To say that there is a lack of student enthusiasm on the first day of Research Methods is an understatement. Research Methods begins each semester with two teaching goals: (1) lowering classroom anxiety; and (2) bolstering student enthusiasm for the course material by helping them identify its relation to their lives. The most powerful…

Academic misconduct is a serious, pervasive, communication phenomenon on college campuses. In this study, the goals-plans-action model (Dillard, 1990) was used as a theoretical framework to investigate peer confrontation of cheating and whistle-blowing to a course instructor. In an experiment, participants were asked to respond to measures of…

Most business communication textbooks treat "unfavorable" communications as written documents--denials of credit, collection requests, rejections for employment, inability to meet deadlines, etc. These written "unfavorable" documents are no longer actually written by most employees. In fact, many of these communications are computer generated and…

Most communication research on bad news messages focuses on crisis communication, where attention is often limited to image repair strategies. The authors argue that a key indicator of an organization's effectiveness in communicating "bad news" messages is its organizational culture. Developing an organizational culture that values positive…

Though an emerging research area, serial argumentation has yet to be cohesively explored from a theoretical lens. The current project thus extends and updates Trapp and Hoff's (1985) original serial argument model by explicating and testing a theoretical process an individual goes through immediately before, during, and after a serial argument…

Describes an action research project on digital editing being carried out by a group of teachers. Evaluates a conceptual framework for editing digitized moving images, under three headings: literacies and communicative practices; creativity; and social roles and learning styles. Presents three teacher accounts of student projects involving digital…

The intercultural reality of the global marketplace necessitates effective intercultural communication and diplomatic skills training. An effective educational strategy must emphasize a balanced enhancement of learners' conceptual understanding of intercultural communication, their attitudes toward cultural differences, and the skills required for…

The goal of this paper is to describe how one classroom teacher uses the Sender-Receiver Communications Model to illustrate for students in a lively and memorable way the process of "targeting your audience" with medium and message. Students are used as examples of Receivers, or target audience, illustrating the potential range of…

The results of three projects concerned with auditory word recognition and the structure of the lexicon are reported in this paper. The first project described was designed to test experimentally several specific predictions derived from MACS, a simulation model of the Cohort Theory of word recognition. The second project description provides the…

Describes a perspective designed to examine the structure, function, and process of interpersonal communication to locate the major sources of problems in particular interactions. States assumptions of the perspective, defines the elements and processes of interpersonal communication, suggests ways to use the framework, and describes current…

Shows that long before it translates into actual behavior, the content and forms that romance assumes in the postmodern nexus of media and the market shape children's romantic imagination. Explores how children's imagined vision of romance moved from one molded by media to one characterized by a tension between what media promised and their…

The purpose of this paper is to present a general research model for the study of interpersonal communication competence. The paper summarizes the research background for the model and covers considerations for a general theory of competence. It notes that recently the communication field has shifted in emphasis from concerns of public speaking…

Using current right brain/left brain research, this paper develops a model that explains acting's underlying quality--the actor is both himself and the character. Part 1 presents (1) the background of the right brain/left brain theory, (2) studies showing that propositional communication is a left hemisphere function while affective communication…

Examines 73 participants on the relationship between verbal recall and listening, using measures of listening behavior as a criterion. Considers three possible models: (1) isomorphic, (2) confounding, and (3) recall ability as antecedent to listening. Finds that a model stipulating verbal recall ability as antecedent to listening provides the best…

Prepared as part of a program to develop both a system to assess information needs of teacher education decision makers and impact strategies to increase the probability that teacher educators will make appropriate use of research and development findings and products, this document reports on the literature review that led to the initial…