Gallaudet College provides education for preschool age through adult hearing impaired persons. Because of the lack of clear and continuous communication during their developing years, students who come to the school have not learned the English language well and have had communication problems most of their lives. To address these problems, undergraduate students must take five hours of classes in the Department of Communication Arts, including "Communication Processes and the Hearing Impaired,""Public Speaking" or "Group Discussion," and one additional course within the department curriculum. The subject matter taught in the communication processes class, coming from both speech communication and audiology, covers communication as an academic discipline, why and how people communicate, what hearing impairment is, the modes of communication used by the hearing impaired, and how communication skills relate to hearing loss and how both relate to the communication process. The public speaking course includes a traditional emphasis on skill development in researching and recording speech material, outlining and organizing information, using appropriate style, acquiring confidence and effectiveness in delivery, and listening actively and critically. The group discussion course shares these objectives but focuses on problem-solving discussions and public discussion. Though the communication courses at Gallaudet emphasize the needs of the hearing impaired, they share many of the same goals and characteristics of similar courses at other schools. (SRT)