Interactive Communication Skills Examples

Interaction skills can be broadly classified into oral and non-oral communication.

Oral Communication involves four vital elements

Verbal : Ask, Respond, Express
Voice: Rate of speech, pronunciation, Accent, dialect
Vocabulary: Words used, Figure of speech and Language usage

Non-Oral communication involves

Visual or visible clues (Non-verbal Communication) includes body language and dress code, silences and pauses, and listening skills.
Vocal (Para-language) includes intonation, rhythm, tone of voice and inflections
An Introduction
Pause
Express
Ask
Respond/React
Listen
State of being

Pause

Those short and long silences that we utter are called pauses. During an interaction we pause, or be silent, for various reasons. We pause when we are confused, doubtful, waiting for the other person's response, excited. We pause intentionally and unintentionally. By recording our interactions we can find out how many short and long pauses we take and study the significance behind each of these pauses.

Express

We express verbally and non-verbally. Verbal expressions include the words, phrases, statements and language that we use during our interaction. Non-verbal expressions include gestures, facial expression, dressing, eye-contact and body-language.

Ask

When you are curious to know the purpose, intentions, ideas and thoughts about the other person, we ask questions. Some of the commonly used questions include open-ended, close ended, probing and one word questions.

Respond or React

We either respond or react. for example, you greet your friend saying, "Hello, how are you?" and the person says nothing, then you react to it by changing your facial expressions and will be wondering why the person did not reciprocate. On the other hand, your friend greets you saying, Hello, how are you?" and you respond saying, "Thanks, I'm doing good". The perceptions of responding and reacting depends on people's intrapersonal and interpersonal attitudes and skills.

Listen

To build a fruitful human relationships listening plays a vital role. Effective listening is about getting the message, emotion and the content when the other person is talking with a non-judgemental, and accepting attitude.

State of Being

Series of verbal and non-verbal expressions leads to a state of being. For example, being joyful for a considerable time, say for a week, may show your state of being. In fact, if you want to change your state of being, you need to put consistent effort for a longer time to see the result. State of being is your act; the act of asking, listening, expressing, responding and pausing.

In an interactive communication, you not only communicate and also understand and help other person communicate along with you. In order to persuade people around you must speak, talk, communicate, converse to enhance your interaction.