Investigates how, prior to actual communication activities or assignments, instructors can manipulate situational factors to moderate situational anxiety and avoidance. Reports that anxiety and avoidance can be moderated by manipulating context, motivation, and acquaintance factors. (MM)

Emphasizes the usefulness of integrating communicative and literary analyses to study the symbolic and pragmatic aspects of human relationships. Describes a health care course that teaches practitioner-patient communication through the application of communication theory to literary "case studies." Uses a scene from "The Elephant Man" to…

Noting weaknesses in "standard" methods of measuring listening skills, developes a five-factor model utilizing three different kinds of memory and adding tasks requiring interpretation and concentration. Varying subscales--with the exception of the interpretive task--are found to be sufficiently reliable for research purposes. (NH)

Reports on the results of a two-year study finding that college students' communication competence is linked to success in college, that high school communication experience is related to higher G.P.A., and that communication apprehension is related to perceptions of communication competence. Recommends replication employing a larger, more…

Indicates that situational factors such as perceived novelty, subordinate status, conspicuousness, dissimilarity and prior history correlate significantly with public speaking anxiety. Presents a causal model based on a confluence of previous research and the results of the present study. Includes classroom implications.(NH)

Identifies verbal teacher immediacy behaviors which relate to increased learning, finding that the impact of both verbal and non-verbal behaviors on learners is enhanced as class size increases. Provides empirical definition of a specific set of low-inference verbal variables which, combined with previously identified nonverbal variables, clarify…

Investigates the effects of teacher nonverbal immediacy and strategy type on college students' likelihood of resisting teacher compliance-gaining attempts. Suggests that the relative effectiveness of prosocial strategies and antisocial strategies may be contingent on teachers' nonverbal immediacy, with students reporting a greater likelihood of…

Introduces the articles that follow on empathic listening. Points out the need for communication teachers to rethink the fundamental nature of the listening process in order to improve listening research and teaching. (PD)

Analyzes the assumptions of interpersonal listening based on empathy. Provides (1) a brief historical overview of the empathic tradition as it relates to interpersonal communication study and to listening; (2) a critique of presuppositions underlying the concept of empathic listening; and (3) some guidelines for developing alternatives to empathic…

Outlines an alternative interpretive approach to listening which is grounded in the hermeneutic phenomenologies of Heidegger, Gadamer, and Ricoeur. Explains four features of this alternative: openness, linguisticality, play, and the fusion of horizons. Discusses conceptual and pedagogical implications. (PD)

Results indicate that corporate training directors perceive poor listening as an important problem facing organizations, one that leads to ineffective performance or low productivity. Educators and trainers are encouraged to include aspects of listening behavior identified in this study into organizational communication curricula or industrial…

Reports on a study of the characteristics of the basic course in organizational communication. Analyzed 100 questionnaires that provided data on the following: schools and departments offering basic courses, faculty, textbooks, and topics covered. (PD)

Describes how a graduate class in communication consulting might be structured. Includes a list of readings and class assignments. (PD)

Describes topics and activities covered in a communication course for students who plan careers that include working with the elderly. (Offered at undergraduate and graduate levels in the departments of Social Work, Sociology, and Communication.) (PD)

Points out factors that often work against good communication with those who are disabled. (PD)