A suggested syllabus for the ?effective communication skills? course for the pre-service English language teachers at Gazi university

Communicating effectively is central to the teaching process. Successful classroom learning and teaching relies on effective communication between the teacher and the students. Without effective communication, ideas, directions, and thoughts may be lost or misunderstood. The aim of this study is to encourage and assist pre-service language teachers to become high quality teachers who know not only how to communicate with students, colleagues, parents and administrators and but also how to deal with communication apprehension and utilize communication technologies. It is the aim of this study to prepare a syllabus that will provide pre-service language teachers with the basic communication concepts and theories and to demonstrate how principles of communication could be applied to classroom setting.This study has six chapters. The first chapter includes the background, aim, hypothesis and research questions, scope and limitations of the study. The second chapter is Review of Literature. It covers information about definition of communication, communication models, principles of communication, barriers to effective communication and communication in the classroom. Chapter 3 focuses on the method and the data collection process of the study. In Chapter 4, the collected data are analyzed and the results are discussed. Chapter 5 provides a suggested syllabus for the ?Effective Communication Skills? course. In this chapter modules of the suggested syllabus are given in detail in line with the pilot study outcomes. The last chapter is designed for the conclusion and suggestions for further studies.Throughout the study, the data are gathered via a variety of scales. First of all, the ?Teacher Communication Behavior Student Questionnaire? is given to high schools students to explain their views on their English language teachers? communication skills. On the other side, these teachers are asked to evaluate their own communication skills by the help of ?Do You Communicate Positively?? and ?İletişim Becerileri Envanteri?. Here the aim is to see whether the teachers and students share parallel thoughts in terms of teachers? communication skills used in actual classroom settings. Then, the pre-service language teachers and the instructors who deliver effective communication skills course are given a checklist about communication skills topics adapted from May?s study to decide on modules of the syllabus. The findings are reflected in the syllabus suggested.The suggested syllabus is implemented in one of the first grade pre-service English teachers? class in Effective Communication Skills course at Gazi University for 15 weeks. These students are given training on effective communication skills and their knowledge and skills are assessed both before and after the training via pre- and post-tests via t-test. The results indicated a remarkable progress of the subjects of the study in using communication skills effectively. The same post-test is implemented in another class in which existing program is used. The results are compared using t-test to see if the suggested syllabus makes a change in pre-service language teachers? training.Finally, throughout the study, the prospective language teachers are asked to keep reflection journals and evaluate their classroom experience. Their sincere thoughts in these journals guide the researcher to examine whether the suggested syllabus contributes to their communication skills. All these findings indicate that the suggested syllabus contributes to communication skills of the pre-service language teachers.Key Words: Effective communication skills, communication competence, teacher immediacy, instructional communication, communication apprehension, active listening, verbal and nonverbal immediacy.