College students who enroll in a public speaking course are able to define speech making concepts in formal assessments, but become challenged to effectively transition speech making conceptual learning into practice. Research has shown that creating a professional vision affords a practical guideline, a refinement of practice, and allows for…

Delivering a presentation has been found to be one of the most anxiety-inducing tasks faced by English language learners (ELLs). Researchers suggest that instructors should be more aware of the emotional state of ELLs to provide the appropriate level of emotional and instructional scaffolding support needed to improve presentation performance.…

This dissertation examines heritage language learners of Spanish enrolled in university Spanish courses, focusing on their strategic use of suprasegmental speech features in two speaking tasks. The research investigates attitudes' influence on heritage language learners' speech production in different task types. Participants engaged in two…

Using the ten commitments of Critical Communication Pedagogy (CCP) as a grounding perspective, this research project investigates the teacher-student relational dynamic with an inquiry into the degree of safety students and teachers perceive in their shared relationship. Relational safety is a new term being introduced into the literature on…

Literature suggested public speaking is American's most feared activity. Additionally, the public speaking curriculum was removed from the K-12 school system after 2001. This study aimed to examine the effect of previous public speaking instruction, public speaking extra-curricular activity, gender, and self-esteem on public speaking anxiety…

This study addressed pedagogical practices in the public speaking classroom in an attempt to help control communication apprehension (CA) levels and improve retention rates among college students in the basic public speaking course. Guided by the theoretical frameworks of Berger and Calabrese's uncertainty reduction theory and Weiner's attribution…

Evidence suggests that a disconnect is growing between the information provided in Christian sermons and the life challenges faced by those church attendees. To bridge that divide, the purpose of this study was to better understand the characteristics of a sermon that enhance learning for churchgoers in Christian churches. The guiding question…

Problem: Leaders today need a new set of knowledge and skills to be effective in collaborative environments. The focus of this study was to investigate how collaborative environments can contribute to leadership development. The purpose of this study was to describe how the collaborative environment of summer camp helped shape emerging adults as…

This eight-week descriptive study examined the impact of the incorporation of a Life-Application Learning Methods Program on struggling middle school readers. Two questions were explored: 1) How did incorporating life-application learning into the middle school curriculum impact reading motivation?, and 2) How did incorporating life-application…