Public speaking is a skill used in many professions. This study examined the impact of awareness training (AT) and competing response training (CRT), two components of habit reversal training, on the use of filled pauses during public speaking. Following baseline, these components were administered remotely to reduce the occurrence of filled…

The aim of the study was to identify the factors that contribute to speaking anxiety in Thai adult EFL learners working in an online media company and enrolled in an English course provided by the company, as well as to discover the anxiety reduction techniques used by these learners. The results showed that significant contributors to speaking…

Oral presentation skills are considered essential workplace skills and are therefore highly valued in higher education. However, research into this aspect of adult learning is limited, especially in the context of distance and online education. This paper reports on an innovative approach used in a university preparatory program in Australia.…

Each Air Force recruiter is formally trained in public speaking and the art of salesmanship or persuasion. These recruiters communicate to thousands of high school students each year through presentations in classrooms, auditoriums and other venues as part of their assigned duties. Persuasive presentations are public speaking events specifically…

This project was designed to train active and potential preachers in the Ellis County Baptist Missionary Association of Texas in the basics of expository preaching. Chapter 1 outlines the ministry context at Heritage Baptist Church, the project's purpose, and the project's goals. Chapter 2 examines the biblical and theological rationale that…

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…

The 42st annual conference of the Adult and Higher Education Alliance (AHEA) was held at the University of Central Florida in March 2018 and explored the theme, "Quality of Life in Adult Learning." The purpose of the Adult and Higher Education Alliance (AHEA) is to help institutions of higher education develop and sustain learning…

In response to ongoing concerns about financial ethics, this study analyzes the speech of company executives in quarterly earnings conference calls to understand strategic usage of ethics-related language. Against the backdrop of the recent global financial crisis, the Aristotelian concept of ethos provides a framework to investigate linguistic…

The 1772 execution of the Mohegan sailor Moses Paul served as the occasion for Samson Occom's popular "Sermon," reprinted in numerous editions. Recent work by Ava Chamberlain seeks to recover Paul's version of events from contemporary court records. This article argues that Paul's "firsthand" account of the case and autobiographical narrative…

It seems to happen every day. A meeting is called to outline a new strategy or sales plan. Down go the lights and up goes the PowerPoint. Strange phrases appear--"unlocking shareholder value," "technology-focused innovation," "maximizing utility." Lists of numbers come and go. Bullet point by bullet point, the…

This article offers eight recommendations for teaching artist training programs. These recommendations based on the findings of the Ohio State Based Collaborative Initiative report may be useful to arts and education organizations as they design training experiences for teaching artists developing arts-integrated workshops for teachers; they may…

The assumption that foreign language learners experience a high level of anxiety mainly when faced with speaking activities implies that research should focus on those learners prone to anxiety over that skill. Despite not being widely investigated, foreign language writing anxiety also seems to be a concern for a large number of students. Drawing…

Parody and related forms of political humor are essential resources for sustaining democratic public culture. They do so by exposing the limits of public speech, transforming discursive demands into virtual images, setting those images before a carnivalesque audience, and celebrating social leveling while decentering all discourses within the…

This study explored the effectiveness of communication training for clergy, working to create an outcomes assessment model for such endeavors. Clergy-participants (N=46) completed an extensive training process designed to increase the transformative quality of their sermon communication. Training outcomes were assessed with a prepost test design,…

This paper develops a rhetorically centered model of community literacy in the theoretical and practical context of local publics--those spaces where ordinary people develop public voices to engage in intercultural inquiry and deliberation. Drawing on fifteen years of action research in the Community Literacy Center and beyond, the authors…