Types of

Communicative
Strategy
Lesson 12

Prepared by:
Mary Catherine P. Ibañez
 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. The following are some
strategies that people use when
communicating.
 1. Nomination
A speaker carries out nomination
to collaboratively and
productively establish a topic.
Basically, 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 arise from a previous topic,
you may start off with news
inquiries and news
announcements 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
Restriction in communication refers to
any limitation you may have as a
speaker. When communicating in the
classroom, in a meeting, or while hanging
out with your friends, you are typically
given specific instructions that you must
follow. These instructions confine you as
a speaker and limit what you can say.
 For example, in your class, you might
be 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
conversational floor anytime.
 Remember that regardless of the
formality of the context, topic control
is achieved cooperatively. This only
means that when a topic is initiated, it
should be collectively developed by
avoiding unnecessary interruptions
and topic shifts. You can make
yourself
 actively involved in the conversation
without overly dominating it by using
minimal responses like “Yes,” “Okay,”
“Go on”; asking tag questions 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
suggests, involves moving from
one topic to another. In other
words, it is where one part of a
conversation ends and where
another begins.
 When shifting from one topic to
another, you have 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
Repair refers to how speakers address
the problems in speaking, listening, and
comprehending that they may
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, 1977). 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
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 completes the
discussion of the topic meaningfully.