The purpose of this study was to explore the utility and application of the framing devices identified by Fairhurst (1993) and Fairhurst and Sarr (1996) in the college/university setting as evidenced through college/university presidents' speeches. Fifty-seven college/university presidents' speeches were collected from institution…

Compares self-reports of speech preparation activities by high and low public speaking apprehensive individuals. Finds that high communication apprehensives spent more time on non-communication-oriented activities and more time preparing their speeches but received lower grades than low apprehensives, while low communication apprehensives spent…

Tested public speaking anxiety of university students at the beginning and end of the semester. Treated one group with skills training, visualization, and Communication-Orientation therapy; another received skills training and visualization; another received only skills training; fourth group served as control. Found that the 2 groups receiving…

To gain insight into whether debate judges actually do treat impromptu speaking as miniextemporaneous speaking, a study compared the comments judges wrote to extemporaneous speakers with those they wrote to impromptu speakers during the first two rounds of a forensic tournament. Approximately 1,000 comments from 152 ballots (102 impromptu and 50…

Tests three rival measurement models of a common measure of trait communication apprehension, the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24). Finds that the second-order factor model better fits the data in terms of conceptual implications, psychometric properties, and empirical evidence than the linear, unidimensional model or the…

With certifying end-of-program achievement as their goal, a group of educators conducted a pilot assessment program at Northeast Missouri State University in 1992. The program called for the videotaping of each student's third speech to be assessed by outside judges. The present study attempted to determine if videotaping and self-evaluation…

A study on basic speech assessment replicated an earlier one except that in place of the CCAI and the Competent Speaker form, the Self-Perceived Public Speaking Competency Scale (SPPSC) was used. Also, 2 randomly selected control groups of students were added to the research design: one consisting of 62 students who had not taken speech and were…

Data were collected over a three-year period from 10 sections of an advanced public speaking course at a midwestern university in a study to determine (1) the extent to which debaters who are not ego-involved can accurately judge classroom debate speeches, and (2) the specific variables that affect this accuracy. All 10 sections were taught by the…

A study examined the impact of self-confrontation (self-viewing of videotaped speeches) on student public speaking apprehension. Subjects, 112 undergraduate students enrolled in introductory public speaking classes who were confronted with their videotaped speeches (as post-performance feedback), did not experience a reduction in their public…

A study investigated the effectiveness of subliminal techniques (such as tape recorded programs) for improving public speaking ability. It was hypothesized that students who used subliminal tapes to improve public speaking ability would perform no differently from classmates who listened to identical-sounding placebo tape programs containing no…

Data from five first-place orations from the earliest Interstate Oratorical contests (1874-1878) and five recent first-place orations (1978-1982) were analyzed to determine their subjects or prominent theme, the patterns of organization that were employed, and the types of evidence the speakers used. Following this, historical conclusions were…

Results indicated that at the outset of a semester public speaking course, the PRCA-24 and the general anxiety measure predicted the anxiety experienced by college students with equal power, but by the end of the semester the PRCA-24 was clearly superior in predicting self-reported anxiety. (PD)

To determine if there is a distinction between the forensics community's idea of quality and that of the general population, tournament rankings of forensics judges and those of a lay audience were compared. Undergraduate students enrolled in a variety of speech related courses were asked to attend rounds of competition at a midwest collegiate…

A study of the relationship between irrational beliefs and communication apprehension (CA) sought to determine (1) if CA is related to a person's irrational beliefs as defined in research by Ellis; (2) to which, if any, of the CA contexts (group, meeting, dyadic, or public speaking) the irrational beliefs are most related; and (3) whether the…

A study examined the impact of high school sophomore students' mastery of public speaking skills through sociodrama. Student attitudes toward role-play was also surveyed to provide more background information on sociodrama's impact upon student learning. A class of 26 students in southern Cook County, Illinois, prepared role-play characterizations…