Noting that speech communication educators devote little classroom time to the subject of ethics, this paper proposes a framework for the discussion of interpersonal ethics in the classroom setting. The paper first summarizes C. T. Brown and P. W. Keller's work in interpersonal ethics, which places the study of ethics within the democratic…

Presents an annotated bibliography of 27 items from the ERIC database in the area of speech communication. Areas highlighted include the nature of the discipline/profession; teaching/learning; theory/research; and applied communication. (JMF)

A study examined the administration of college forensics programs, comparing the current (1990) status of programs to the status of such programs one year ago and five years ago. The study was based on the philosophy that if forensics programs have changed, more than likely they have changed in terms of what activities are offered to students, and…

A survey was conducted to examine the role of peace education within existing speech communication programs and to describe that role both in terms of curricular and research priorities. Respondents, 113 department Chairs out of a total of 578 on the Speech Communication Association's list of institutions offering degrees in communication,…

Discusses the role of a "basic course director" who oversees the consistency among multiple sections of the same course. Surveys communications departments at representative midwestern universities concerning the methods and functions of such a director of introductory courses. (HB)

Forty-two community colleges and one four-year college responded to a survey requesting information about theatre programs. The colleges ranged in size from a low of 395 students to a high of 30,000. The results of the survey indicated that theatre courses were required of communication majors at only one college, and were electives at the…

A study examined procedures used to test the oral communication skills of students between the ages of 15 and 18 in the United Kingdom, with special attention given to strategies which might be of value to adopt in the United States. Subjects were 4 pairs of students tested from a randomly selected sample of 112 schools. Twenty-two assessors were…

A survey was conducted to update previous rankings of speech communication doctoral programs. Subjects were a random selection of every sixth name on the Speech Communication Association (SCA) membership list, and members of the SCA who have been the first authors of journal articles in the SCA journals in the past 10 years. In addition to…

A study examined the grading patterns in basic public speaking and communication courses. It was hypothesized that female students would receive higher grades in basic performance and nonperformance communication courses than would male students. The grades for one academic quarter in two nonperformance communication courses and one public…

A study aimed to provide information about the current communication curriculum offered through undergraduate programs. A systematic search of the undergraduate catalogs of 565 institutions was conducted viewing Speech Communication Programs available in the Central States region. Results indicated that all but five institutions offered at least…

Twenty years of research in interpersonal communication have provided teachers with a basis for identifying the competencies that should be taught in introductory interpersonal communication courses, including empathy, social composure, and conflict management. However, other issues such as "performance vs. knowledge," the affective dimension, and…

The seeds of mass communication research in broadcasting were extracurricular, not academic, inspired by experimental campus radio stations. Prior to the mid-1930s, radio research was scarce. Until World War II, radio speech was the most important topic, followed by articles on how to use radio for improving instruction. There are three…

Examines the effects of the preparation and presentation of a speech on the changing attitudes of the speaker. Concludes that individual attitudes are affected by the preparation stage more than the presentation stage. Draws implications for the teaching of public speaking. (JMF)

Symbolic interactionism, or the interactional perspective, provides the broadest overview of the major theoretical divisions in the field of speech communication. It is neither too abstract nor overly concrete and is directly linked to communicative behavior, and thus does not impose an inappropriate mechanism on the discipline in order to create…

The results of a survey of college speech departments, conducted to gain information on the current status of voice/speech improvement training, department course offerings, and general approaches used by individual teachers are contained in this report. The report begins with a description of the survey and information on the respondents. The…