ERIC Number: ED336775
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1991-Apr
Pages: 17
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
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Available Date: N/A
Intervention Techniques for the Reduction of Communication Apprehension in the Basic Oral Communication Course: Some Practical Guidelines.
Pelias, Mary Hinchcliff
Numerous studies indicate that communication apprehension can and does have considerable negative consequences for college students so affected. There are strategies that can be undertaken in the classroom that may help alleviate communication apprehension for some students. Classroom instructors must first recognize how students are processing their own communication apprehension. Basically, students will either be apprehensive or not, and will possess adequate performance abilities or not. The first general strategy is visualization which combines systematic desensitization and positive thinking. The second strategy is skills training. In-class activities designed to address students' skills deficiencies should be selected based on relevancy of those skills to the immediate task. Commonly used approaches based in oral communication skills training which address communication apprehension include social/conversational skills training, assertiveness training, rhetoritherapy, and oral interpretation/aesthetic performance skills training. Four criteria for appropriate classroom activities for remediation of communication apprehension are: (1) relevancy; (2) appropriate comfort level; (3) whole class involvement; and (4) some non-graded activities. If these intervention strategies are undertaken with enthusiasm and caution, some measure of successful reduction of students' communication apprehension likely will be realized. (Two notes are included; 52 references are attached.) (RS)
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers; Guides - Classroom - Teacher
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A