The document discusses the use of English in oral communication. It covers several key topics: 1. It describes important elements of spoken English like pronunciation, stress and intonation. It explains concepts like phonemes, sounds, syllables and prosodic features. 2. It discusses the importance of oral communication in business contexts for internal communication, customer service and expressing ideas. 3. It provides guidance on improving English pronunciation including distinguishing similar sounds like 'v' and 'w' and placing stress correctly to avoid changing a word's meaning.

1. Use of English in
oral communication

2. Presenters
Eisha Safdar Malaika Waqar Hiba Naseer Fatima Jilani

3. ● The rhythmic patterns of English speech
● The choice of tone and its significance
● Pause
● Fluency in spoken English
● Classification of sounds
● The study of phoneme
● The syllable
● Prosodic feature of an utterance
● Pitch and intonation
● What is oral communication
● Importance and objectives of oral communication in business
● Use of English in Oral Communication
○ The phoneme
○ Sounds of English speech
○ Phonetic symbols: The IPA symbols
Content
● Pronunciation
● Change of meaning by the stress shift
● The English phonemic system and its notation
● How to improve your pronunciation

4. Oral Communication
The ability to transmit ideas from your brain to either one person or a group of
people.
Oral communication takes place in face-to-face conversations, group
discussions, telephonic calls and other circumstances in which spoken words
are used to express meanings.

5. Importance and objectives of oral communication in business
Communication is perhaps the most essential component in business. Without communication, companies
cannot interact with their customers. Internally, confusion will arise and slow productivity. Without well-
defined oral communication skills, a worker will not likely advance in his or her career and may even be
terminated.
1) Internal Oral Communication
• Important for both individual and organization
• language and verbal exchanges within a company
• Necessary to be a good manager
• Internal oral communication is also valuable to the employee while speaking with his or her superiors.
2) Customer Service Communication Skills
• Listening to the customers
• Being patient
• Displaying empathy
• Understanding the issue or problem

6. 3) Importance of communicating ideas
Expressing your ideas positively assures the people you are communicating with that you are in
control of everything, even when the situation is leaning towards negative outcomes

7. Use of English in Oral Communication

8. The Phoneme
The phonemes are minimal
unit of a meaningful sound
in a particular language.

9. Sounds of
English Speech
There are 47 sounds of English speech corresponding to 26
letters (alphabet) of written English. Just as there are 5
vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and 21 consonants in the written form of
English.
Phone is a sound which can be meaningful or meaningless.
● Meaningful sound is “phoneme”
● Meaningless sound is “noise”

10. Phonetic
symbols: The
IPA symbols
The scientific study of linguistics that deals with the
production transfer and reception of speech sound.
44 sounds are graphically by phonetic symbols developed by
a body of experts, known as International Phonetic
Association.

11. Classification of
Sounds
Sounds are classified into two types
● Vowels
● Consonants

12. Consonants
There are 24 consonants in phonetics.
Consonants are the phonemes of a particular language in the
production of which there is some blockage , constriction , or
narrowing of the kind causing friction in the oral or nasal
passage.
 Manner of Articulation
 Place of Sounds
 Voiced or unvoiced
 Nasal sounds

14. Vowels
There are 23 vowels in Phonetics.
Vowels are the phonemes of a particular language in the
production of which there is no blockage , constriction or
narrowing of kind causing friction in oral or nasal passage.
Vowels are divided into two types
● Monothongs
● Diphthongs

15. Monothongs
Monothongs are the vowels in the production of which there is no
change in the quality of sound.

16. Diphthongs
Diphthongs are the vowels in the production of which there is
change in quality of sound.

17. Syllables
Syllable is a unit of spoken language consisting of a single
uninterrupted sounds formed generally by a vowel and preceded
or followed by one or more consonants.
For example:
● im- por - tance = 3 syllables
● Wo - man = 2 syllables
● Wo - man - ly = 3 syllables

18. Prosodic
features of an
utterance
Prosody may reflect features of the speaker or the utterance:
their emotional state; the form of utterance ( statement, question,
or command); the presence of irony ; emphasis, contrast , and
focus. It may reflect elements of language not encoded by
grammar or choice of vocabulary.
 Length
 Stress
 Pitch and Intonation

19. Length
Length is shown by the duration and movement of and utterance.
For example, here the following two utterances, both having 5
syllables each
● My aunt is away (5)
● Watch dogs catch much meat (5)

20. Stress
The term stress describes the force or intensity or air pressure in
uttering a word or a part of a word or a sentence. Stress is used
to lay emphasis on the word and it's meaning.
Word Stress
The stressed part of a word is Marked with raised stroke before it,
like
 Conduct = con- duct
 Present = pre - sent
 Production= pro- duction
The place of stress in single syllable words is fixed.
 You have to go there.

21. Stressed in
speech
In linguistics and particularly phonology, stress or accent is the
relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a
word or to a certain word in a phrase or sentences.
 Illness
 Marriage
 Winning

22. Unstressed in
speech
An unstressed syllable is a part of a word that you say with less
emphasis than the stressed syllables.
o Freedom
o Heaven
o Doctor

23. Pitch
Pitch is a perceptual property of Sounds that allows their ordering
on a frequency - related scale, or more commonly , pitch is a
quality that makes it possible to judge sounds as “higher” and
“lower” in the sense associated with musical melodies.

24. Intonation
Pitch is raising and lowering the voice while speaking . The use of
pitch is called intonation.
The way we use changes in pitch to convey the meaning, and
mood.
● You're coming
● You're coming?

25. The rhythmic
patterns of
English speech
English is spoken in a rhythmic way. The speaker's voice keeps
rising and falling continuously in a partnered way. There are
several rhythmic pattern of English speech sound but the two
patterns which are of interest to us are
● The falling tone
● The rising tone
These two tones communicate to opposite attitudes of the
speaker. Therefore, to avoid creating false of impressions it is
necessary that both the speaker and listener knew the
significance and meaning of tone.

26. The choice of
tone and its
significance
The choice of tone is deliberate. And each tone is associated with
the nature and purpose of the utterance.In the Falling tone the
voice start with high and ends low. It is reversed in the rising tone.
The falling tone:-
Is associated with the following types of sentences.
● Commands
○ Bring here
○ Come here
● Statements
○ Can be sincere
Expression and just formal utterance
For example "thank you" can be a sincere expression of gratitude
it it can be just a statement of formality. The difference in the
nature of the statements in expressed by the falling or rising tone
of the speakers.
On business the distinction between the low ending and the high
ending tones is crucial as follows:-
The falling tone convey

27. The choice of
tone and its
significance
The falling tone conveys business like objectivity, sincerity,
excitement, certainty and command. Further examples of falling
tone
1. STATEMENT
Our children don't like the way we run the world for them.
You'll have to come with her now
2. EXCLAMATIONS
Well done!
How difficult!
3. CHOICE QUESTIONS
Do you want to go out or stay?
Would you have tea or some cold drink?
4. INTERROGATIVE STATEMENTS
Statement with question words. What places did you visit
this time?
5. QUESTIONS TAG AS AN EXTENSION OF MEANING
A phrase such as isn't it? Or won't it? That we add at the
end of the statement changes it into a question to find
that someone agrees with us or not.
You're from Delhi, aren't you
You've got it's copy, haven't you?

28. The choice of
tone and its
significance
The Rising Tone
The rising tone is used for the following kind of statement:
1. Request
Post the letter please
Please give me a glass of water.
2. Apologize
We feel so sorry.
I deeply regret the lapse.
3. Yes/No Questions:
Did the test begin on time?
Is our office open?
4. Questions Tags as Real Questions
Customers can be attracted, can't they?
The meeting can be postponed, can't it?

29. Pause
Pausing is one of the best choices you can make when in a
speaking situation. The pause helps you to feel comfortable in
your words and how you are saying them. It gives you time to
breathe in and exhale out. Taking time to breathe is an important,
but often forgotten principle of communication.
Consider the following two utterances with two different pauses.
 A small/bearded person was looking for you.
 A small bearded/ person was looking for you.

30. Fluency in
spoken
English
Fluency means saying words/group of words smoothly, without
hesitating or halting between the words. Fluency is the flow and
efficiency with which you express your ideas, particularly when
speaking. A few grammar mistakes may appear here and there in
the explanation, but it should be delivered in a way that is easy to
understand and shows how comfortable you are with the
language.

31. Methods of
increasing
your fluency
of English
speech
Your fluency depends upon the length of group of words you're
able to speak/say without a gap or hesitation. Therefore to
improve your fluency is to practice to increase the length of the
word groups you speak at a time.
● She came back-by the Monday-evening-flight
● There are three breaks in the utterance.
For practicing fluency you may use the following exercises of
lengthening word groups to be spoken to:
● Who was that-pretty lady-you danced with-at the party?
● It was the-beginning of the holidays when-I went to-
Muscat last month.
● She wants to know how-long she should wait for you-to
reach here.

32. Factors
affecting
fluency of
Foreign
speakers of
English
Lack of confidence: Many foreign learners of English fail to speak
English smoothly. They lack confidence. They communicate with
their mother language fluently with ease. But they find it difficult
to interact with English. They hesitate to speak English because
of lack of practice in speaking English.
To overcome this hesitation, they should practice loud reading to
prose practice smoothly and unhesitatingly. They should follow
the punctuation marks for long and short pauses. They should
gradually increase the speed of reading the text.

33. The special difficulty of foreign speakers of English is owing to
the fact that, unlike Indian languages, English words are not
always pronounced according to their spelling
For example:
Spelling Pronunciation
Rough (ruff)
Doubt (dout)
Cough (coff)
Bough (bow)
Pronunciation

34. Further to be able to pronounce a word correctly,we should know not
only the sounds which form words but also the correct word stress.In
the case of single (mono) syllabic words,there is no difficult.The words
with more than one syllabic follow the following:
● words of two syllables with stress on first syllable
'tea-cher, 'sis-ter, 'he-ro
● words of two syllables with stress on second syllables
con-'sist, be-'hind, be-'gin
● words of two syllables having both the syllables stressed
'half-'term , 'thir-'teen
● words of three syllables with stress on first syllable
'pos-i-tive,'per-i-od
● words of three syllables with stress on second syllable
Com-'mi-tee,ho-'ri-zon
● words of three syllables with stress on third syllable
dis-ap-'point , in-di-'rect
● In words having four or more syllables,the stress usually falls on
the third from last.
de-'moc-ra-cy, pho-'tog-rap-her
Pronunciation

35. A shift in the position of stress in a word changes it's function
and meaning. For example: the word "convict" with the stress on
the first syllable 'con is a noun. If the stress shift to the second
syllable,the word become a verb.
Examples
Word Noun verb
Absent /æbsənt/ /əb'sent/
Accent /æksənt/ /ək'sent/
Protest /prəʊtest/ /prə'test/
Frequent /friːkwənt/ /frɪ'kwent/
Change of
meaning by
the stress shift

36. The English vowels and diphthongs are conveniently considered in five
groups (A,B,C,D,E) below:
● The short vowels are
ɪ kit,sit
e dress,bed
æ flat,map
ʌ jug,nut
● the long vowels and diphthongs are
iː freeze,see
aɪ high,eye
ɔɪ choice,boy
● (RP)
uː goose, too
ɒ goat,show
aʊ wow,now
ɪə near-RP
● (RP)
ɪə near,fear
eə square, hair
ɑː father,start
ɔː thought,law
ʊə cure, pure
The English
phonemic
system and its
notation

37. ● THE WEAK VOWELS ARE:
i (happ)y, (rad)i(ation),(glor)i (ous)
ə a(bout),(comm)a,(comm)o(n)
u (infl)u(ence),(sit)u(ation)
_although the weak vowel system also includes
ɪ i(ntend), (rabb)i(t)
ʊ(stim)u(lus), (ed)u(cate)
● CONSONANTS
The English consonants are:
/p/ /b/, /t/ /d/, /k/ /g/, /f/ /v/, /s/ /z/, /θ/ /ð/, /ʃ/ /ʒ/, /ʈʃ/ /dʒ/,/h/, /w/, /n/, /m/,
/r/, /j/, /ŋ/, /l/.
The symbols p,b,t,d,k,f,v,h,r,I,w,n stands for the English consonants sounds
usually so spelled.
Keywords for the remaining consonants sounds are as follows:
ʈʃ:church,chain
θ:thin,path
s:cease,sister
ʃ:ship,ocean
j:yet
g:go,gloves,give
dʒ:judge
ð:this, smooth, other
z:zone, roses
ʒ:vision
ŋ:sing,long, thanks
Stress is shown by a mark placed at the beginning of the syllable in question,as
the following examples:
Primary word stress:reMEMber
Secondary word stress:ACaDEMic,BUTter
The English
phonemic
system and its
notation

38. The type of pronunciation to be spoken is known as received
pronunciation (RP). In business interactions, this is the model
followed by educated executives. Some common errors of
pronunciation to Be avoided
The correct sound of "r". Some of us roll it too much. For
pronouncing "r" correctly, the tongue is slightly curled from the
sides and drawn back slightly to touch the ridges of the teeth. The
single "r" in the middle and at the end of the words is mostly silent
in English,whereas Indians mostly pronounce it clearly. Try to
pronounce the following words without "r"
army,car,carpet,iron, finger
Exceptions Single "r" is pronounced in the middle of the words
when it appears before vowel sound. For example: career,
paragraph, various
Double "rr" must be pronounced "rr" in a word is to be
pronounced. For example, "curry","sorry".
The "r" at the beginning of a word is pronounced, but it should not
be rolled.
Say this aloud.
Round the ragged rock,the ragged rascal ran.
Notice the position of the tongue while you say these rs at the
beginning of the above words. It is not curled.
How to improve
your
pronunciation

39. For example, the words, "vine" and "wine" or "water" or "vendor"
should not be spoken in the same way, "v" should not sound like
"w". In the above words "v" is pronounced with lower lip touching
the upper row of teeth, but "w" is pronounced with lips in the
rounded form.
To practice the distinction between the sounds of "v" and "w" say
these words.
Love-low, cover-cower, ever-ewer
Avoid mixing
up w and v
sounds

40. “I” and “D” Say the following words: Time, dime, candour, bridal,
demand.
Finally the test of effective spoken English is easy in intelligibility
of words and their quickest response in the desired manner.
Avoid unclear
pronunciation

41. Thank you
Any Questions?

42. ● https://bizfluent.com/about-6520106-importance-oral-
communication-business-english.html
● https://getuplearn.com/blog/oral-communication/
● https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/about/engl
ish/pronunciation_english
References