Significant differences in self-concept, levels of experience, readiness to learn, and student motivation make the task of teaching adults quite different from that of teaching children. More than any other academic area, speech communication is uniquely suited and able to incorporate andragogical theory into its teaching methodologies, especially in the community college. Compared to their four-year college counterparts, community colleges enroll more older, part-time, female, married, minority, and evening students. The speech communication course can be designed to meet all three adult learner motivations: goal orientation, activity orientation, and learning orientation. For the adult with a "learning orientation," there is a rich heritage in speech communication dating back to Aristotle and continuing with the highly sophisticated and scholarly research found in the pages of contemporary communication theory textbooks. For the "activity oriented" student, the course may be the only class where students are encouraged to get to know each other better. And for the "goal orientation" student, the speech course can provide highly relevant learning opportunities. (HOD)