Argues that a speech communication course should be a required course because speaking and listening are important basic skills which require refinement during a student's college/university years under the guidance of communication professionals. Advises departments to consider the resources (people and material) necessary to develop and…

Suggests that social studies teachers review how they ask their students to speak publicly in class (question-responses, oral reports, group discussion, and/or role playing). They should also assess how alert their students are to language clues such as certain vocabulary words, intonation, facial expression, and gestures. (DB)

Discussed are five aspects of testing the oral language production of young native speakers of English, the validity of such testing, the relationship of tests to everyday speech activities, and the irrelevance of models drawn from foreign language testing. (Author/KC)

Tests two hypotheses concerning success in debate: (1) that success would be enhanced by a fast speaking rate, large amounts of evidence, and use of jargon; and (2) that a high correlation exists among these same variables. Neither hypothesis is supported and several explanations are offered. (JMF)

Describes cognitive restructuring, a refined and systematic method for treating anxieties such as communication apprehension. Contrasts cognitive restructuring with systematic desensitization, traces the development and research in support of this method, and details the procedures involved in its implementation. (JMF)

Argues that literacy needs to include speaking and listening skills. Outlines the Washington State Core Competency Project that identified three levels--communication codes, oral message evaluation, and basic speech--and developed ways to teach these competencies to adult learners. (SK)

This study investigated the effect of speech intelligibility of children with severe/profound hearing losses on evaluations of personal qualities by 60 listeners who were either familiar with or not familiar with the speech of children with hearing impairments. Experienced listeners scored speakers' speech intelligibility, cognitive competence,…

The production and perception of syllable stress by 15 children (ages 10-13) with severe or profound hearing impairments were compared to 15 controls. Children with hearing loss had higher fundamental frequency, duration of syllables were longer across stressed and unstressed syllables, and they were less successful in conveying stress…

In earlier work we have shown that adults, infants, and cotton-top tamarin monkeys are capable of computing the probability with which syllables occur in particular orders in rapidly presented streams of human speech, and of using these probabilities to group adjacent syllables into word-like units. We have also investigated adults' learning of…

The globalisation of English and a growing demand for good English-speaking skills in the job market in particular have been placing a greater emphasis on the teaching of English speaking skills in Bangladesh. The private universities emphasise developing English skills. It seems that students of public and private universities have the same level…

The difficulties and differences of the Hebrew speech of nine children (ages 7 through 11) with severe hearing impairments were compared with the speech of seven children (ages 4-8) without hearing impairments. Each child was asked to name the objects in 20 colored pictures. From the 20 objects, words were selected which included the five main…

Given that elderly adults depend more heavily on their ability to communicate as independent activity becomes more restricted, their ability to alter the supersegmental component of the message becomes crucial. A study investigated the ability of older speakers to alter their speaking rate and to determine the strategies used to accomplish rate…

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…