To investigate the effect that the communication of behavioral objectives has on student achievement and attitudes in a basic speech communication course was the purpose of this study. Twenty instructors and their 417 students at Purdue University, representing 20 class sections of Fundamentals of Speech Communication, participated in the study. Two groups, consisting of 10 class sections each, received nine instructional objectives which were based on assigned reading in the required textbook. The objectives provided the first group were written in behavioral terms and represented three distinct levels of learning. The objectives for the second group were written in nonbehavioral terms. A research-designed content test was administered to both groups to assess student achievement of the objectives. The content test consisted of 50 items arranged into eight questions. Each question corresponded with an objective and was written to assess the appropriate level of learning represented by the objectives. The Purdue Rating Scale for Instruction was used to measure student attitude toward instruction. The results indicated that students provided with behavioral objectives scored higher on all three levels of learning than students provided with general objectives. (Author/WR)