Weaver Award winning speech communication instructor Craig Streff believes the most important goals of his interpersonal communication instruction are a strong cognitive and affective base, without which practical interpersonal skills are not likely to be developed. Given this overview, what he considers to be the most significant points of the…

Shares an alternative (and tested) approach to teaching the small group communication course, which includes discussions of race, gender, and class as important communication variables within various social and interpersonal communication. (SR)

Probes the tension between reasons to recognize differences among women and potential dangers inherent in emphasizing women's diversity, focusing on women and their communication. Suggests embracing this tension. Offers concrete instructional principles and practices (for communication courses) to cultivate respect for diversity and appreciation…

Using a "self-awareness" approach, this paper discusses a course in family communication designed to force students to examine their families, how they communicate, and the implications of that communication. Based on a text by Kathleen Galvin and Bernard J. Brommel, "Family Communication: Cohesion and Change," the…

Calls for more emphasis on the telephone and related technologies in organizational and interpersonal communication courses. (PD)

Uses the following four approaches to review interpersonal communication research conducted by speech communication scholars: (1) dialog, (2) cohesion, (3) message process, and (4) rhetoric. Helps to clarify why different approaches are used in teaching interpersonal communication courses. (PD)

Offers a description of a capstone course for undergraduates (majoring in either organizational or interpersonal communication) designed to help students understand and manage the interconnections between their personal and work lives. Discusses course assignments and evaluation as well as student response. (SR)

Describes four units in an undergraduate course that examine aging from interpersonal, intrapersonal, and mass communication perspectives. Includes readings. (PD)

Outlines a rationale, resources, and suggestions for teaching interpersonal communication with feature films. Includes a table of 72 widely available feature films and the interpersonal communication topics illustrated in each one. (SR)

This paper explores some possible methodologies and approaches to the teaching of empathic listening, an essential component of human communication and listening competency. It defines empathic listening as "feeling with" another: a cognitive understanding of what the other is communicating plus a sensitivity to their state of emotion.…

Empathic listening is central to almost all human communication processes. "Feeling with" another is the heart of empathic listening: it includes a cognitive understanding of what the other is communicating plus a sensitivity to their state of emotion. One possible approach to utilize in the teaching of empathic listening is to begin a…

The National Technical Institute for the Deaf (New York) has developed a course for students with at least semi-intelligible speech, to improve their effectiveness when conversing in English with non-signing hearing partners. Lectures, discussions, and activities foster self-awareness, pragmatic facility, and communicative competency. Student…

Three major categories of instruction for a course designed to teach community college students how to effectively listen are functional listening, awareness of auditory disabilities, and interpersonal listening. In functional listening, students learn to listen for the main idea, identify supporting points, summarize accurately, avoid…

The course content of a laboratory session on patient interviewing taught to medical students taking a course on physical diagnosis is discussed in this paper. The first part of the paper describes the basic course content covered in the lectures: the bio-psycho-social model, the communication process, and the skills necessary for effective…

Within the structure of a senior and graduate level course, students in the Ohio University school of interpersonal communication collaborate with community groups in the creation of campaigns promoting issue-awareness, political candidates, fund raising events, and citizen action. The course objectives include teaching students to understand the…