Procedures and practices that are ableist in the educational system have been long overlooked. Speakers having differing abilities than neurotypical or able-bodied individuals is often not something that is considered in basic course assessment tools. This is important to address because although there are institutional policies and procedures in…

The area of rhetorical criticism has rarely been perceived as having a valid or useful role in the high school speech curriculum. However, a rationale for the inclusion of rhetorical criticism in high school speech instruction may be found in the accepted goals of speech instruction, because the failure to teach students the skills of rhetorical…

This list of films for use in a basic college speech communication course has been drawn from films available through the universities of Michigan, Michigan State, and Iowa. These collections were selected because of reasonable rental rates, their midwestern availability, and the comparative fullness of the collections. Many of the films are old…

This paper describes the use of British union, or parliamentary, debating in a college public-communication course. This debating format, practiced at British universities and used in the British House of Commons, promotes interaction between speaker and audience, emphasizing the effective methods of persuasive discourse that evoke audience…

The guidelines provided in this paper are intended to help teachers develop a separate course on oral business communication skills that would follow a course on written business communication. Following a review of research corroborating the need for a specialized business speech course, suggestions are enumerated concerning course objectives,…

Contained in this curriculum guide are a rationale, performance objectives, techniques, and activities for the teaching of listening and speaking skills in the primary grades. In an introductory chapter basic terms are defined and the need for a study of listening and speaking skills is emphasized. Chapter two review the literature on the nature…

Upon the request of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), Florida State University (FSU) is required to enact a program designed to graduate students with a certain degree of oral communication competency. While communication majors and minors are required to enroll in a public speaking course, no student at FSU has the option…

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…

The keeping of journals by students in the basic speech course is the focus of this paper, which is divided into three parts. Part 1 examines the benefits of journal use to students and teachers and points out that three types of learning can thus be encouraged: the development of thinking skills, personal growth, and content learning. It also…

This part of a series of reports on forensic programs in this issue gives data about how forensics is thought of by the speech communication profession. (CH)

In a survey of commercial braodcasters, 80% of the respondents felt that university communications majors seeking on-the-air, nonnews jobs were unqualified for their chosen profession. Because teachers of oral interpretation possess the performance expertise that broadcasters need, they must be more actively involved in teaching broadcast…

This paper argues that quality pre-law communication programs must be developed through an organized sustained effort in the speech communication field. The development of a pre-legal communication program is discussed in terms of three interrelated states: (1) the development of a specific academic program within the speech communication…

Student interest prompted the formation of a Speaker's Bureau in Seminole Senior High School, Seminole, Florida. First, students compiled a list of community contacts, including civic clubs, churches, retirement villages, newspaper offices, and the County School Administration media center. A letter of introduction was composed and speaking…

Reports the findings of a survey commissioned by the Speech Communication Association's Task Force on Assessment and Testing. Concludes that many states are including speaking and listening skills in curriculum and assessment programs but that much work still needs to be done to develop an integrated oral communication program. (PD)