Assertive communication style used in Dr. Zakir Naik speech: The Purpose of Creation

This research presents assertive communication style used in Dr. Zakir Naik speech: The Purpose of Creation. It analyzes the utterances and non-verbal behavior used in the speech. The aims of this research are to find the verbal characteristics by analyzing the kinds of assertive communication style used by Dr. Zakir Naik and to figure out non-verbal characteristics of assertive communication style. In this research, the researcher applied descriptive-qualitative approach which can be useful to describe assertive communication style used by Dr. Zakir Naik. The data of this research are in the form of speech transcript and capturing picture. The main theory used is taken from the module under the title How to Behave More Assertively and How to Recognize Assertive Behavior by Michel, Fursland and Nathan (2008). As the result, the researcher found 26 kinds of assertive communication style data used in Dr. Zakir Naik speech: The Purpose of Creation including basic assertions, emphatic assertion, escalating assertion, confrontive assertion, I-language assertions, and broken records. Then, the researcher indicated the verbal characteristics often used are ‘I’ statement, praising statement, suggestion without should or ought to, requesting in the form of question, emphatic statement, constructive criticism without blame, and seeing others opinions. Furthermore, for the result of non-verbal characteristics of assertive communication style, the researcher found that Dr. Zakir Naik often used relax facial expression, good eye contact, confident voice tone in the mid pitch and some types of body language included nod, hand on the chest, pointed to the ear, pointed in the air, ok sign, open hand, downward palm hand, steeple hands, raising hand to the ear and pointed down when he delivered his speech.