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…

A study assessed the relationship of the independent variables of interpersonal attraction to the dependent variables of feeling good, relational safety, and uncertainty level. Subjects were 75 elementary and secondary school teachers, 61 communication students, 18 child development professionals, and 8 service club members. Each subject completed…

Presently there are nearly 20,000 undergraduate majors in broadcasting, with the majority enrolled in speech communication departments. However, estimates hold that at best only one-half of those seeking positions in television will actually find them. This indicates the need for a media student to receive a good general education in areas other…

An increasingly popular form of mass media persuasion is the "docudrama," a hybrid of the informative documentary and the dramatic film. The docudrama format presents viewers with a purposive viewpoint or value-laden interpretation of reality and contains some degree of historical accuracy and factual authenticity. The docudrama also…

The frequencies and co-occurrence distributions of some of the prosodic features in the speech of children are discussed. The emphasis is on the determination of systems and structure of non-segmental lectal variability in the children's speech without primary reference to function. The primary data consisted of selected episodes of connected…

Due to the recent Federal redefinition of "basic skills," large scale assessments of speaking and listening proficiencies will proliferate. In planning assessment procedures, educators must be sensitive not only to psychometric validity, but also to pedagogical validity: the effects of testing on curricular content and instructional strategies.…

This paper explores the small claims court as an alternative forum for the instruction of argumentation and suggests a possible format of a course utilizing such a concept. The first section of the paper offers a short history of the small claims court. The second section contains a course syllabus outlining the format of an argumentation course…

Data from a series of surveys of voters in the Midwest, conducted during the 1976 presidential election campaign, were used to explore the effects of the campaign in relation to when people decided for whom to vote. A second purpose was to consider the adequacy of the traditional dichotomous model of voters: people who make up their minds early…

Experiences of the editors of communication journals can be drawn on for tips on how to get articles published. The editor of "Communication Quarterly" makes the final decision on whether a manuscript should be accepted, accepted with revisions, or rejected. Since revisions are requested in the vast majority of cases, authors should be…

The development of a sound theory of the arguing of policy questions in debate requires that the Affirmative be obligated to demonstrate the solvency of its plan, regardless of the paradigmatic origins of the case theory. While the specific degree of demonstration which is necessary to establish solvency remains a substantive issue within the…

This booklet identifies the learner competencies expected of students with varying linguistic abilities attending Department of Defense Dependents Schools throughout the world. The statements are banded in segments of kindergarten through grade four, grade five through grade eight, and grade nine through grade twelve. Both instructional objectives…

Thirty male and twenty female students were used to investigate the strategies of topic management. In pairs, they were told that the male (or female) would like to become friends with the female (or male), and were assigned a dialogue which created a positive or a negative context. Then the subject assigned as the initiator was given one of three…

Three methodological improvements were incorporated into a two-channel study that tested the relationships between communication cues, dynamic/conversational delivery styles, and four dimensions of source credibility--dynamism, competence, evaluation, and trustworthiness. The methodological improvements included a molar rather than molecular…

This annotated bibliography of sociolinguistics is divided into the following sections: speech events, ethnography of speaking and anthropological approaches to analysis of conversation; discourse analysis (including analysis of conversation and narrative), ethnomethodology and nonverbal communication; sociolinguistics; pragmatics (including…

The group syntality concept of Raymond B. Cattell furnishes a useful framework for teaching parliamentary procedure. Although there are contrasts between the histories, subject matters, and perspectives of the areas of parliamentary procedure and group dynamics, teachers and students of parliamentary procedure might profitably draw from some of…