Surveys 169 communication department chairpersons about the significance for tenure of 39 professional activities. Finds that the primary differentiating characteristic from one program to the next relative to promotion expectations regarding scholarship is the highest degree students can earn in the program. Finds that scholarship (articles,…

Discusses assessment with a focus on the speech communication discipline. Addresses the challenge communication administrators and educators continually face. (PA)

Compares sound patterns in the speech of two Brazilian-Portuguese speaking children with early production patterns in English-learning children as well as English and Brazilian-Portuguese characteristics. Results emphasize the primacy of production system effects in early acquisition, although even the earliest word forms show evidence of…

Argues that Abbott's reservations arise largely from assuming that the term "hearer-new" must be restricted to its original use as defined in Prince (1992). Also argues that if "hearer-new" may be extended to encompass a wider range of "entities" (including events, attributes, etc.) and greater flexibility in its potential applications, then many…

A study of 10 nondialect speakers who stutter, 10 nondialect speakers who do not stutter, and 10 dialect speakers who do not stutter, investigated the effect of speech dialect on listeners' speech naturalness ratings. Speech naturalness ratings were influenced by type of dialect, speech fluency and speaking rate. (Author/CR)

A study of 129 older adults (ages 55-84) with sensorineural hearing loss examined the effects of age, gender, and auditory thresholds on several measures of speech recognition. Results found significant declines with age for males in maximum word recognition, maximum synthetic sentence identification, and keyword recognition in high-context…

Begins by using the traditional psycholinguistic view of comprehension as a framework to compare the processes involved in listening and reading comprehension. Two other views of comprehension are then discussed. Finally, ways in which these different views of comprehension affect approaches to assessment and treatment are reviewed. (Author/CR)

Shows that, for students in a basic communication class, communication competence increased and communication apprehension decreased, and communication competence with strangers increased and communication apprehension in groups decreased. Shows that high apprehensive and low competence students experienced greater changes in their scores than did…

Reviews six key findings surrounding current graduate education. Concludes that there are not necessarily too many doctorates, but there are too many doctorates trained to be university professors. Notes the transformation of the master's degree over the past two decades and its widespread success in perceived relevancy for students and society.…

Argues that the mass media deprivation experience is a potent means with which to sensitize students to the seductive, yet iron-fisted, grip of the mass media. Offers advice with respect to guiding the experience; describing typical before and after reactions; and identifying theoretical discussion issues. (SR)

Explores the conditional nature of good and bad news while focusing on three topics: (1) the status of information as news according the participants in a conversation; (2) the valence of this information with regard to its perception as good or bad; and (3) the effect of news on individuals. Notes that good news is privileged over bad news in…

Focuses on the hybrid basic speech course textbook. Highlights some symptoms associated with many textbooks' failure to problematize communication, and discusses the potential negative impact on students' learning. Outlines foundations for an alternative approach in which the textbook is viewed as a multi-leveled discourse. (PA)

Uses J.W. Carey's transmission and ritual communication models to illustrate harms caused by hate speech. Examines legal precedent for the ritual model, but suggests that courts more often adopt the transmission model. Argues that, although the ritual model points to a different, long-term harm caused by hate speech, its adoption raises troubling…

Presents insights into how language research develops, with particular focus on the extent to which syllable-timing is a characteristic of the New Zealand English speech of certain ethnic and social groups. The discussion examines the development of hypotheses, methodological challenges and the importance of considering alternative interpretations…

Surveys the faculty and administrators of a small college to assess the speech communication discipline according to its level of respect, its overall status, and its identity as a reputable academic field. Finds that speech communication received the lowest mean rating in terms of respect of the 10 disciplines cited. (PA)