Oral Communication - Advantages and Disadvantages

If people were given a choice, we would all rather talk to each other than write to each other. It takes hardly any time and there is no question of rewriting, editing or distributing. Oral communication also provides immediate feedback. Oral Communication, however, limits the scope of legal validity to the message and increases the chances of miscommunication. This means there are both advantages and disadvantages of oral communication. The following post will run through the advantages and disadvantages of oral communication briefly.

Advantages of Oral Communication:

• Saves Time: Oral Communication saves a lot of time when compared to other kinds of communication. One need not spend time on writing, editing, sending and waiting for feedback. Everything happens instantly in oral communication.
• Less expensive: Since oral communication does not need stationery and ink and does not incur postal charges in sending the message, it is least expensive. Most of the times, oral communication is also totally free.

• Instant Feedback: As discussed above, the only form of communication that gives a scope for instant feedback is oral communication. One need not wait at all for the message to reach its intended recipient and for the intended recipient to get back to the original sender. All that happens fairly quickly within the blink of an eye.
• Develops Relations: Gone are the days when you had a pen friend in Australia or Germany. Now you have several friends who are in constant touch over the phone or social networking sites, especially the ones which offer facilities of video chat, etc. Talking frequently with someone develops relationship with the person and helps better understanding.

• Motivates The Speaker: Since there is instant feedback, the speaker is often motivated to continue speaking and does so with a renewed vigour. This lacks in written communication, where the original sender is not able to even see the reader of the message.
• Confidential and Secret Information: Oral communication can be used to deliver confidential and secret information. The confidentiality can be maintained by ensuring that no other person is within hearing distance and the surroundings are not bugged by electronic surveillance devices.

Disadvantages of Oral Communication:

• Problem of Retention: Not all of oral communication is always retained. Even while receiving the information, there is always a chance that some part may be missed or not understood at all. In written communication, one can always go back to the text.
• Lacks Legal Validity: Oral communication usually has not record and therefore lacks legal validity. In case of any dispute, the speaker can easily deny the facts and figures which he may have spoken. Therefore, oral communication lacks legal validity.

• Lacks Accountability: One cannot be held responsible for what one said or uttered due to the lack of permanent record of oral conversations. Therefore, one can easily get away with it as one cannot be held accountable for one's words.
• Chances of Misunderstanding: Oral communications are at a greater risk of being misunderstood. The audience may not pay attention and therefore fail to grasp the essence of the message or the manner of speaking of the speaker (pronunciation or accent) may also affect the quality of the message being conveyed and thus aid miscommunication.

• Problem of Distance: Oral communication may not always be suitable for extremely long distances due to technical glitches in the telephone network or the instrument itself. This, although not a drawback of oral communication by itself, is another factor which makes it unreliable at times.
• Not suitable for lengthy official messages: Imagine a friend recollecting the complete details of a legal contract. One does not have the patience to listen to such long message nor is it feasible. Long messages must always be written down to make it easier to be understood and comprehended at the same time.

• Diversion of subject matter: It is quite easy to get distracted and deviate from the topic being addressed during an oral conversation. Unlike, in written communication, the person can go back and edit the irrelevant matter, here, the damage has already been done and cannot be rectified.

Advantages and disadvantages of written communication.. Coming soon.. Stay tuned..