The Importance of Dialogue

After reading the article by Nicholas Burbules entitled "Dialogue in Teaching", I got to thinking about how we use dialogue in our every day life. Not the fact that we use it, but HOW we use it to relay messages to others. Every time we send a message to someone through dialogue, we are using a mixture of the various forms mentioned by Burbules. It is impossible to only use ONE form when sending or recieving dialogue. We are either engaging in dialogue in a group where we are discussing something (dialogue in conversation) but at the same time throughout that conversation we might be trying to persuade them to think one way or another about a certain topic (dialogue as debate). It is unavoidable to use all four forms at some point. I would go so far as to say that every conversation uses all four forms by the end of it. At least, that is my observation and my opinion. I really liked this article because it really related to what I study as a communications major.