Teachers of public speaking need to provide the educational leadership necessary for students to become responsible for their presentational interaction. Several instructional practices can help students re-position themselves in what they do with their presentational interaction to make it meaningful. For example, teachers can respond to student presentations in "meaning oriented" ways. Since how students respond to each other's presentations is crucial, it is also necessary to work with peer responses which encourage meaningful responses. Teachers should involve students in determining what purposes are worth pursuing in presentational interaction. When teachers make taking responsibility for meaningful interaction central in public speaking, they create a vision which contrasts with that of traditional instruction. This contrasting view does not provide easy-to-follow formulas for teaching or student evaluation. Although students may feel more anxious when asked to become accountable for their interaction, they can discover how they might count with others, which provides them with a reason for investing themselves in presentational interaction. (Four class handouts and 20 references are appended.) (MM)