Types of Communicative

Strategies
 Types of Communicative Strategies
Since engaging in conversation is also bound by implicit rules, Cohen (1990) states that
strategies must be used to start and maintain a conversation. Knowing and applying
grammar appropriately is one of the most basic strategies to maintain a conversation.

7 Types of Strategies that people use when communicating:

1. Nomination
A speaker carries out nomination to collaboratively and productively establish
a topic. When you employ this strategy, you try to open a topic with the people
you are talking to.
When beginning a topic in a conversation, especially if it does not from
previous topic, you may start off with news inquiries and news announcement as
they promise extended talk. Most importantly, keep the conversational
environment open for opinions until the prior topic shuts down easily and initiates
a smooth end. This could efficiently signal the beginning of a new topic in the
conversation.
2. Restriction
Refers to any limitation you may have as speaker. When communicating
in the classroom, in a meeting, or while hanging out with your friends, you
are typically given specific instruction that you must follow. These
instructions confine you as a speaker and limit what you can say.

For example, in your class you might asked by your teacher to

brainstorm on peer pressure or deliver a speech on digital natives. In these
cases, you cannot decide to talk about something else. On the other hand,
conversing with your friends during ordinary days can be far more casual
than these examples. Just the same, remember to always be on point and
avoid sideswiping from the topic during the conversation to avoid
communication breakdown.
3. Turn – taking
Sometimes people are given unequal opportunities to talk because others
take much time during the conversation. Turn – taking pertains to the process
by which people decide who takes the conversational floor. There is a code
of behavior behind establishing and sustaining a productive conversation, but
the primary idea is to give all communicators a chance to speak.

Remember to keep your words relevant and reasonably short enough to

express your views or feelings . Try to be polite even if you are trying to take
the floor from another speaker. Do not hog the conversation and talk
incessantly without letting the other party air out their own ideas. To
acknowledge others, you may employ visual signals like a nod a look or a step
back, and you could accompany these signals with spoken cues such as “
What do you think ” or “ you wanted to say something ”.
4. Topic Control
Topic control covers how procedural formality or informality affects the
development of topic in conversations. For example, in meetings, you may
only have a turn to speak after the chairperson directs you to do so. Contrast
this with a casual conversation with friends over lunch or coffee where you
may take the conversation floor anytime.

Remember that regardless of the formality of the context, topic control is

achieved cooperatively. This only means that when the topic is initiated, it
should be collectively develop by avoiding unnecessary interruptions and
topic shifts. You can make yourself actively involved in the conversation
without overly dominating it by minimal responses like “Yes,” “Okay,” “Go
on,”; asking tags question to clarify information briefly like “You are excited
aren’t you?”, “It was unexpected, wasn’t it”?; and even by laughing!
5. Topic shifting
Topic shifting, as the name suggest, involves moving from one topic to another.
In other words, it is where one part of the conversation ends and where another
begins

When shifting one topic to another, you need to be very intuitive. Make sure
that the previous topic was nurtured enough to generate adequate views. You may
also use effective conversational transitions to indicate a shift like “ By the way”,
“In addition to what you said”, “Which reminds me of”, and the like.
6. Repair
Refers to how the speaker address the problems in speaking, listening,
and comprehending that they encounter in a conversation. For example, if
everybody in the conversation seems to talk at the same time, give way and
appreciate other’s initiative to set the conversation back to its topic.

repair is the self-righting mechanism in any social interaction (Schegloff

et al, 1997). If there is a problem in understanding the conversation,
speakers will always try to address and correct it although this is the case,
always seek to initiate the repair.
7. Termination
Refers to the conversation participants’ close-initiating expressions
that end a topic in a conversation. Most of the time, the topic initiator
takes responsibility to signal the end of the discussion as well.

Although not all topics may have clear ends, try to signal the end of
the topic through concluding cues. You can do this by sharing what you
learned from the conversation. Aside from this soliciting agreement from
the other participants usually complete the discussion of the topic
meaningfully.