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