Both rhetorical theorists and attitude change theorists agree that characteristics of the source of persuasive communication can improve the persuasiveness of that message. Writers from both perspectives have approached this notion from two divergent perspectives. Isocrates was concerned with the speaker's prior reputation, which is quite similar…

An important influence on a presidential candidate's debating style, the "incumbency factor," has been largely ignored by researchers. An analysis of the argumentative style of incumbents, based on the 1976 and 1980 presidential debates, has isolated three distinguishing characteristics: (1) presidential incumbents tend to avoid extended…

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…

The study was designed to measure language, cognitive, perceptual, and oral-motor abilities in 17 preschoolers referred for speech-language evaluation because of unintelligible speech. Ss were administered a test battery which included tests of hearing, coarticulation, vocabulary, speech sound discrimination, and oral examination of the speech…

A study was conducted to determine the effects of mildly self-disparaging humor on audiences' perceptions when it is used by speakers perceived to be of differing credibility (ethos) levels. Responses by 27 students who were potential subjects of the experiment were used to construct a credibility scale. The most credible speaker, a university…

The paper describes the potential of cued speech to provide verbal language and intelligible speech to severely hearing impaired students. The approach, which combines auditory-visual-oral and manual cues, is designed as a visual supplement to normal speech. The paper traces the development of cued speech and discusses modifications made to the R.…

This paper describes the use of British union, or parliamentary, debating in a college public-communication course. This debating format, practiced at British universities and used in the British House of Commons, promotes interaction between speaker and audience, emphasizing the effective methods of persuasive discourse that evoke audience…

The guidelines provided in this paper are intended to help teachers develop a separate course on oral business communication skills that would follow a course on written business communication. Following a review of research corroborating the need for a specialized business speech course, suggestions are enumerated concerning course objectives,…

The state of the art in college-level competency testing is described, as is the development of a communication test for the University of Wisconsin-Parkside program. The research described herein exposes the fact that some students have communication problems which could inhibit their learning abilities. Valid and reliable procedures are needed…

Academe's values of "deferred gratification" and "work hard now to prepare for the future" are replaced in the world of work by such values as the "future is now" and "immediate results." The outside world, not the textbooks, has provided educational experiences for the nontraditional student. The nature of the world of work, the arena where…

The paper reports on a study in which 64 students (6-9 years old) identified as learning disabled in the area of auditory discrimination were trained to discriminate musical pitches in order to assess effects on speech discrimination. A detailed review of the literature is presented regarding the use of music in remediation, the definition of…

In the exchange round, either instructors change classrooms for a round of speeches in order to offer students a new critic or else the student goes to a new classroom on the day he or she is scheduled to speak, thus facing a new audience and instructor-critic. The present study attempts to validate the exchange round as a transfer of training…

This paper presents an approach to setting and evaluating experiential objectives for instruction in interpersonal communication. The first step suggested is to establish a set of experiential goals most likely to evoke personally meaningful student learning. Sample goals include: (1) the use of observation to identify and report on behaviors of…

Upon the request of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), Florida State University (FSU) is required to enact a program designed to graduate students with a certain degree of oral communication competency. While communication majors and minors are required to enroll in a public speaking course, no student at FSU has the option…

This study was designed to identify whether advanced nonnative speakers of English rely on recurrent sequences to produce fluent speech in conformance with neural network theories and symbolic network theories; participants were 6 advanced, speaking and listening university students, aged 18-37 years (their native countries being Korea, Japan,…