The benefits and the role of speech communication courses in developmental education programs are examined in this paper. The first section outlines the need for a package of developmental classes that includes a course in speech communication to prepare students for college-level courses. It describes a successful developmental program for…

Describes problems resulting from the use of immigrant industrial workers with poor language understanding and the method used to assess functional oral English for occupational purposes. While the form of assessment provides authentic data for company training and communication needs, further research is needed to resolve some problems. (MF)

Communication apprehension (CA) affects from 15% to 20% of the college population, indicating inherent problems of negative cognitive appraisal, conditioned anxiety, or skills deficits. Use of an individualized approach to the alleviation of CA has been shown to increase students' class interaction and to improve their verbal skills. During an…