Reviews published assessments of oral communication across the curriculum programs in higher education. Reports activities and results from a faculty and student development program at a midsized comprehensive state university. Suggests that this approach holds significant promise for curricular development and improvement of student communication…

Describes an alternative approach to a communication lab or speaking center known as the Speech Center, which serves the entire university community. Notes that the use of the center is based entirely on voluntary participation by faculty and staff. Reviews methods and operating procedures for this alternative program. (SG)

Presents information obtained from department heads of 148 communication departments in four-year colleges and universities across the United States. Examines data related to departments' current, expected, and desired course offerings. Suggests that communication departments are making moderate efforts to cover a broad range of…

To describe the conflict management training practices in 10 large American organizations, a study gathered descriptive data through interviews with organizational personnel responsible for training and development, a review of written materials where available, and observations of the delivery of conflict management training programs. The…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 24 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: a social skills training program; facial kinesic correlates of terminal cancer patients; the relationships among indices of social cognition, motivation, and…

Because critical thinking has become a popular topic among speech communication educators in recent years, this paper reviews the literature on teaching critical thinking skills and discusses its relevance for speech communication instruction. First, the paper briefly sketches the history of the critical thinking movement and describes the…

A survey was completed by 197 college and university speech communication departments concerning their speech internship programs. Survey items asked about institution size, number of majors/minors in the department, existence of an intern program, general standards, credit hour issues, placement, intern responsibility, and faculty role. The…

The proceedings of a conference on computer-assisted language instruction include the following reports and papers: (1) a report on computer-related developments in speech research and their implications for therapy and communication; (2) descriptions of courseware and authoring aids for grammar and comprehension instruction and language practice…

Acknowledging that one of the most difficult challenges postsecondary educators must face is the maintenance of adequate student enrollment, this paper describes the creation of a speech communication laboratory as one component of a university-wide effort to maximize student retention. The paper first discusses several suggestions researchers…