Describes the forced merger (with reduced funding) of the Journalism School and the Communication Department at Ohio State University. (SR)

Analyzes concession speeches by defeated presidential candidates from 1952 to 1992 to show consistent patterns of strategy, style, and content. Explains that the candidate's dilemma is resolved in the concession speech by an elaborate periphrasis that converts the combative energy of defeat into metaphors of sport, chivalry, and epic quest. (TB)

This study investigated the multidimensional information underlying accurate speech perception as processed by children with mild to severe hearing impairments. Results suggested that the auditory dimension has a normal strength-of-processing level (thus normally distracting) but that the linguistic dimension has an underdeveloped…

An infant girl's unusual phonological behavior was evaluated in light of a maternal model which appeared to exaggerate features of normal conversational speech. Parental responses to immature speech patterns may account for selected case study behaviors which have been reported in both the child phonology and child fluency literatures. (KM)

Describes the approach taken by the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs to communication-across-the-curriculum courses and programs. (SR)

Suggests using student volunteers to videotape students' class presentations. Offers guidelines. (SR)

Offers an overall plan (using lectures, audiovideos, discussions, self-assessments, simulations, and peer evaluations for a total of three classroom hours) for teaching managers to ease anxiety, handle shyness, rehearse, and make oral presentations with confidence. (SR)

This study, involving 32 adult speakers of Dutch, strengthens the covert repair hypothesis of disfluency. It found that emphasis on speech accuracy causes lower speech error rates but does not affect disfluency and self-repair rates, noise masking reduces disfluency and self-repair rates but does not affect speech error numbers, and internal…

Reports on the evaluation of readability levels of 16 public speaking textbooks and 7 skills-oriented interpersonal communication textbooks. Finds sizable differences among public speaking textbooks. Advocates using readability data in the process of textbook selection and suggests how to do so. (SR)

Advocates the interpretive communities approach to teaching political communication. Discusses philosophical issues in the teaching of political communication courses, and pedagogical techniques (including concepts versus cases, clustering examples, C-SPAN video examples, and simulations and games). (SR)

Suggests that claims about cognition can be made at four levels--biological, implementation, algorithmic, and rational--but that theoretical claims about conversational cognition can most usefully be pursued at the rational and algorithmic levels. Proposes criteria and reviews promising methods for studying conversational cognition, in an effort…

Discusses the merger of Central Missouri State University's speech and mass communication departments. Describes the university administration's reasons for the merger and the departments' reactions. Examines the departments' involvement in planning for the change. Reports that the new department remains committed to academic and professional…

This study is concerned with the relationship between social differentiation and phonological variation in the speech of Brisbane adolescents. The methodology used in the study is described, and the question of the relationship between speech and the social factors of class and gender are discussed. (Contains 23 references.) (JL)

Provides a response to an interview with Donald Davidson in the previous issue of the "Journal of Advanced Composition." Considers the degree to which speech-act theory might relate to composition theory. Discusses the effect of conventions of writing on writing instruction practice. (HB)

Discusses how computer-mediated communication (CMC) can be used to enhance communication among teachers and students, as it extends learning beyond the classroom, balances power, and is efficient. Describes how CMC worked in three courses and what interactions occurred as a result. (SR)