A monologue imposes a speaker’s message on the audience. By contrast, a dialogue is the respectful interchange of ideas between speaker and audience. In a dialogue, the speaker delivers the speech not to win the argument but to build a shared understanding with the audience, and the audience listens actively and empathetically.

When speaker and audience are engaged in a dialogue, a beneficial feedback loop of body language and verbal interchange can develop wherein the speaker’s message is shaped by the audience’s reaction, and vice versa. This shared connection between speaker and audience maximizes the impact of a message.