In response to projected increases in enrollment in public speaking at Missouri's St. Louis Community College-Meramec, a project was undertaken to develop a plan for incorporating gender communication into the public speaking course. The first phase of the project involved a review of literature related to women in education and gender research,…

Based on searches of nearly 200 periodicals as well as publishers' flyers and brochures from 30 major publishing houses and university presses, this annotated bibliography presents a representative collection of books and journal articles related to the knowledge and practice of public relations published in 1996. The annotated bibliography is…

Pronunciation teaching of the segmental aspects needs to be balanced with the inclusion of learner awareness of stress, rhythm, intonation and meaningful production. Yet many formats for pronunciation teaching do not place these skills and an awareness of the suprasegmental features in either a communicative format or a specific speaking…

This guide for scholars presents a step-by-step process for planning and delivering an effective presentation. Chapter 1 discusses the four principles that underlie all presentations: (1) responsibility to the audience; (2) making conscious decisions about what to present; (3) making decisions before, during, and after the presentation; and (4)…

This paper holds that despite, or perhaps because of, the development of recent ideas about diversity and cultural relativity, universities are obligated to teach communication ethics. Further, it holds that the implications of giving bachelor's degrees to students who do not have a solid grasp of universal ethical guidelines are potentially…

This bibliography presents annotations of 54 selected books, bibliographies, guidelines, journal articles, papers, and reports published from 1976 to 1989 about oral history in education. The annotations are divided into four main categories: (1) oral history guidelines; (2) oral history in education; (3) minority issues; and (4) women's issues. A…

This paper presents the results of a study to identify the specific needs graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) in speech communication have while teaching. Six GTAs completed a description of their experience as GTAs, maintained a day-by-day teaching log and participated in a group discussion. The paper uses a qualitative-phenomenological approach…

One of the main problems with higher education is that curriculums, both past and present, objectify and marginalize the experiences of people of color and thus reduce diversity in the graduate and professional school populations. African American, Asians, Hispanics, and other minorities are studied in many college-level classes only as an…

This competency-based curriculum in foreign language learning for Peace Corps volunteers is designed for beginning learners and stresses listening and speaking skills. The curriculum contains the following components: an initial Scope and Sequence chart; three sections on activities (General, Grammar, and Listening), 14 topic area units (the core…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a computer-generated feedback system when used in conjunction with an analysis of videotaped performances of students' speeches and model speeches. Subjects, 112 university students enrolled in 9 sections of a required undergraduate public speaking course, were randomly assigned to 1…

To provide normative data concerning what actually occurs during initial classroom interaction on the university level, a study described the first day activities of multiple classrooms across the academy at a large midwestern university. The following research questions were addressed: (1) what introductory material does the instructor provide?…

Testimony from a former head of a communication and theatre department attests to the difficulty in recruiting new faculty with graduate faculty credentials for a department without a doctoral program. Typically, the so-called "stars" of an academic discipline gravitate to large universities and their doctoral programs. Therefore, those involved…

This paper discusses the development of training manuals for interviewing and public speaking, topics covered in the Oral Communication course at St. Louis Community College at Meramec (Missouri). There are four major research questions posed: (1) what literature yields regarding the competency-based module, and its use in developing learning…

A study investigated the relationship between syntax, discourse, and suprasegmentals in reported utterances (e.g., "He said,..."). The study is intended as both theoretical and descriptive, specifically, proposing a model of intonation in spontaneous oral Quebec French. The first chapter reviews research on Quebec French prosody, on oral…

Computers are now perceived as a required resource by business, education, and government, as well as in personal life. The rates of adoption of information technologies among these groups (business, education, government, family/individual) have varied, which may have created knowledge gaps. Based on the data collected from a telephone survey in…