Integrating assessment into speaking instruction has been a challenge for English language instructors. The Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA), proposed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) (Adair-Hauck et al., 2015), is an assessment protocol featuring three modes of communication: interpretive, interpersonal,…

Autistic children's play provides insights into social, communication, and other skills; however, methods for measuring these observations can be labor-intensive and rely on subjective judgment. This study explored whether children's movement and location during play measured via automated video tracking correlates with clinical features. Movement…

The aim of the Foundation Year of university is to prepare students for their undergraduate study. Part of this preparation is enculturation into ways of speaking. Undergraduate study involves small group interaction in which students are expected to use educational dialogue to co-construct conceptual understanding and engage in critical thinking.…

This study evaluated whether interpersonal communication competence and public speaking anxiety had an impact on three indicators of student well-being (loneliness, belongingness, and flourishing) as well as evaluated whether the two most popular types of the introductory communication course (public speaking and hybrid/fundamentals) impacted…

In a context in which opportunities for oral interaction are limited (English as a foreign language courses at a Saudi tertiary institution), we carried out an action research project evaluating the introduction of computer-mediated spoken language tasks with a group of intermediate learners. Although the students were confronted with multiple…

The development of technology has changed the way people communicate in academic contexts as well as working places, for example from print messages to screened messages, and from face-to-face classroom and office meetings to virtual classes and offices. This has prompted the shift from traditional teaching practices to student-centered in which…

The aim of this research was to identify the teaching practices and student support services that facilitate the successful online delivery of vocational education and training (VET), including in blended delivery. To achieve this, the research examined the characteristics of teaching approaches and student support services across eight…

Many employers bemoan a lack of communication skills relevant to the workplace in their workforce, particularly with their younger intake. This report shows that providing young people who aren't confident communicators with structured oracy and writing activities as well as real-world opportunities to practise those skills with business…

During the 2020 and 2021 summer semesters, the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS) transitioned to hybrid classes that were primarily distance learning with two-week inperson sections. The library offered both synchronous and asynchronous reference assistance over the summer term. An analysis showed that students favored using the…

A quasi-experimental study with ninth graders evaluated a 1.5-hour hate speech teaching unit in an intervention vs. control group (N = 82) before (T1) and after the intervention (T2). Participants reported frequency of witnessing hate speech (T1), hate speech norm and self-efficacy countering hate speech (T1 and T2), and knowledge concerning hate…

This study addresses the issue of language barriers between healthcare providers and patients in medical contexts. Such barriers can significantly hinder patients' access to quality healthcare and treatment. To this end, this qualitative research builds on previous studies and compares language interpreter perceptions of in-person and virtual…

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teaching has moved overnight from a traditional classroom setting to a virtual setting. This has been a great challenge for students, and especially for teachers. Most teachers have not had a lot of experience teaching in a virtual setting. In the course of only a few days, teachers were forced to fully devise and…

This paper presents a study that examines the effect of a graduate course titled "Selected topics in interpersonal communication skills" on the students' interpersonal communication skills as part of their 21st century skills. Subject to the COVID-19 constraints, the course was taught online in the winter semester of 2021 to 46 students,…

There are a variety of skills needed by young adults to succeed in college, career, and independent living. This study examined three specific life skills of interpersonal communication, decision-making and critical thinking as a predictor of college and career success for incoming college students. The problem addressed in the study was the lack…

In this article, I blend a review of existing research, results from an original qualitative study, and a decade of personal experience in order to examine the facilitation of significant learning experiences in asynchronous online courses. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that students who enroll in online courses do so for reasons of…