a guest post by Frank Cronin
The Liberal Arts Academic Master Plan and Non-Digital Literacy
As we prepare our Liberal Arts Academic Master Plan proposal, we must consider what we should set as our goals. In this new world where we are constantly on the frontier of some new technological form of communication, we should be concerned about improving our students’ digital literacies. On the other hand, we should also be concerned about non-digital literacies, the Hard Skills of effective listening and speaking. Fortunately, ACC has many courses in the Communication Studies department that can help, not only students, but faculty be better listeners and speakers.
There are three negative trends in society’s listening and speaking skills that we could address.
- Published in 1998 Deborah Tannen’s The Argument Culture: Stopping America’s War of Words, describes an American culture in which rational discussion of ideas in order to share and consider has been replaced by a culture which as Tannen states “…makes us approach public dialogue, and just about anything else we need to accomplish, as if it were a fight.” We have seen this continue to develop especially in the political arena. Many of my students last semester in and Integrated Reading and Writing co-req with Government and other INRW courses, say they avoid political discussion for this reason. When people talk politics, they argue.
- Another one is the vulgar fabric of our social discourse. In the arts, on news shows, and in the hallways of ACC coarse language, rarely specific or informative, is becoming much more common.
- The last concern about modern communication is the shift to more written communication especially in texts and on Twitter. Many of my students admit to overuse of their phone particularly for texting. And faculty know it is not unusual to walk into a classroom and see students texting while completely ignoring other students sitting next to them. At the same time, Texas public schools and ACC are now requiring fewer students to take Communication courses.
In 2013 the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 5, no longer requiring a Speech course for graduation. Since then, high school students have been coming to ACC with less preparation in verbal communication skills. In 2015 ACC implemented the Effective Learning course. To make room in some degree programs for the Effective Learning course, the Communication course requirement was removed. Whereas all degree programs used to require a communications course, now only 10 of 19 Associate of science programs, 19 of 35 Associate of Arts programs and 38 of 100 Associate of Applied Arts programs require a communications course. Consequently, just as the need for more training in communications seems much more important, less is available to our students.
In the Liberal Arts ideas are paramount. Just as important are the skills of listening to and speaking the ideas. So, as Liberal Arts moves forward with its own Academic Master Plan, how does the discipline teach its students and faculty the basics on non-digital communication? We have various resources for doing this.
Communication Studies teachers belong to one or more professional organizations. One is The National Communication Association (NCA) founded in 1914, and it provides guidelines for ethical and effective communication. In one of its publications, “What Should a Graduate with a Communication Degree Know, Understand, and Be Able to Do?” one section focuses
solely on the ethical aspects of communication and just some are
- Articulate the ethical dimensions of a communication situation
- Choose to communicate with ethical intention
- Propose solutions for (un)ethical communication
These guidelines can direct not just the Communications faculty, but other faculty and students. Another resource is incorporating speaking and listening skills in non-Communications course. In 2104 Professor Mark Butland and I started teaching a co-req of a Developmental Writing and the Public Speaking course. Because of our collaboration I have imbedded speaking and listening skills in to all my classes including INRW and EDUC courses by doing group work and presentations.
I see as a challenge how we can use the next resource, Communication Studies courses themselves. With Guided Pathways students are less likely to take one of those courses if not in their degree plan. And how do encourage teachers to take those courses? I have been trying to find out since last summer when I took SPCH 1311, Introduction to Communications, with Professor Joansandy Wong, what kind of professional development credit I can get for taking
that course. Some sort of professional development credit would encourage faculty to take a Communications course.
INRW is setting up a Communication Café at the HLC Accelerator for fall 2020. Though the focus will be on writing, that is a form of communication and often precedes spoken communication as in writing a public speech or preparing written notes for a meeting. The Communications Café could possibly be aligned with the following resource.
Professor Theresa Glenn, Department Chair of Communication Studies and her colleagues have been discussing a Communications Lab. It could be a resource for students and faculty. The lab could help with the following:
- How to reduce communication apprehension
- How to improve interviewing skills and resume writing
- How to enhance presentation skills
- How to facilitate small group work
Liberal Arts has a chance with developing its Academic Master Plan to emphasize the importance of non-digital communication. We know from research that the business world values these Hard Skills of listening and speaking. We know from history and reading the daily newspaper that our political discourse can be improved if more citizens know how to listen to each other more empathetically and discuss our important issues rather than getting bogged down in arguments in which each side is only interested in defending its own views.