The basic collegiate course in speech communication, with its attention to public speaking, can provide experiences which increase international understanding. To widen sources of information, students could be assigned to conduct an interview with a foreign student or professor or a U.S. soldier who has returned from overseas, providing both background and specific information about an international topic such as the Gulf War. Or students could be asked to compare the coverage of a particular event in a U.S. and a foreign newspaper. To increase understanding of speeches by leaders from other countries, students could compare a videotape of the questioning of the British prime minister in Parliament with a press conference held by the President of the United States. Classroom analysis of speeches made by foreign dignitaries to the U.S. Congress could focus on the audience adaptation of the speakers. To improve adaptation to non-U.S. audiences, students could listen to speeches for allusions that are culturally specific. Students could be assigned to prepare a speech in response to that foreign dignitary, to be delivered in the embassy of the dignitary's home country. These assignments do not add additional skills and principles to an already crowded course agenda, but rather add an international dimension to the basic elements of information gathering, audience analysis, oral language use, and appreciative/critical listening. (TD)