Vocalists Communication Research: Peculiarities and Challenges

Introduction

Attention-Grabbing Idea

People can communicate in absolutely different ways: some people prefer to use signs, many people like to gesticulate to attract attention, and the vast majority of people use vocal cues to underline their intentions. Vocalist communication is one of those interesting types of communication that requires certain background knowledge and attention to the roles of both – speakers and listeners. Troubles and challenges with the analysis of nonverbal cues, which are inherent to vocalist communication, make numerous scholars argue considerably about the roles of participants, communicative gender factors, and the relations, which have to be developed between communication agents.

Preview Statement

Research findings and the ideas of different scholars about the peculiarities of vocalists communication are considered to be rather various and rather captivating at the same time: the speech accommodation theory, offered by Buller and Aune in 1988, or the expectancy theory, described by Buller and Burgoon in 1986 is a perfect combination of concepts, which define the nature of vocalists communication and the challenges, agents may face.

Rationale for Project

1. Analysis of vocalist communication is important because even sophisticated scholars cannot come to the same conclusion as for the role of communicative agents.
2. Analysis of findings is obligatory because the works by Buller, Aune, Burgoon, Keeley-Dyreson, Bailey, Hinkle, Pearce, Brommel, Ray. Floyd, Street, Brady, Tusing, and Dillard present important for this project information but still may differ due to the preference of different approaches and perspectives.
3. Attention to the audience is crucial as well because such points like background, abilities to perceive information and comprehend its essence play a very important role. If the audience is not able to comprehend what vocalist communication means or why it is so necessary to define the functions and roles of agents of communication, the purpose of the speech will be failed and poor results will be achieved.

Literature Review Findings

Types of communication and their identifications

1. Verbal communication deals with purely linguistic messages
2. Nonverbal communication, vocalists, in particular, depends on many factors like quality of voice, accent, resonance, and other speech elements.

Timing gaps of investigations demonstrate the variety of approaches, used by scholars

1. Buller and his colleagues presented their studies at the end of the 1980s and the work by Pearce and Brommel was published in 1972

1. Attention to delivery style and its effects on speech, the levels of persuasion, and trustworthiness: the poorer delivery style is, the more negatives the outcomes of speech can be (Pearce and Brommel, 1972)
2. Quality of decoders affects the quality of voices and the listener’s perception of information (Buller & Burgoon, 1986)
3. Expectancy Theory introduces how positive violations and the changes decoders define compliance

2. Hinkle (2001), Street and Brady (1982), or Tusing and Dillard (2000) introduce captivating material about how voice may influence relational judgments and perception of information on different levels

1. Connection of nonverbal immediacy to liking, and relations, which are inherent to vocalic measurement, help to comprehend that pitch does not influence the quality of pronunciation (Hinkle, 2001).
2. Findings prove that speech rate and speech stereotypes have an impact on the perception of information by people of different ages, gender, and race (Street and Brady, 1982).
3. Tusing and Dillard (2000) identified dominance as “the salient relational judgment in an influence context, with dominance judgments also being informed by involvement.”

A theoretical approach for studying vocalists communication

1. Expectancy theory according to which violations of decoder expectations may lead to chances of compliance of communication: positive violations cause greater compliance and negative violations cause less compliance
2. Speech accommodation theory says that interpretation of speakers’ vocal patterns are closely connected to the same patterns of listeners, and the work of Buller and Aune (1988) proves that this theory is true and may be used for vocalists communication’s analysis

An approach that defines the functions and roles of speakers and listeners during a communicative process

1. Speakers have to have solid background knowledge for a proper understanding of what vocal cues and qualities of speech may influence the listener’s comprehension of the context

1. Temper, pitch, stress, and speed should be properly chosen to concentrate listeners on the necessary points.
2. Nonverbal communication is aimed to represent information using vocal cues, and a single mistake in cues’ interpretation may lead to misrepresentation of information.

2. Listeners can enlarge their level of knowledge about speakers before the communicative process itself and have an idea of what this or that vocal cue means

1. If a listener is aware of the speaker’s manner of speaking, sharing information, and communicating, a listener has a chance to comprehend information and even single out some personal characteristics of a speaker.
2. A listener should be ready for different conditions under which communication may take place. Unwanted sounds and visualization problems should not turn into another obstacle in communication

Directions for further research

1. Understanding of listener’s and speaker’s role in the communicative process
2. Differentiation of vocal cues and their effects on vocals communication
3. Comprehension of how vocalists communication may influence the analysis of the context

Conclusion

Summary

1. Time, scholars’ opinions, and chosen approaches lead to one simple truth – vocalist communication depends on many factors and speech elements, which have to be comprehended by both, a speaker and a listener.
2. The necessity to control vocal cues and gestures is a kind of obligation to any agent of communication.

Linkback

Next time, it is possible to pay more attention to public opinion and experiments with ordinary people, who participate in verbal and nonverbal communication with different levels of background knowledge. Analysis of communication theories helps to realize that vocalist communication is a complicated process; and attention to its compounds is obligatory for those, who want to present proper and smart communicative processes.