This study describes how online courses were designed and delivered based on the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework and how this influenced the online interaction in a Sino-American university in Wenzhou, China during the pandemic. The courses were English composition and Academic oral discourse, and Canvas was used as the learning management…

This article discusses Vietnam Virtual EXchange for English Language Teaching (ViVEXELT), a project funded by the British Council -- Vietnam (Digital Learning Innovation Fund Pilot -- Response to COVID-19). It makes a substantial contribution to the theorization of Virtual Exchange as a fertile and inclusive knowledge-sharing Third Space. ViVEXELT…

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…

A study investigated whether there was a relationship between contestants' speaking position and their ranking and quality ratings by judges in forensics competitions. In addition, the study examined whether these relationships varied by type of event. Subjects were contestants from two- and four-year colleges in two tournaments held in…

Speech communication plays a significant role in a liberal arts education. Studying and practicing oral communication constitutes direct inquiry into the social and psychological features of social life and survival and presents reality phenomena more directly and emphatically than do writing or other types of communication. Such direct social…

This second in a series of five papers on communication reticence discusses the establishment of a setting for the treatment of communicationally reticent individuals. Eleven years of operation of a formal program at the Pennsylvania State University provides the basis for discussion of factors in the operation of the system. An eclectic…

The student who has come to be called "reticent" expresses concern about many oral, communicative behaviors, ranging from public speaking to meeting strangers and carrying on a few minutes of "small talk." A rhetorical method of instruction was utilized in a study conducted to determine the effects of treatment on a selected…

The purpose of this paper, the fourth in a series of five dealing with communication reticence, describes the residual effects of training in a treatment program for communicationally reticent individuals. A questionnaire to assess the specific problems which led students to seek instruction in the special speech sections of the Pennsylvania State…

Describes processes of facilitation involved in exolingual conversation (interactions between persons who are dynamically adjusting their respective linguistic performances) between foreign language learners and native speakers, concluding that such behavior is dynamic and creative, and incapable of being described and defined within predetermined…

The speaking ability of 40 Finnish college students of English as a Second Language was assessed in tests of interactional and transactional language function. In the interactional test, the learner introduced a topic of his choice and attempted to converse with two native speakers of English. In the transactional test, the learner watched a video…

A study investigated how non-native speakers of English used linguistic and non-linguistic skills to manage interaction in an interview-style verbal test of English proficiency. Subjects were eight international teaching assistants, four native speakers of Spanish and four native speakers of Chinese, who took a standardized oral interview…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The eight titles deal with the following topics: (1) the initiating and responding communication behaviors of primary school students who score high as compared to those who score low on language and reading tests; (2) listening…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 34 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the influence of rhyming verses on young children's ability to repeat rhythmic phrases; (2) schools of thought in linguistics; (3) the great vowel shift in the…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 21 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: the relationships among psychological differentiation, situational context, and linguistics; the effect of cognitive complexity and audience attitude on persuasive…