Profesjonell muntlighet som etisk forpliktelse i relasjonell profesjonspraksis

Abstract

This position paper presents Professional Orality (PO) as a basic relational competence and ethical obligation in professional practice. PO is of central importance for communication in relational phonic professions where the practitioner is depending on the personal voice in contact with others in his daily work. PO assembles the central linguistic and nonverbal parts that constitute oral communication and is considered as a field of scientific knowledge and specialized skill that can be trained, verified and assessed. PO appears as a transdisciplinary field of knowledge as well as a multimodal complex form of expression consisting of trainable skills, practice based performative knowledge and trustworthy oral presence. This paper argues that establishing the knowledge field PO contributes to strengthens practitioners’ ethical responsibility for their own oral communication practice and, therefore, contributes to the possibility to make students become aware of the importance of artistic precision and trustworthiness in professional oral communication in different educational contexts. Five claims about professional orality are brought forward in order to establish an understanding of oral utterances as different from written ones, and to anchor the professionalisation of oral expression skills as a professional ethical obligation in education. It is argued that oral skills can be developed, trained and assessed in educational contexts adapted to an understanding of orality as a performative, bodily and simultaneous mode of expression. Specific challenges and opportunities related to such training are pointed out, and the consequences of these are discussed. Finally, critical perspectives on the field of knowledge professional orality are mentioned, and areas for further research in PO are suggested.