ABSTRACT
The study of communication skills provides the individual with a language for interpreting social interaction. In practice, the 'Communication Skills Training' (CST) method can be described as one of homing in and honing up, where one aspect of social interaction is focused upon at a time and trainees are encouraged to develop and refine their use of this particular aspect. A vast volume of research has been conducted into the effectiveness of the microtraining approach to CST. The CST training paradigm is clearly based on a 'reductionist' strategy for the study of social interaction. The criticisms of CST made by M. Elmes and M. Costello were based primarily upon observations at one workshop, and have been countered by the author and D. Tourish. An objection that has been raised in opposition to CST is that by teaching interpersonal skills, eventually social interaction will lose its natural beauty and become artificial and stilted.
