Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Editorial Board

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Students Who Stutter And The Basic Course: Attitudes And Communication Strategies For The College Classroom, Bryan B. Whaley, Aimée Langlois

Basic Communication Course Annual

Individuals who stutter are erroneously perceived by those who do not as having undesirable personality traits. As a result, those who stutter are discriminated against in social situations, in the workplace and, of special concern here, college classrooms. However, the college experience for those who stutter can be enhanced when they are provided with a communication atmosphere that meets their needs. This essay, therefore, argues the necessity for communication instructors to have a basic understanding of stuttering, and provides strategies for meeting the classroom communicative needs of students who stutter.

Rethinking The Role Of Theory In The Basic Course: Taking A 'Practical' Approach To Communication Education, Shawn Spano

Basic Communication Course Annual

This essay advances a particular form of communication theory, known as "practical theory," and illustrates how it can be integrated into the basic course. A practical approach to theory involves the "rational reconstruction of practices" such that the events studied and the principles used to study those events co-evolve through the act of theorizing and the actual performance of communication. The essay examines some of the obstacles prohibiting the use of practical theory and provides a model and extended example for illustrating how the practical approach can be used in the basic communication course.

Rethinking Our Rethinking Retrospectively: A Rejoinder To Spano, Mark Hickson Iii

Basic Communication Course Annual

After reading Spano's (1996) essay several times, I was struck by the title of the work in opposition to its substance. When I read "practical" approach in the title, I first thought that the discussion would progress (or regress) into the work of Watzlawick, Beavin, and Jackson (1967) and their "pragmatics," or perhaps even further back to the pragmatic philosophy of Peirce (Houser & Kloesel, 1992). However, nowhere in the paper did I find these works mentioned. As I reread the paper, I detected a vocabulary that was more reminiscent of phenomenology than pragmatism: "here-and-now," "situated communication action," "embodied persons," …

Should Class Participation Be Required In The Basic Communication Course?, Jennifer Wood

Basic Communication Course Annual

This article explores the purpose of the class participation requirement in the basic communication course. In it the following arguments are developed: 1) Class participation is not an effective measure of students' abilities nor does the requirement encourage students to participate in class. 2) Class participation is better conceptualized as a skill which can be taught to students. If instructors require students to participate in their classes, instructors are obligated to teach students how to participate. 3) The basic communication course offers an excellent framework for teaching students the class participation skills.

The Basic Course: A Means Of Protecting The Speech Communication Discipline, Charlene J. Handford

Basic Communication Course Annual

During the summer of 1995, Spectra included articles and news items regarding speech communication programs designated for elimination. Some leaders in the discipline warned that this trend would likely continue.

This article argues that departments of communication, operating under federal and state requirements for communication competency, may be well advised to work toward establishing the basic course as the sole fulfillment of their institutions' core requirement in communication and to plan a marketing strategy for their discipline. In addition, this paper suggests that the basic course, taught as public speaking, may be more easily defended in meeting the course requirement, …

Call For Papers And Editorial Philosophy

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Meeting The Challenge Of Cultural Diversity: Ideas And Issues For The Public Speaking Course, Kimberly A. Powell

Basic Communication Course Annual

Cultural diversity has become a central concern at most levels of education. The term itself has become so accepted and commonplace that we often do not stop to ask what cultural diversity means for our respective fields. R. Roosevelt Thomas Jr., president of the American Institute for Managing Diversity at Morehouse College in Atlanta, defines diversity as building "systems and a culture that unite different people in a common pursuit without undermining their diversity. It's taking differences into account while developing a cohesive whole" (Gordon, 1992, p. 23). This seems a fruitful way to view cultural diversity in communication education. …