Conceptualising communication: a survey of introduction to communication university units

Abstract

Communication skills are essential to employment and to society's smooth functioning. Universities are a prime environment for students to learn and hone these skills. However, communication within the academy has historically been conceptualised narrowly due to logocentric forces. When students experience different communication modes, it tends to be in a siloed fashion where they learn about one skill at a time, leading to a fragmented, uneven experience. As such, this study seeks to understand how communication is defined, assessed, and supported in Australian university introduction to communication classes. It does this first through reviewing relevant unit outlines to see how they define and position communication by mode (written, spoken, or visual). Second, using a national survey, academics who coordinate relevant units provided more concrete details about how their units are structured, supported, and about barriers that exist for equipping communication students to work in today's multi-modal digital world.

Doing What We Do Best: Advancing Business Communication Instruction Into the Future With an Agenda for Training and Development

“…There is also rich literature that identifies and prescribes communication competence behaviors (Hannawa & Spitzberg, 2015; Morreale, 2009; Spitzberg, 1983, 2000, 2006) that form the basis of communication skill instruction. Although the contemporary discipline of communication includes instruction about a wide variety of communication theories and contexts, considerable effort continues to be expended on teaching communication skills (Morreale, 2009, 2020; Smith & Turner, 1993; Thompson et al, 2021; Wardrope, 1999). In addition, communication skill development is the primary focus of the basic communication studies and business communication courses that are required by general education and business education courses at many U.S. colleges and universities (LeFebvre & LeFebvre, 2020; Morreale, 2020; Morreale et al, 2006).…”