NOMINATION refers to the act of the speaker wherein he or she invites the participant to join in the conversation or

discussion. Meanwhile, RESTRICTION refers to the act of the speaker wherein he or she restricts or limits
participants from contributing to the conversation or discussion.

There are two factors to consider for nomination and restriction: social relationships and environment.

Social relationships determine the specific role of the participants whether they can nominate or restrict other
speakers from joining the conversation.
• Higher authorities refer to those who are assigned to control the flow of the conversation. Their role is to ask
questions that will maintain the quality and productivity of communication. For example, interviewers are considered
to be a higher authority since they are responsible for asking questions to the interviewees.
• Lower authorities refer to the participants who start as listeners and are then nominated to be speakers when called
by the higher authorities. They are called using their names. They may also use nonverbal cues to initiate that they
want to join the conversation.

Environment refers to the setting of the conversation. It also determines the roles of the speakers. For example, in a
classroom discussion, teachers nominate or restrict the participants. If the setting is changed into a seminar led by
students, there will be a segment for entertaining questions or comments from the teachers. They may nominate the
teachers who will join the discussion and restrict others.
• One-on-one communication: Tutorials and interviews are common settings for nomination and restriction. For
example, in a job interview, the interviewer interrogates the applicant about his or her personal, educational, and
professional backgrounds. While the interviewer is asking questions, the applicant is restricted from speaking as
doing so may interrupt the interviewer. Once the interviewer is done asking a question, without having to explicitly
mention the applicant's name, he or she is nominated to answer.
• Group communication: Panel discussion, class discussion, forum, and debates involve nomination and restriction. In
a debate, while a participant delivers his or her piece, the other participant is restricted from speaking. He or she must
wait for his or her turn to present his or her argument. Another example is in a forum. After the speaker presents his
or her piece, he or she nominates participants by encouraging them to ask questions about the presentation.

There are also guidelines which you must follow in nominating or restricting participants in a discussion.
• The main speaker should state the topic that will be discussed. It is necessary to give participants an idea on what
will be talked about.
• Calling the participants by their names is the proper way of nominating them in the conversation. Also, the speaker
may use nonverbal cues, such as pointing at the person to signal that he or she may share his or her ideas.
• Participants who wish to join the discussion can perform verbal or nonverbal cues to express their interest. For
example, a participant can raise his or her hand or say "May be allowed to speak?"
• When other participants try to join the discussion even without nomination, the speaker may use verbal and
nonverbal cues to restrict them. He or she can say "Let me finish first, then I'll get back to your question..." or
announce before the discussion starts that "questions or comments will be entertained after the presentation."

Keep in mind that in restricting participants, the speaker or the higher authority should approach them politely or
professionally.
TURN-TAKING
Turn refers to the opportunity given to a speaker to talk, whereas turn-taking is a process in which a participant stops
speaking and yields the floor to another participant so he or she could begin to speak.

There are three turn-taking acts: keep-turn, release turn, and take-turn.
• Keep-turn suggests that a speaker must not stop until he fulfills his purpose in a conversation.
• Release-turn suggests that a speaker is finished talking and is ready to yield the floor to another person to take his
or her turn. He or she may use signals or pause in a conversation.
• Take-turn suggests that another participant can take the role of the speaker.

Signals and cues indicate that a speaker wants to keep, yield, or take his or her turn.
• Intonation signals that a speaker wants to keep or yield his or her turn. Rising and falling intonations indicate that a
speaker is releasing his or her turn. A falling intonation indicates that a speaker is about to end his or her turn, while a
rising intonation implies that a speaker is asking the participants for clarification and confirmation or sometimes to
express disbelief.
• Verbal cues suggest that a speaker wants to yield or to keep his or her turn. For example, calling the participants'
names indicate that a speaker is releasing his or her turn. Meanwhile, using sentence connectors such as
"additionally," "on the contrary," "furthermore," "consequently," or "likewise" suggests the speaker has something more
to say.
• Nonverbal cues or gestures like raising one's hand show that a participant wants to take the floor or speak. Also,
when a speaker points to or fixes his or her gaze on a participant may mean that he or she wants that participant to
speak.

Aside from acts and signals and cues, turn-taking also has rules.
• Limit interruptions - Participants should wait for the speaker to finish first before interrupting.
• Properly timed signals - Participants should wait for verbal and nonverbal cues.
• Acknowledge understanding and provide attention - Participants should dedicate their attention to or be interested
in the discussion so that they will know when to take turns.

TOPIC CONTROL AND TOPIC SHIFTING

The main speaker introduces the topic, or the main message, in a conversation, whereas other participants contribute
ideas in the discussion.

There are two types of topic: sentence topic and discourse topic. The sentence topic, or sometimes called sentential
topic, refers to the main idea or focus of a sentence. On the other hand, the discourse topic refers to the topic of the
conversation as a whole. Simply put, the sentence topic is specific while the discourse topic is general in nature.

TOPIC SHIFTING occurs when one intentionally or unintentionally changes the direction of the flow of ideas in a
conversation. A speaker usually introduces a new topic when he or she is not familiar or not interested with the topic
being talked about.

There are two ways on how to shift a topic:

Speaking topically occurs when the listener concentrates on some phrases from the last statement mentioned by the
speaker. The idea develops and sticks within the context of the situation. For example, May mentioned her
impression of the community in one of her class's outreach programs. Andrew, her classmate, asked "What
impression?" Note that although Andrew introduced a new topic by means of asking May to specify her impression,
his statement was still relevant to the topic.
Speaking on the topic occurs when the listener concentrates on a word, but the newly introduced idea may not be
related to the context of the topic. For example, one of your classmates asked, "Who is your favorite basketball
player?" Another classmate responded by saying how much he loves basketball. Although the response was still
related to basketball, it was, in a way, out of context.

TOPIC CONTROL occurs when the main or assigned speaker manipulates the discussion so as to maintain its flow
without moving away from or changing the topic. Participants should be mindful of verbal cues as the main speaker
uses statements such as "Let's focus on.. ." or "Let's discuss..." to set the topic of the conversation or "As I was
saying..." or "Going back to..." to sustain or return to the original topic.

REPAIR AND TERMINATION

Interruptions are common examples of violations in a conversation. Since communication requires an interactive
exchange of messages within the speaker and participant, these violations should be repaired and terminated to
avoid misunderstanding among the participants. Thus, it is important for each participant to know how to recognize
these violations so as to apply specific communication strategies to fix them.

In a communication situation, violations refer to unnecessary acts of participants that often cause a
misunderstanding or a delay in the process or flow of the discussion.

Common violations include grabbing the floor, overlapping, hogging the floor, and being silent.
• Grabbing the floor, also called interruption, is committed when a speaker is not able to fulfill his or her purpose
because a participant takes over the role of being a speaker, without allowing him or her to finish his or her turn first.
• Overlapping is similar with grabbing the floor. However, instead of a participant giving up his or her turn to another,
both of them f talking at the same time.
• Hogging the floor occurs when a speaker ignores others who try to join or take over the discussion.
• Being silent, or dead air, happens when no one wants to speak or take the floor.

Repair and Termination are communication strategies used to fix violations in various communication situations.
Speakers who control the discussion are responsible for applying these strategies once a violation occurred.
However, they have to do it cautiously, without being rude.

Here are some guidelines on how to repair or terminate:

• Recognizing the violation is the first step to repairing a conversation. When a participant interrupts or overlaps, the
main speaker should recognize this situation and address it briefly. The speaker can say "I appreciate your comment.
I will respond to that after I have discussed a few more slides.
• Shifting back to the main topic is the next step after recognition. One may use verbal cues such as "anyway," "going
back," or "as I was saying."
• Asking leading questions are necessary to let other participants know that they have returned to the original topic.
Yes-no questions are usually used to confirm understanding among members.
• After disregarding unnecessary topics, speakers may choose to end or terminate the conversation by taking a break,
shifting to a new topic, or rescheduling a conversation.