Recognizing that each student is different in terms of communication apprehension and needed skills, the confidence model attempts to provide instruction in anxiety reduction and skill development, combining the features of both the behavior therapy and the rhetoritherapy theories of communication apprehension. The rational emotive therapy used in the confidence program emphasizes the importance of the effects of thoughts on behaviors and feelings. This therapy appears to be highly effective with subjects who report more generalized, cross-situational speech anxiety, while systematic desensitization appears to be primarily effective with subjects for whom speech anxiety is confined to formal speaking situations. After students are screened by interviews and self-report inventories, they describe their perception of particular oral communication needs in a conference, and the teacher and student then plan communication goals. During the course, the student has the choice of the number and type of speech activities to be accomplished and determines the amount of progress and the semester grade he or she wishes to pursue. The course begins with a discussion of the variables affecting oral communication and is then divided into six parts: (1) rational thinking, (2) goal setting, (3) social conversation, (4) interviewing, (5) group discussion, and (6) public speaking. For both alleviating speech anxiety and developing oral communication skills, the confidence model appears to be an excellent alternative to college basic speech courses. (HTH)