, listen more attentively, and communicate your ideas more clearly. Whether you’re looking to advance your career, improve teamwork, or just become a better conversationalist, these strategies will help you get the most out of every conversation.
Let’s get started!
What is oral communication?
Oral communication is about conveying information through spoken words. It’s not just about talking; it’s about being able to send and receive both spoken and written messages effectively. Whether you’re having a casual chat or giving a formal presentation, your ability to communicate clearly can make all the difference in how well your message is understood.
It’s not just about the meaning of your message, it’s also about how you deliver it. The way you speak – your tone, pace, and even body language – plays a huge role in how your message is received. A creative and thoughtful approach to communication can capture attention and keep your audience engaged. Good communication is an art, and the better you get at it, the more effectively you’ll be able to connect with others.
Effective oral communication is key to building a successful career. Whether you’re speaking up in meetings, negotiating with clients, or delivering a big presentation, your communication skills can help you stand out from the crowd. Correct speech and strong listening skills are essential to avoid misunderstandings, and mastering these skills can open doors to career progression in our increasingly connected, digital world.
Advantages of oral communication
- Immediate feedback: oral communication is perfect for getting quick results or feedback
- Personal touch: oral communication may take place between two people or a group of people, in both cases, it’s more personal than using a written communication
- Flexibility: the speaker can express his thoughts in different ways, and correct what has been told before if that wasn’t understood
- Individual or group communication is used at meetings and conferences to deliver messages to several people at the same time
- Effectiveness of oral communication is higher than when using other types of communication
Disadvantages of oral communication
- No records of the conversation for future reference
- The time-consuming process if the meeting is not limited by the time it can take longer than expected
- Misunderstanding by some parties if someone doesn’t make himself clear enough or makes his speech too long
- Long messages when used in oral communication may distract attention and not be retained in the opponent’s memory
12 Life hacks to improve oral communication
- Take Some Mental Notes
- Use the mirror to practice speech
- Read fiction literature
- Listen to audiobooks
- Get rid of filler words
- Work on turning passive vocabulary into active
- Take notice of your body language
- Watch public speaking
- Use varied dictionaries
- Speak confidently
- Become an active listener
- Play word table-top games
1. Take some mental notes
Preparing and thinking over your speech in advance is always a good idea. Try to write down the thesis of your speech to structure it and highlight the main issues.
If you are planning to speak in front of an audience, make a communication plan for your speech on paper. For each item, I recommend writing down the main theses.
To make it easy, you can use note-taking apps with stylus to record important information when preparing or just to memorize words.
2. Use the mirror to practice speech
One of the best ways to boost oral communication is just to spend several minutes a day standing in front of a mirror and talking. Pick a topic, set a timer for 2-3 minutes, and just talk.
The essence of this exercise is to watch how your mouth, face, and body move when you speak. You may feel as if you are talking to someone, so imagine that you are having a conversation with your workmate.
Talk for 2-3 minutes. Do not stop! If you stutter, try to rephrase the thought. You can always look up the word you forgot. Therefore, you will understand exactly what words or sentences you have difficulty with.
3. Reading fiction literature
Do this not only to enjoy the plot and emotions but also to improve your speaking skills. It is important to read books written in ornate literary language, paying attention to grammatical constructions, new words, epithets, and metaphors used for description.
Careful text analysis and its further retelling will help better understand and remember literary techniques, use them more naturally in spontaneous speech, develop your speaking skills, and expand your vocabulary.
Considering the number of metaphors, epithets, and outstanding grammatical structures, I would advise reading books such as ‘The Blind Assassin’ by Margaret Atwood, ‘Cloud Atlas’ by David Mitchell, and ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.
Note: According to research by Statista, almost 90% of graduates in Mexico stated that oral communication played a big role in their careers. This further emphasizes that your oral communication skills can boost morale and productivity, and promote teamwork.
4. Listen to audiobooks
In my opinion, this point could be combined with the previous one, but reading printed and listening to audiobooks is significantly different. While listening to books, you can not only learn to speak more competently and replenish vocabulary but also pay attention to intonation, pauses, logical stress, timbre, and tempo.
Professionally recorded audiobooks can be a real treasure trove of useful information for those who want to stop talking monotonously and inexpressive. After all, the effect produced depends not only on WHAT is said but also on HOW it is pronounced.
Intonation can convey mood, feelings, and thoughts. Don’t believe it? Try to pronounce one word with a different intonation and feel the difference. You can also use free text-to-speech software to listen to audiobooks, which can help you improve your pronunciation and intonation. Intonation can convey mood, feelings, and thoughts.
5. Get rid of filler words for better oral communication
Filler words are very common and difficult to eradicate. They spoil oral speech and sometimes, instead of delving into the essence, you focus on “like”, “well”, “so”, and “believe me”.
Eventually, you begin to perceive them as literary works inherent in the language of an educated person. In fact, it is unfortunate that your interlocutor will associate you with memorising these superfluous words.
Filler words live in spontaneous speech not as separate units, but as “substitutes”. People use them when it is hard to choose the right expression and they need to immediately fill a pause.
They cover the “gaps” in the story, but they really interfere with listeners. To find and eradicate filler words in your speech, you can record your voice and listen to it.
However, thinking about how to improve oral communication skills in practice, you should start with thinking over a system of penalties, when for each uttered “like”, “well”, “so”, “believe me”, etc. you will need to do something useful (learn a new word or do 5 squats).
Pro tip: After getting rid of the filler words, you need to train constantly, coming up with a variety of tasks. Choose an object and try to give it the most informative and coherent description within 5 minutes. Come up with a topic and express your thoughts using properly built grammatical constructions, metaphors, and epithets.
6. Work on transitioning passive vocabulary to active
Try to replenish your spontaneous speech with not only common words/phrases but also rarely used ones. Search in memory for terms, synonyms, and epithets.
But be careful not to mislead your interlocutor or brag about your education. It is about learning to speak clearly and coherently, using a rich vocabulary to clarify your expressions, conveying meaning more fully, and avoiding misunderstandings.
Here is such a paradox – to expand the vocabulary and introduce new expressions into your speech, trying to simplify it.
7. Take notice of your body language
Although body language is a nonverbal communication method, it has a huge impact on how you convey information. Getting your audience interested in listening to you is not difficult – relax, keep your arms uncrossed, and your body at ease.
Other best ways to boost oral communication through body language involve making eye contact and maintaining good posture. To draw the audience’s attention to the necessary points, try to use gestures and facial expressions.
However, don’t go overboard, as excessive gestures can look comical and feigned, which means they will distract listeners from your message.
8. Watch public speaking
On the way to improve your oral communication skills, it’s also useful to refer to other people’s lectures, as well as films and performances, and observe the use of nonverbal ways of communication.
It’s a good exercise to watch movies with the sound off when you need to understand without words the story presented and the character’s feelings.
I used to watch TED Talks, created by pro-level speakers. These videos are a great way to hone your skills, and with subtitles in over 100 languages, they are available to everyone. Thus, you can not only learn new words but also see how to hold your audience and be confident during the speech.
Pro Tip: I recommend training in front of a mirror to practice facial expressions and gestures. It’s even better to record your speech on video and then analyze it. Typically we can’t see how others perceive us, so it will be useful to look at ourselves through their eyes.
9. Use varied dictionaries
Don’t forget about explanatory and spelling dictionaries. There is no shame in referring to them to find a good word or making sure that it is pronounced correctly. Nowadays all of them are mobile-friendly allowing you to find a word in just a couple of taps.
How to improve oral communication skills using different dictionaries? Make learning one catchphrase your morning routine, and try to use it properly throughout the day. This greatly contributes to the development of spontaneous speech.
Calendars with new words, dictionaries of epithets and metaphors, synonyms, and antonyms are no less useful. Try not just to learn new words but also to use them as often as possible.
Regular training will make you a confident and interesting speaker and your speech more competent and exciting. You will notice how easy it will become for you to speak in front of an audience, and controlling your speech will turn into a habit.
10. Speak confidently for good oral communication
None of the methods will work without your self-confidence. If you don’t believe what you’re saying, listeners feel it and don’t believe it either. Your listeners should trust you and be interested in what you dwell on.
There are many tricks to demonstrate your confidence. They relate to your self-perception, intonation, etc.
The most universal is to prepare the outline of your future speech. It can be both written and mental, as you prefer. It is not necessary to compose a whole scenario of a speech – just define the main theses.
With the help of such notes, you will define the direction of your interaction with the audience and the key aspects of a conversation.
11. Become an active listener
Being a good listener is just as valuable as being a good speaker. Listening is an integral part of synchronous communication. To get started, remember the five steps of active listening:
- Receive
- Understand
- Remember
- Evaluate
- Respond
By following these simple rules, you will show your interlocutor that you are sincere and interested in what he is saying. By summarizing everything that has been said and asking clarifying questions, you will endear the interlocutor and achieve common ground faster.
12. Play word table-top games
I advise you to pay attention to those games that develop memory and replenish vocabulary. There are “Hangman”, “Scrabble”, “Chalkboard Acronym”, etc. allowing you to get wants and needs met.
During the game, each participant can learn many new words and their meaning, remember something from passive vocabulary, and show quick wit and ingenuity.
You can have a great time while waiting or on the road by downloading the game to your smartphone. If the game is designed for a team, involve your friends or even strangers to meet new people and practice your communication skills.
Bonus: handy tips and exercises for improving articulation/dictation
To improve oral communication and spontaneous speech particularly, you can try various life hacks:
- Read aloud and with expression to train a good rate of speech, correct intonation, and rehearse facial expressions and gestures.
- Don’t be afraid to involve experienced teachers and attend public speaking training – a specialist can give good advice and correct mistakes.
- Practice spontaneous speech more often – even if it is difficult and scary, nothing will work without practice. At first, not everything may be very rosy, but the voice, speech apparatus, and diction will develop gradually.
- Sing frequently to improve your voice and develop intonation flexibility.
- Get acquainted with interesting people with a well-defined speech, discuss new performances and books, listen to them, and communicate with them.
Where to start improving oral communication?
Effective oral communication is more than just speaking clearly – it is about engaging your audience, connecting with others, and expressing your ideas with confidence. Whether you’re giving a presentation, taking part in a meeting, or simply having a conversation, the ability to communicate well is what separates good communicators from truly great ones. By focusing on both your speaking and listening skills, you can open up new opportunities and make a lasting impression in every interaction.
Improving your oral communication skills isn’t just about talking – it’s also about listening. Active listening helps you understand others better and build stronger relationships with colleagues, clients, and even friends. The better you listen and respond thoughtfully, the more effective and authentic your conversations will be. As you become more adept at expressing yourself and understanding those around you, you’ll see the positive impact it has on both your professional and personal life.
This article is for anyone who wants to improve their communication skills – whether you’re a speaker, content creator, manager, or just someone who wants to communicate more effectively. Whatever your background, improving your oral communication skills will help you present your ideas with clarity, connect with people more easily, and ultimately make your voice heard in the most powerful way possible.
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