Oral Communication

Last updated: August 28, 2009 at 11:17 a.m.

Objectives

The oral communication requirement aims to enhance students' ability to communicate and listen effectively in a range of contexts, to critically evaluate orally presented information and arguments and to consider specific techniques for using language as a communication tool. Oral communication courses, which may be offered in any department or program, include at least two opportunities per course to develop and practice oral communication skills through a wide range of possible assignments.

Courses involve instruction on topics such as appropriate style and effective delivery, theories of effective communication and clarity of expression, ideas and voice; and assessment of students’ communication skills through feedback by instructor and classmates.

Each Brandeis undergraduate entering in the fall of 2007 and thereafter must satisfactorily complete one writing-intensive and either a second writing-intensive or an oral communication course. The following list of oral communication courses should be considered preliminary, and students should consult the most recent list of approved courses in the Schedule of Classes to assure that they will receive requirement credit. Courses that satisfy the requirement in a particular semester are designated “oc” in the Schedule of Classes for that semester.

Courses of Instruction

AMST 102a
Environment, Social Justice, and the Role of Women

AMST 140b
The Asian American Experience

AMST 191b
Greening the Ivory Tower: Improving Environmental Sustainability of Brandeis and Community

BIOL 60b
Evolution

BIOL 134b
Topics in Ecology

COML 104a
Then and Now: Reimagining the Classics

ED 102a
Secondary Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment

ENG 141a
Literature and Geography

ENVS 89a
Environmental Internship

FYS 5b
Conceptions of the Good Life

FYS 12a
The "I" in the Storm: Writers Respond to Totalitarianism

FYS 34a
A Haunted America: American Dreamers as Wanderers, Visionaries, Isolates

FYS 41a
Darwin's "On the Origin of Species"

GER 103a
What You Always Wanted to Know

GER 104a
Let's Talk! Shall We?

LGLS 121b
Law and Social Welfare: Citizen Rights and Government Responsibilities

LGLS 130a
Conflict Analysis and Intervention

LGLS 132b
Environmental Law and Policy

LING 140a
Architecture of Conversation: Discourse and Pragmatics

LING 197a
Language Acquisition and Development

POL 173a
U.S. Foreign Economic Policy

RUS 106b
Advanced Russian Language through Film

SOC 117b
Sociology of Science, Technology, and Medicine

SOC 147a
Organizations and Social Change

SOC 169b
Issues in Sexuality

SOC 175b
Environmental Organizations, Networks, and Partnerships

THA 15b
Public Speaking: The Art of Oral Communication

THA 101a
Stage Management: Part I

THA 101b
Stage Management: Part II

USEM 7b
The Concept of Time

USEM 30b
Development of Play, Art, and Creativity

USEM 37a
For Our Own Protection? The Power of Censorship