The authors identify competitive speech and debate as a form of play that helped democratize American citizenship for the poor, who used what they learned through the practice to advance their personal social and economic goals. In addition, this competitive activity led to the development of speech communication as an academic discipline and…

An educational program called KIDSPEAK was designed to teach oral communication skills to children in grades three through six in four public and private school districts in Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota. Topics which have been taught include: basic public speaking skills; oral reading; listening; creative expression and…

To identify and interpret some of the attitudes toward and levels of support for competitive forensic activities on college campuses, a study surveyed the chief administrative officer at every institution identified in the Speech Communication Association's 1988 Directory (339 of the 1,100 surveys mailed were completed). Questions concerned past…

A study was conducted to begin the process of determining the preferences of coaches and/or teams for attending specific national debate tournaments. Ninety-six respondents participated in the study either through an oral survey or a follow-up questionnaire administered at two different national tournaments. The subjects included the directors of…

Explores the procedure of dropping the low rank/low rating that is used at some national forensic tournaments and finds that a significantly altered pool of contestants for elimination rounds is not produced. (MM)

When directors of forensics stop coaching and travelling with their teams, they often seek other roles to enable them to continue their affiliation with forensic activities. A closer look at five commonly held assumptions about the motivation of ex-directors shows that: (1) after active coaching ends, ex-directors do take on different roles in…

Comparing the manner in which contestants' scores were tabulated at both the 1985 American Forensic Association National Individual Events Tournament (AFA-NIET) and National Forensic Association Individual Events Nationals (NFA-IEN), a study (1) examined whether a correlation exists between contestants placing in the quarterfinals with five…

Reports the findings of a national survey of high school debaters regarding their perceptions of the efficacy of debate participation. Concludes that the high school debaters reported advantages similar to those cited by collegiate debaters and that high school debaters were more concerned about perceived negative stigma associated with debate…

Verbal and nonverbal dimensions of communication are a vital part of competitive group discussion. Specific nonverbal elements that have been found useful in competitive group discussion include environment, proxemics, kinesics, objectics, and chronemics. For example, equalizing arrangements for the discussion in the best area of a room enhances…