The key element to the survival of speech communication and its status in academe is the basic course, which tells the academic community what speech communication is and what it can produce in terms of observable student behavior. This basic course, upon which many communication departments depend, must produce students who are obviously trained…

Argues that by acting out, rather than only reading Shakespeare's plays, they can be better interpreted and appreciated. (SRT)

Discusses how Black orality, which combines elements of Black speech and music, is supplemented by dance and other nonverbal cues and actualized in the performance of contemporary Black poetry. (JMF)

Describes the use of Bertolt Brecht's theories regarding literature and performance. Details the selected use of Reader's Theatre techniques in analyzing and staging literature in the secondary classroom environment. (JMF)

Teachers, researchers, and performers in the field of Performance Studies often find themselves defining what it is that they do. Boundaries are often hard to draw, however. Is the work they are doing "art?" The distinction is important to funding agencies, tenure committees, and university administration. One definition of art…

The (CBS Radio) Columbia Workshop, formed in 1936, encouraged the writing and production of creative, non-traditional radio drama such as Archibald MacLeish's verse play "The Fall of the City," which aired on April 11, 1937. MacLeish considered radio the ideal medium for poetry because it offers only aural stimuli without competition…

Monetary support is essential to the survival of speech interpretation programs in the 1980s, and the community is one viable alternative to dwindling academic channels of support. Two strategies have proved vital to securing community support for the interpretation program at an Indiana university: (1) networking, maintaining a group of faculty…

In a survey of commercial braodcasters, 80% of the respondents felt that university communications majors seeking on-the-air, nonnews jobs were unqualified for their chosen profession. Because teachers of oral interpretation possess the performance expertise that broadcasters need, they must be more actively involved in teaching broadcast…

Describes how one elementary school teacher recreated the drama of his own childhood encounters with literature by dramatically reading poetry to his students. (ARH)

Discusses the potential of reading aloud by students to increase their interest in and comprehension of reading materials. (SRT)

States that an oral interpretation course can deepen students' understanding of literature, extend their familiarity with important works, and help them appreciate the intricacies of rhythm and tone in poetry. Outlines student assignments for an oral interpretation course in the English program. (MM)

Analysis of speech communication studies reveals a number of themes in the arts. A central concern in studies dealing with oral interpretation is what should be the focus in the oral interpretive act. The shifting priorities parallel the shift in emphases occurring in speech communication as a whole: performer/delivery; text/message;…

Since the American Forensic Association has sanctioned recording individual events competition, it might be in the interest of competition to combine oral interpretation and radio/television broadcast competition into simultaneous competition. Voice development is a goal shared by oral interpretation and broadcasting, so oral interpretation…

For those analyzing oral interpretation performance, the theory of Symbolic Interactionism can be used to explain two interrelated phenomena that occur during the performance: expanded understanding of the text (emergent meaning) and expanded understanding of oneself (development of the self-concept). George Herbert Mead, a founder of Symbolic…

Within the realm of forensic oral interpretation, concern over the use of profanity in presentations has aroused repressive criticism from some judges, who then express their offense by ranking the performance negatively. This judicial opposition is deleterious not only to the precepts of oral interpretation, but also--in a larger sense--to the…