2013 Volume 8 Issue 1 Pages 147-161
This paper consists of four parts. Firstly, the aspects of communication abilities that are necessary for students to study in higher education, where active learning is demanded nowadays, are considered. Secondly, the reason for constructing a questionnaire for the purpose of measuring communication abilities and the way in which the questionnaire was constructed are explained. Thirdly, the answers obtained through the questionnaire are analyzed. Four factors of communication abilities are extracted by the method of factor analysis, and the relationships between the four factors and some psychological traits are investigated by using multiple regression analysis. The results show that the trait of shyness affects the factors most significantly. Fourthly, the effectiveness of training courses whose purpose is to foster communication abilities is confirmed by utilizing the factor scores calculated from the questionnaire answers.
