ideas helps students explore multiple approaches to learning, and expands options for them. Preparing students for these kinds of activities helps students learn what is expected of them.
Although you might assume students will have the communication abilities to engage in discussions, group work, or in-class activities, many do not. Therefore, many students are unable to reap the learning benefits of the communication activity and you are left lamenting over students’ lack of engagement with course content and discussions. Some of these problems will happen regardless of what you do. Yet many of these problems can be dealt with proactively. This chapter will provide you with information on designing communication activities that maximize the learning that can happen in your classroom and engage your students in skills that are important in situations outside your classroom. For example, engaging in critical analysis of problems is a crucial skill for citizen engagement, whether acting as an advocate, a facilitator, or voter. The process students go through to gather information about course requirements for a major involves skills of questioning, inquiry, research, and analysis—much of which relies on their abilities to communicate. Informal communication assignments address skills such as these. While they do not necessarily focus on helping students achieve polish as professional communicators, they help students learn to think critically, engage in course material, and learn content in deeper ways.
It is clear, though, that just talking won’t aid in learning. The character of the talk matters. Webb (1982), in a series of studies on cooperative learning, has convincingly established that the character of the interaction makes a difference in individual learning. Interaction patterns differ by demographic group (e.g., male/female, age, life experience) and students’ abilities to learn are influenced by ethnicity and socio-cultural background—that is, students learn better when interaction patterns are consistent with the way communication functions in their home culture (Byrd & Sims, 1987; Jordan, Au, & Joesting, 1983; More, 1987; Philips, 1983; Rhodes, 1988; Vogt, Jordan, & Tharp, 1987). These kinds of activities also involve a certain degree of risk for students. While they may appear to be low risk because they may not be graded, what a student says in class does not necessarily just stay in class. A student struggling with a text or question may be subject to teasing, ridicule, disdain, or just plain impatience expressed by the peers in subtle or not-so-subtle ways. Publicly stating an opinion brings with it the possibility of responses from others that may be difficult to manage.
So what does this mean for us? If we accept that talk by students helps them learn and that the character of the talk in the classroom will make a difference in the quality of the learning, then we are obligated to help students learn how they can use communication to engage in course material within the instructional setting. Experience with talk can contribute to the development of communicative competence, but experience alone is not enough. Students enter our classrooms with a wide variety of experiences in communicating in classroom learning activities. What counts as competent communication in one academic setting, may not be considered competent in another. Disciplines differ in terms of the types of questions they value, the norms of student interaction, the forms or reasoning, and the preferred methods for providing explanations. When students come to your class, they come with varied experiences related to these kinds of activities. Therefore, students need to be provided with examples of how to use communication in the effort of learning. In this chapter, you will find information about various informal communication activities that are intended to facilitate specific learning objectives, how to design these kinds of communication activities, and how to hold students accountable. This chapter is intended to begin the process of designing these kinds of assignments. Chapter 7 provides further information on ways to help prepare students for participation in activities such as these (specifically those that necessitate discussion). Chapter 8 looks more specifically at how to support activities that necessitate group and teamwork.
Regardless of the type of activity you are using, there are important issues related to participation in all communication activities. Student participation in informal communication activities is often seen by instructors as a low-risk process. Yet, for many students, engaging in oral communication of any form is not low risk. A student who chooses to participate in class is essentially publicly committing him or herself to a position of some sort. In doing so, participation becomes a self-disclosing activity. Face issues are always present, more relevant for some students than for others (see Chapter 13 for an extensive discussion on facework). As instructors, we are often not aware of the ramifications of a student’s choice to participate. Evaluation by classmates occurs both inside and outside of class—whether we require it or not—and we often do not see the latter. Consider the assessments of faculty members made on the basis of their participation in a faculty meeting, and you will have a sense of the potentially risky nature of class discussion. Furthermore, research on participation in classrooms indicates that faculty or instructor behavior affects the extent to which students participate, as well as the quality of their participation (Webb, 2009; Webb et al., 2009). Therefore, the way in which you, as the instructor, engage in informal communication activities could influence the eventual learning outcomes of the activities themselves.
It is also important to realize that some students will experience a high degree of anxiety with any oral communication expectation—even those that are not formal public presentations. There are things one can do to help deal with high levels of communication apprehension. For example, studies have shown that multiple experiences with public speaking can help decrease public-speaking anxiety for some people. Preparation generally makes a difference in the degree of anxiety that students feel, and structuring activities that integrate a preparatory mechanism such as freewriting prior to discussion may help. Experiences with different kinds of oral communication situations can also be helpful; for example, communicating in a small group in order to prepare for a more formal presentation. Courses that focus on some aspect of oral communication that feels less threatening can help decrease anxiety in those situations perceived as more threatening. One of the best ways of dealing with communication apprehension is to experience situations where one can begin to try out and develop coping mechanisms that help. Informal communication activities can begin to do this (see Chapter 6 for a discussion of communication apprehension and for suggestions on helping students who experience a high degree of apprehension).
Finally, it is important to think about how students’ past experiences might influence the communication activities you do in your class. Students may have learned “appropriate” behavior in another class, another discipline, or another group that would alienate individuals in your class. For example, what is assertive in one setting may be interpreted as grandstanding in another; qualifying one’s remarks may be expected in one setting but may be interpreted as waffling in another. Gender, ethnic, racial, and cultural elements also enter into the mix. English proficiency, differences in cultural values, responses to status, the perception of status differences—all influence interaction in a group (Lee, 2009; O’Donnell, 2006; Webb, 2009). Since the dynamics of any group have a bearing upon the skills exhibited by the participants, performance of skills depends upon the pattern of interaction developing in the group as well as upon individual ability (chapters 7 and 8 provide a more extensive discussion of issues related to participation, whether in large class discussions or in teams; Chapter 10 provides information about diversity in communication activities). Part of communicative competence is developing the ability to adapt, be flexible, and be aware of multiple contextual issues, but students do not always come with those abilities, and so we believe it is important to address them up front. Therefore, even in these early stages of developing assignments, it is important to consider these issues in more detail.
There are several steps to consider when designing informal communication activities. It is important to note that not all informal activities should look the same. Some you will do quickly, in class, with very little follow-up (other than the activity itself). Others might require students to engage in some preparation outside of class. Yet others could necessitate more detailed instructions and practice in the kinds of critical thinking skills that will facilitate learning. The way in which you design the activity will determine the kinds of information you will need to provide for students. Table 4.1 provides some planning questions to help you identify what is important in
