Background: Speech sound disorders (SSDs) are broadly defined as difficulty producing speech sounds in childhood. Reported prevalence of SSD varies from 2.3% to 24.6%, depending on how SSD is defined and the included age range. SSDs that do not resolve before age 8 can have a lasting impact on a child's academic achievements. The intensity of…

The traditional recommendation for sequencing speaker and listener instruction has been to teach listener skills prior to teaching speaker skills. In a review of the research literature prior to 2011, Petursdottir and Carr (2011) concluded that research did not support this recommendation. We reviewed the most recent research on the efficiency of…

Reviews 15 documents in the ERIC system on the basic course in speech communication covering philosophy, research, teaching approaches, and challenges. (PD)

Presents six generalizations on using humor in public speaking. (PD)

Considers how the discipline of communication has much to offer to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning across disciplines and instructional levels. Discusses research which has been conducted by one or more of the coauthors and their students. Notes that it was chosen as a representative sample of kinds of work that are continuing in efforts…

Standardized tests can be a valuable part of a value-added assessment package which attempts to determine what students gain from the college experience in general, and from communications courses in particular. The critical issues concerning assessment center around who will evaluate what skills and values with which instruments. Within the…

Following a brief discussion of the works of the philosopher Jacques Maritain, who viewed the educational process as the art of helping individuals to realize the nature of that which is inherent in them, this paper analyzes the implications of Maritain's views for the discipline of speech communication. The paper suggests that education in speech…

Sketches a perspective of competence and its underlying assumptions. Compares and contrasts this perspective with McCroskey's conceptualization (ERIC ED 203 401). Discusses the implications of a relational competence approach for theory and pedagogy. (PD)

Uses ERIC documents to examine ethics in forensics, media, and communication research. Considers implications for speech communication teachers. (PD)

Presents a course syllabus which incorporates recent research findings indicating that students that suffer from communication apprehension may be treated in a regular oral communication course with no detrimental side effects to the rest of the class. Claims that, in general, an immediate atmosphere of support and encouragement must be developed.…

Develops a model of the stages of student rhetorical development and relates it to public speaking instruction. Suggests teaching strategies designed to lead students to each successive level of the model. (MS)

The 16 articles in this journal issue identify and assess change and constants in intercollegiate forensics during the decade of the 1970s. The articles give varying perspectives on the significance of the decade and the topics range from concern for tenure for the debate coach to the formats of argumentation theory within the debates themselves.…

Reviews surveys on the status of the basic speech communication course. Identifies issues and concerns about instructional approaches, staffing, textbooks, philosophy, etc. (PD)

Discusses the use of discourse analysis by language learners for speaking and listening instruction. Techniques and activities that make students active participants in language learning, by producing and analyzing their own language data and becoming conscious of language production skills are described. Brief annotated and unannotated…

Current conceptualizations of the construct of "communication competence" are examined in this paper and are found to be problematic. The paper argues that "communication competence" must be distinguished from "communication performance" and sees neither as a reliable predictor of the other. The paper suggests that both research and pedagogy must…