Communication Course Research Articles

CHANGES IN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE OF STUDENTS ENROLLED IN THE EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND SOCIAL COMMUNICATION COURSE

During the Fall semester of the school year 2021-2022, three concurrent Emotional Intelligence and Social Communications (EISC) courses were conducted to assist students’ personal development. Using a mixed-method approach, this descriptive study explores changes in the EI levels of students attending these courses. After conducting the survey, which revealed a significant mean difference of 0.12 (95% CI [0.003, 0.237]) between during-course and post-course scores, the researchers employed purposive sampling to select interview participants with the most increased, most decreased, and nearly unchanged levels of EI. The interview data indicated that most interviewees experienced an increase in the ability to consider other perspectives and some in the ability to regulate emotions. On the other hand, emotion management ability seemed to have experienced the slightest improvement. Additionally, the analysis of 20 learner’s reflections showed that learners indicating the most recurrent ideas are learners’ realisations about self (personal shortcomings, past unfortunate events, existing helpful habits/accomplishment, or intentions of future change/improvement) and statements about benefits of mindfulness (increased perception or relief from unpleasant emotions).

DYNAMICS OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ EMPLOYABILITY IN 21ST-CENTURY NIGERIA: A FOCUS ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS IN EKITI STATE

This research sought to investigate the dynamics involved in employing pre-service English language teachers in public secondary schools in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Specifically, the research investigated the dynamics involved assessment of the applicants’ pedagogical skills, personality and classroom management traits in a 21st-century paradigm. The secondary data emanated from the Practical Teaching Assessment Rating Scale (PTARC) and Oral Competence Test (OCT) on 114 unemployed English language teachers. Four research questions and two hypotheses were formulated and raised to guide the research respectively. The research population consisted of 1,050 graduate English language teachers from Ekiti State University, Ado- Ekiti, College of Education, Ikere Ekiti and the affiliated degree programme of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Ekiti State, selected 114 English language teachers for the examination. The sample size of 114 was derived from the selection process aforementioned. The findings of the study revealed that the English language teachers were employable based on impressive performance in oral and theoretical assessments. The research provides recommendations on the need to include digital interactive courses in oral communication and instruction in spoken English while emphasizing earner-friendly strategies of teaching in Ekiti State public secondary schools

Stepping outside of comfort zones: Transformational learning in online asynchronous communication courses

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the impact of communication educators’ teaching practices on student transformation and growth in asynchronous online communication courses. The literature focuses on high-impact practices, self-transformation in higher education, and Experiential Learning Theory. Qualitative interview data, collected from metropolitan university students using a narrative inquiry approach, suggests that when educators incorporate active experimentation and concrete experience in asynchronous online communication classrooms, students are more likely to perceive they have experienced transformational learning, which students conceptualize as good for their individual personal growth and for changing their perspective, despite requiring them to step out of their comfort zone. Future research should focus on the impacts of incorporating service-learning, reflective writing assignments, and group work into the online learning environment to help ignite transformations and growth within classes in other disciplines.

Multimodal Corpus Construction and Research of Intercultural Communication Based on Multiple Regression Equation

Abstract To promote the transformation of education and teaching concepts, guide the reform of teaching content and teaching methods, and promote the joint construction and sharing of high-quality curriculum teaching resources in colleges and universities through modern information technology, improve the quality of talent training and serve the construction of a learning society. Using video analysis and website research methods, the author takes the cross-cultural communication courses offered by 22 universities in the national excellent resource sharing courses published by the multimodal online corpus of “Love Course Network” as the research sample, taking the playability of teaching videos, noise level, picture definition, multimedia courseware playing, utilization of curriculum resources and network interaction as research contents, the construction and application of teaching videos are analyzed in depth. The results show that, in the construction of intercultural communication sharing courses, there are still problems such as poor playability of teaching videos, noise and poor picture clarity.

Tuning to Place: Using Photos to Better Understand Problems in Technical Communication Classes

This article highlights the role of place in understanding problems, specifically within community-engaged projects in upper-level technical and professional communication courses. Drawing on a year-long participant-generated imagery study with students, instructors, and community partners, the authors argue that photographic research is effective in helping participants and researchers tune to place. Taking photos offers opportunities for documentation, individual interpretation, and collaborative reflection, resulting in a deeper, more nuanced sense of place. Ultimately, this article demonstrates how a greater awareness of place, cultivated through reflecting on visual evidence, enhances engagement projects and helps technical communicators address complex problems.

Institutional support of intercultural communication in Ukraine in the context of implementation of its european integration vector

Institutional support of intercultural communication in Ukraine in the context of implementation of its european integration vector

Adapting the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire for a Writing and Communication Program

Integrating educational assessment tools such as the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) into university classrooms can help students and faculty gain insight into areas of strength and challenge for students. The present study adapted and integrated the MSLQ into a set of first-year communication courses for Faculty of Arts students at the University of Waterloo. This adaptation allowed us to better situate the scale within the writing and communication course context. Through exploratory and confirmatory analysis, a shortened questionnaire (MSLQ-AF) with 6 subscales (motivation, academic self-confidence, performance anxiety, critical thinking, planning for optimal learning, and peer learning) was created. MSLQ-AF proved to have stable factor structure, adequate and stable internal consistency, and construct validity (correlation with grades), when assessed across four samples spanning four university terms. We discuss the role of this new scale in helping students transition into university.

Consolation Gestures as Non-Verbal Markers of Stress when Discussing an Acute Social Issue

The article is devoted to the issue of identifying non-verbal stress markers in oral discourse on an acute social topic. The relevance of the research is due to: 1) the growing interest of linguists in the study of linguistic manifestations of emotions and the identification of markers of various psycho-emotional states with the subsequent possibility of developing algorithms for their automatic detection; 2) the severity of the problem of stress in modern society. The novelty of the study is predetermined by the fact that it is focused on a specific type of communicative behavior (discussion of an acute social issue) studied from the perspective of multimodal linguistics postulating an inextricable link between understanding and generating messages in natural language and body actions. The goal of the paper is to identify and describe non-verbal stress markers that we call consolation gestures, allowing us to identify this psychoemotional state in the course of spontaneous oral communication. The research material is represented by 4 hours of structured interview video recordings with 11 French and 11 Russian respondents (average age – 21) on the topic of radical body positivity. The leading research method is multimodal analysis, implemented using multi-layer markup in the ELAN program. In the process of marking, the following types of layers were used: gestures, eye movements, facial expressions, verbal component, intonation. The statistical analysis of frequency and distribution of annotations have revealed the following consolation gestures: 1) stroking different parts of the body; 2) scratching different parts of the body, 3) interacting with other objects, 4) facial markers. Consolation gestures are regarded by us as a kind of body-oriented repetitive behavior disorders, which allows us to differentiate them from gestures that are hesitation/silence fillers. Thus, the following constitutive features are determined: 1) repetition of the action, 2) focus on the body, 3) features conditioned by a sense of tension or anxiety rather than by preoccupation with appearance, 4) a subsequent sense of relief and emotional discharge. The prospect of further research is seen in the expansion of experimental material through interviews with representatives of other linguocultures, followed by interpreting the results in the cross-cultural perspective.

On the Necessity and Ways of Offering Writing and Communication Courses in Applied Undergraduate Programs

In the construction of the teaching system of applied undergraduate programmes, the value of "application" is highlighted, and high-quality talents with strong social adaptability and competitiveness are cultivated, which has certain requirements for the communication, writing, teamwork and innovation abilities of university students. Currently, there are many problems in writing among university students, who do not pay enough attention to writing courses and rely too much on artificial intelligence to write, lacking creative independence. The lack of writing skills also brings with it many problems, as many students find it difficult to write project books and application essays when they enter society, which does not help them to adapt quickly to the workplace. At the same time, communication skills are an important assessment factor for graduates when they first enter the workplace, and many general education courses at this stage neglect the development of communication skills. Therefore, in order to quickly solve the dilemma of the teaching mode of traditional writing courses, Liaoning Institute of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation offers the Writing and Communication course, which starts and ends with improving students' writing and communication in the workplace, and is student-centred, helping students to improve their writing and communication in the workplace and develop critical thinking skills through innovative teaching modes and improved assessment and evaluation, which helps to improve students' overall quality and cultivate Application-oriented talents.

Culturally Relevant Supplemental e-Learning Materials in Teaching Purposive Communication

The incorporation of culturally relevant supplemental e-learning materials in teaching has been gaining attention in recent years. This study examined the effectiveness of such materials in a purposive communication course. A pretest-posttest experimental design was employed, with 95 students participating in the study. The pre-test scores of both groups were found satisfactory, with no significant difference between them. However, after the intervention, the experimental group achieved substantially higher posttest results than the control group. The findings suggest that the use of culturally relevant materials can enhance students' motivation and engagement in e-learning by creating connections between the content and their personal experiences.

Language Assessment of the Literacy Level of Ethiopian EFL Instructors: A Focus on South West Ethiopian Public Universities

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate Language Assessment literacy (LAL) level of EFL instructors who are teaching communicative English language courses in three South West Ethiopian public higher educational institutions.
 Approach/Methodology/Design: The study employed a descriptive research design, which involves quantitative data gathering tool. Accordingly, a questionnaire was used to collect the appropriate data. The target population of the study was 42 Male and 9 female totally 51 instructors who were teaching Communicative English Language Skills courses in Jimma university, Wollega university and Mizan Tepi universities, and all of these instructors were chosen as samples of the study through comprehensive sampling technique
 Results: For measuring the instructors’ Language assessment literacy level, an Assessment Literacy Test (ALT) consisting of 59 items with eight components was given for all 51 instructors. There score in assessment literacy test rests between minimum of 26 and maximum of 44.
 Conclusions: Though their performance is average and low in some of the components of assessment literacy their overall performance is above average.

Communication course for future engineers – effective data presentation and its interpretation during LSP courses

Abstract This activity report describes a sample unit (Effective Data Presentation) from a communication course prepared as part of an Intellectual Output within the BADGE Project, which was carried out by 12 partner universities from 10 countries during 3 academic years (2019–2022). The article first describes the results of a survey which show that language and communication classes need to integrate more LSP competences so that students become better acquainted with both general and specific language. Moreover, the report analyses and explains the existing practical difficulties for language and subject teachers alike in maintaining a distinction between “knowledge of a subject” and “knowledge of the language of a subject.” Secondly, the report presents a sample from a communication course prepared for engineers encompassing effective data presentation and its interpretation during LSP courses. Finally, the article reflects on the future challenges for LSP teachers and the reasons why academics should integrate professional knowledge and specialist language within the same course.

FEATURES OF CONDUCTING PRESENTATIONS IN INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION CONDITIONS

The article is devoted to the analysis of the peculiarities of the development of communicative competence and intercultural abilities and skills of students of higher educational institutions of Ukraine in the conditions of international academic mobility and cross-cultural communication. Emphasis is placed on the need to introduce intercultural communication courses in the curriculum at the tertiary level in Ukraine, in particular, on the peculiarities of conducting presentations using modern multimedia tools. The urgency of this issue is due to the need for Ukrainian students to be aware of the values, traditions and norms of verbal and nonverbal cross-cultural communication in order to be successful in their academic and professional environment. The aim of the article was to highlight the specifics of intercultural aspects in the classroom using modern multimedia technologies. In our research we used interdisciplinary approaches, as well as theoretical and empirical methods: observation and generalization, and methods of deduction and systematization. Modern students represent a generation characterized by openness to the outside world and academic mobility. This means that awareness of differences in cultural norms, values, attitudes to the environment is absolutely necessary for effective interpersonal and cultural communication. Graduates of Ukrainian technical universities who have such skills will be especially valuable, as they will be able to use effective communication tools to present products created by Ukrainian companies and make them useful in foreign countries and vice versa. It is necessary to teach future professionals to use information technology in planning, organizing, editing materials for presentations of new products and especially when conducting them for different cultures.

High Impact Practices in Underserved Communities: Linking Open Educational Resources and Local Non-Profit in Business Communications Course Design

High Impact Practices in Underserved Communities: Linking Open Educational Resources and Local Non-Profit in Business Communications Course Design

Undergraduate nursing student satisfaction with open educational resources in a professional communication course

Open educational resources (OER) are emerging as reference materials in nursing. The purpose of this study was to explore undergraduate nursing students' experiences with OER and the relationship with demographic variables. Findings from this descriptive survey study reveal that the quality of OER materials and learner experience were highly correlated. Integration scores for the youngest cohort was significantly lower compared to other age groups. The integration of quality OER is correlated with positive student experience.

Development of Soft Skills among Computing Students in Online Task-Based Learning: Insights from Technical Communication Course

Soft skills development, such as communication, teamwork, and problem-solving, is critical for computer students as they enter the profession. Students may be able to practice these skills in a virtual setting through an online task-based course. In this study, we investigated how successfully an online task-based course encouraged the development of soft skills among computing students. The course was designed to give students real-world challenges that required them to work in groups and communicate effectively with their classmates and instructors. The inquiry was based on a qualitative examination of the students' final reports. It gave data from two semesters (Fall 2020 and Spring 2021) of students who studied a course named Technical Communication. In total, 216 students' final reports were ready for investigation. A sample of 97 reports, representing 45%, was selected based on certain criteria to ensure a high-quality investigation. According to the findings of our study, the online task-based course helped boost the development of certain soft skills among students. Students noted an improvement in their ability to communicate effectively, cooperate successfully with team members, and identify professional responsibilities, as well as a rise in their self-confidence. Overall, this study emphasizes the necessity of introducing online task-based courses into computing students' curricula, giving them a valuable opportunity to develop critical soft skills. The present design of the Technical Communication Course is believed to be efficient regardless of the education delivery method (traditional/online).

Guided disorientation for transformative study abroad: impacts on intercultural learning

ABSTRACT This study examines what factors contribute to intercultural learning during the study abroad experience, drawing on Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning and data from the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). Using data from 1,858 US students studying abroad in 27 countries over 6 years (2014–2020), this study constitutes the largest of its kind to date. Additionally, a powerful matching method is used to compare a sample of students enrolled in an Intercultural Communication and Leadership (ICL) course developed by the Council on International Education Exchange (CIEE) with a control group of study abroad students not enrolled in the course. Findings show that cultural mentorship via trained, skilled instructors is more important than other factors associated with intercultural learning while abroad. Furthermore, the findings highlight why international education faculty and administrators should advocate for study abroad in non-English-speaking locations and immersion in cultures that are more dissimilar to the dominant cultural context of US students. The highest learning potential in study abroad occurs when students experience heightened moments of cultural disorientation in unfamiliar cultural contexts and have experienced facilitators to guide them through reflection around intercultural differences.

Creation of a motivational interviewing-based pharmacy communications course: From dissemination to assessment

Background and purposePharmacists are frequently faced with evocative patient care conversations surrounding medication taking behaviors and overall health and wellness. Teaching communication is a core focus within pharmacy education; however, there is often less emphasis placed on learning motivational interviewing (MI). We will share challenges and successes associated with the creation and dissemination of a MI-based communications course with pharmacy student learners. Educational activity and settingA fast-paced, five-week, active learning course was created for first-year pharmacy students. Learning activities focused on exploration of ambivalence in clinical practice, roadblocks to active listening, resisting the righting reflex, the spirit of MI, and the core skills of MI. The Motivational Interviewing Competency Assessment was utilized to assess student MI competency at the completion of the course. FindingsThis MI-based course has been well-received by pharmacy student learners. It serves as a foundation for communication skills development, as students continue the practice and grow these skills throughout the curriculum. Communication skills assessment and feedback are an integral aspect of MI learning; however, this process does increase the workload of course instructors. A limitation to the global creation of a MI-based course is the reduced number of pharmacy educators who are proficient in training MI. SummaryAs the practice of pharmacy and patient care continues to evolve, effective communication skills that include MI, are essential to the provision of person-centered, empathic patient care.

SurgTalk: A Novel Surgical Palliative Communication Course (QI128)

SurgTalk: A Novel Surgical Palliative Communication Course (QI128)

Mehr soziale Teilhabe für Hörgeschädigte durch Cochlea-Implantate? Zur Ambivalenz der Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion und zum Stellenwert psycho-sozialer Begleitung

Cochlea implants help persons that suffer from deafness over time to regain hearing capacity. However, persons with CI implants experience year-long processes of adapting to technology-assisted hearing. The study highlights how people experience those processes and how they deal with changing expectations. Within this qualitative study, 50 cochlear implant recipients were interviewed about their personal experiences with the supplying clinics. 30 persons were recruited through self-help groups; another 20 persons were recruited through a learning center for hearing-impaired persons. They were asked about their experiences in social, cultural and professional participation as well as hearing barriers they still face in everyday life after their CI fitting. Participants had been wearing CI devices for a maximum of three years. This is a timeframe when most subsequent therapies have ended. Also, the initial phase of learning to handle the CI is supposed to be over. The study shows that even with a cochlear implant communication barriers remain. People's expectations are not met when complete comprehension of listening during conversations is not achieved. Difficulties in dealing with a high-tech hearing prosthesis and experiencing a "foreign body" are obstacles that lower acceptance of CI. Counselling and support preparing the use of cochlea implants should be guided by realistic goals and expectations. Guided training and communication courses can help, including local care such as certified hearing aid acousticians. Those elements can increase quality and reduce uncertainty.