Rethinking “Difficult” Conversations in Communication Instruction From an Intercultural Lens: Pedagogical Strategies for “SWAP-ping” the Communication Classroom

Intercultural communication offers both theoretical and pedagogical implications for communication instruction. As such, we interweave theories and concepts of intercultural communication and instructional communication in (re)thinking “difficult,” “sensitive,” or “uncomfortable” classroom conversations that involve privilege, power, and intersecting cultural identities (e.g., racism). In juxtaposing these areas side by side, we first interrogate why intercultural and instructional communication scholars have neglected what the other takes as central: pedagogy and diversity. In particular, we ask: Why are certain conversations deemed “difficult” in the mainstream communication classroom? To whom are they difficult conversations? Why might these conversations feel “uncomfortable or risky”? Second, we crystalize how intercultural communication makes strides toward feeling/thinking/understanding difficult conversations in ways that promote social justice by proposing a pedagogy of “SWAP-ping” the communication classroom.     

Expanding the Scope of Instructional Communication Research: Looking Beyond Classroom Contexts

The bulk of instructional communication research to date examines communication among teachers and students in conventional classroom contexts. Although past and present research is prolific and informative, it is also somewhat limiting. With a specific unifying focus on affective, cognitive, and behavioral learning as outcome variables, we begin this article with a brief history of instructional communication research, as well as examples of research and practice in conventional classroom settings. We then outline, review, and explain four distinct contexts where we believe future instructional communication research and practice is likely to be fruitful: risk and crisis situations, technology-enhanced environments, digital games, and forensics education.     

Reasons for Student Engagement in Extra-Class Communication

This study extends instructional communication research on extra-class communication (ECC) by presenting an integrative analysis comparing the explanatory utility of student- and instructor-oriented reasons for student engagement in frequent ECC. Results from 495 college students suggested that student-oriented reasons, specifically the relational and functional student motives, were the only significant, positive predictors of students’ perceptions of frequent ECC engagement. Other student motives (excuse making, participation, sycophancy) and perceptions of instructor approachability did not significantly predict perceived frequency of ECC engagement.     

Students’ Discrete Emotional Responses in the Classroom: Unraveling Relationships With Interest and Engagement

Recent instructional communication research reveals that the communication and emotional processes at play in the classroom can influence class-specific emotions experienced by students. Students’ enjoyment and pride were positively related to their emotional interest, while students’ enjoyment, hope, and pride were positively associated with their cognitive interest. While students’ anger and boredom were inversely related to their emotional interest, students who reported greater hopelessness and anger indicated decreases in cognitive interest. Students’ hope and pride were positively associated with their overall engagement behaviors. Anger, anxiety, shame, and boredom led students to report decreases in their engagement. Follow-up tests highlighted challenges in the assessment of specific emotional responses; exploratory factor analysis simplified the measurement of these variables and provided additional insight into expected relationships.     

Language adaptations: Award-winning children’s literature in basal textbook readers

One frequent complaint about basal readers is that, when they adapt high-quality literature, they make pointless simplifications that significantly detract from the value of the original stories. This article reports a study of adaptations of award-winning stories for three grade levels. The results suggest strongly that, at least during the past fifteen years, these complaints are unjustified. Jacqueline C. Comas is assistant professor of education at the University of Florida in Gainesville where she teaches courses in language arts and children's literature. She is a former classroom teacher, has served as a reading consultant, a reading/language arts supervisor, and has worked with textbook adoption committees for the improvement of instructional materials since the late 1970s.     

Chronemics in Instructor–Student E-Mail Communication: An Experimental Examination of Student Evaluations of Instructor Response Speeds

Text-based computer-mediated communication (e.g., e-mail) lacks nonverbal cues afforded by traditional face-to-face interaction in the classroom. A lack of cues may cause students to place increased importance on elements that are still present, such as how long it takes an instructor to respond to a message. This study experimentally explored how instructor e-mail response speed and message content interact to influence student perceptions of instructor interpersonal attraction and credibility. Results (N = 385) suggested that the quicker an instructor responds to a student e-mail message, the more positively s/he is evaluated in terms of social attractiveness, task attractiveness, competence, character, and caring. However, the content of the message did not significantly influence student perceptions of the instructor. These findings offer practical implications for instructor e-mail communication in the classroom and extend what is known about chronemics in computer-mediated communication to the instructional setting.     

Student interest,empowerment and motivation

Literature from the fields of educational psychology and instructional communication are reviewed to lend insight into the relationship between interest and empowerment. Theoretical similarities of these two constructs are highlighted in an attempt to argue for concept isomorphism. Results obtained from Pearson's Correlation's, factor‐analytic techniques, and relationships with other known constructs (motivation) suggest that the Learner Empowerment Scale is a valid and reliable means for the assessment of Student Interest.     

Using Relevant Humor to Moderate Inappropriate Conversations: Maintaining Student Communication Satisfaction in the Classroom

This study assessed students’ (N=195) perceptions of instructors’ relevant humor and inappropriate conversations in the classroom and used expectancy violation theory (EVT) as a lens to position instructor relevant humor as a moderator between instructors’ inappropriate conversations and student communication satisfaction. Results showed a positive association between students’ perceptions of instructors’ use of relevant humor and student communication satisfaction, and in contrast, a negative relationship between perceptions of instructors’ inappropriate conversations and student communication satisfaction. Consistent with the tenets of EVT, results also indicated that instructors who use relevant humor in the classroom may overcome students’ negative perceptions of inappropriate conversations and maintain student communication satisfaction.     

Defining rules and roles in instructional contexts: A preliminary assessment of student perceptions

The classroom across the academy suffers from a most unbalanced approach to instructional research. The vast majority of instructional research is grounded squarely in an instructor's point of view. The student perspective is often neglected or ignored. Adding a more robust student perspective to scholarly discourse on the rules and roles, the various procedural and behavioral patterns that emerge over time, appropriate to our understanding of the classroom would move us toward a more balanced understanding of the phenomena. This study employs a triangulated method to examine the views of rules and roles in the classroom held by 155 student participants. Results suggest that students view their own demands for rule‐following and role behavior as far less rigorous than those they perceive for instructors. The findings suggest that an overall re‐orientation of instruction to better facilitate classroom communication may well be in order.     

The relationship between college student feedback orientation and classroom engagement

ABSTRACT

This study explored the relationship between the four dimensions of students’ feedback orientation (i.e., utility, retention, confidentiality, and sensitivity) and the four dimensions of students’ classroom engagement (i.e., silent in-class, oral in-class, thinking about course content, and out-of-class) using the tenets of Feedback Intervention Theory (FIT) as a guide. Participants were 208 undergraduate students enrolled in a variety of introductory communication courses at a large mid-Atlantic university. It was found that varying combinations of students’ feedback orientation influence students’ engagement, providing further support for FIT. Specifically, feedback utility was positively related to all four dimensions of student engagement. Furthermore, feedback confidentiality was negatively related to oral in-class behaviors. Future research should continue to examine the influence of instructional feedback on students’ classroom engagement.     

The association between immediacy and socio‐communicative style

The very strong association of immediacy with positive instructional outcomes has led some to question whether teacher immediacy amounts to anything more than being responsive with students. The present study demonstrates that a measure of teacher immediacy is strongly associated with the Socio‐Communicative Style of the teacher—both the assertiveness and the responsiveness components. It is concluded that it is theoretically justified to teach pre‐service or in‐service teachers to engage in immediate behaviors as means of increasing their communication competence and probably teaching effectiveness. The impact of immediacy observed in the classroom environment is seen as likely to be generalizable to other communication contexts.     

Graduate teaching assistant perceptions of training programs

This study sought to identify how Communication GTAs rank the importance of various issues and components of GTA training programs. Speech communication GTAs were asked to rate the importance of 12 different non‐instructional concerns and 22 different issues regarding classroom management. GTAs were also presented with an open‐ended question which asked GTAs how training programs could provide the most effective training. Survey results were used to formulate suggestions for how GTA training programs can be organized and conducted.     

The development of the teacher clarity short inventory (TCSI) to measure clear teaching in the classroom

This study presents the Teacher Clarity Short Inventory (TCSI) as an alternative to existing measures of teacher clarity. Though existing scales measure both the clarity of content and classroom processes, they are disproportionate in length when compared to common instructional measures, such as measures of immediacy, student state motivation, and student affect. Analyses revealed a 10 item scale with an acceptable factor structure, acceptable reliability and validity. Furthermore, the instrument measures both the clarity of instructional content and instructional processes.     

“Is this Ella Fitzgerald?”: My Reflections of James C. McCroskey

Editor’s Note: This essay reflects the final in our five-part set of essays on the career of Communication Research Reports founding editor, James C. McCroskey. In these previous essays, Levine and Park (2017) offered the opening essay in our series, with a professional and personal rememberance of a scholar deeply impactful on both of their careers. Hickson (2018) commented on McCroskey’s formal and informal mentorship styles, and how others might understand the critical importance of offering oneself to one’s peers. Park, Oh, and Ryu (2018) explained the unique impact of McCroskey’s research on communication scholarship in South Korea, and Frymier (2018) reminded us of McCroskey’s impact as a core scholar for instructional communication research. In this final essay, we reached out to current West Virginia University Department of Communication chair Matthew M. Martin for his thoughts. As McCroskey spent most of his career at WVU (including a 25-year stretch as the department chair, from 1972 to 1997), inviting the current chair of that department for a closing commentary seemed most fitting. We hope that these five essays serve as a memorial to a scholar whose career and influence extends far beyond his publication record.     

Effects of Instructor Speech Rate on Student Affective Learning,Recall, and Perceptions of Nonverbal Immediacy,Credibility, and Clarity

Although research indicates that speech rate affects perceptions of speaker credibility as well as persuasiveness and information recall, research has failed to address how instructor speech rate affects student perceptions and learning. This study randomly assigned basic communication course students to one of three speech rate conditions (slow, moderate, fast), using a videotaped lesson by an instructor. Findings revealed significant differences for credibility, affective leaning, and nonverbal immediacy, but did not reveal significant differences for recall or clarity. Implications for instructional practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

A Grounded Practical Theory Reconstruction of the Communication Practice of Instructor-facilitated Collegiate Classroom Discussion

Instructor-facilitated collegiate classroom discussion (IFCCD) is a highly valued yet undertheorized instructional practice. Research examining the structure of classroom interaction, scholarship advocating rationales for discussion-based pedagogy, and an investigation of a related interactive classroom communication practice provide an informative backdrop for this study. The data in the study were collected using action-implicative discourse analytic techniques throughout a semester in three classrooms at the same university. Reconstructing the three levels of the practice through grounded practical theory—the problem/dilemma level, the normative situated ideals level, and the talk/discourse techniques level—provides some insight into why in two of these cases of IFCCD, engaged and participatory discussion was accomplished. The shared dilemma of the practice is reconstructed as the problem of engagement in which both individual engagement with curricular content and shared engagement in co-creation of the discussion are valued. The dilemmatic nature of the practice is explored specifically in terms of traditional and nontraditional teacher talk and associated participation structures. Significant similarities and differences across the three cases are found and examined in the reconstructions of instructor situated ideals and third-turn facilitation techniques. Initial conclusions are incorporated in the discussion of discourse-based applications for practitioners interested in facilitating discussion in college classrooms.     

Assimilating newcomers into an organization: A cultural perspective

This study investigates the differences and similarities in communication practices between the public and private sectors. Through a survey of 976 government and corporate communicators, 12 organizational attributes previously identified in research on the government communication decision wheel (Liu & Horsley, 2007; Liu & Levenshus, 2008) were tested. The results indicated differences between the two groups in budgets, political influence, communication frequency, public pressure, interaction with other organizations, media coverage frequency, media coverage evaluation, and impact of legal frameworks as they relate to communication practices. No significant differences in diversity of publics, opportunities for professional development, participation in organizational leadership, or management support for communication between the two groups were found. The findings allowed for refinement of this developing model of government communication.     

Instructor Credibility as a Mediator of Instructors’ Compulsive Communication and Student Communication Satisfaction in the College Classroom

The purpose of this investigation was twofold: (a) from a dialogic pedagogy perspective, to determine the possible negative association between instructors’ compulsive communication and student communication satisfaction; and (b) using Expectancy Violations Theory as a framework, to test the extent to which instructor credibility mediated the negative association between compulsive communication and student communication satisfaction. We found that students’ perceptions of instructors’ compulsive communication is linked to lower levels of student communication satisfaction. Importantly, results also showed that instructor credibility tempers the negative association between instructors’ compulsive communication and student communication satisfaction.     

Diverging discourses: Examining how college students majoring in communication define diversity

Colleges and universities in the United States often promote diversity through a neoliberal lens by framing diversity as a celebration of individual differences or a commodity that students can gain by attending their institution. In communication courses, diversity has been conceptualized through both neoliberal and critical lenses, but limited research has investigated how communication students define and explain diversity. The focus of this study was to understand how communication students define diversity. We performed thematic analyses on open-ended survey responses to investigate how communication students define diversity. Four themes emerged from our analyses: (a) diversity is a mechanism for unifying communities, (b) diversity is an affirmation of individual differences, (c) diversity is a harbinger of acceptance and equality, and (d) diversity is a disruptive force that re-centers the voices of traditionally marginalized people. Our findings indicate most communication students define diversity through a neoliberal lens. However, 3% of our participants conceptualized diversity through a critical lens by explaining that diversity should create space for those who are marginalized to have their voices heard. We conclude by providing recommendations for communication instructors to incorporate more critical conversations about diversity into their classrooms and foster diverging discourses about diversity across communication curricula.     

“Cool” Communication in the Classroom: A Preliminary Examination of Student Perceptions of Instructor Use of Positive Slang

This study explored participants' perceptions of instructor use of positive slang (e.g., “cool,” “awesome,” “sweet”) and its perceived impact on the classroom environment and teacher's credibility, as well as the rules governing its usage. Participants viewed a video of a positive slang-using teacher and then responded to several open-ended survey questions. The results demonstrate that students generally appreciate teacher use of positive slang and cite the potential benefits of its usage. Implications of teacher use of positive slang are discussed.