The gulf between scholarly applications and rhetorical praxis in the speech classroom is enormous. It seems clear that the theoretical base will never release its stranglehold on the classical paradigm until the agendas of basic course classrooms do so as well. No new paradigm may realistically hope to contest the established tradition until the…

An illustrative rather than an exhaustive bibliography on approaches to rhetorical criticism, this update of an earlier publication lists more than 150 selections. The bibliography is divided into sections on: (1) discussions of the Burkean approach; (2) applications of the Burkean approach; (3) discussions of the fantasy theme approach; (4)…

The theoretical literature which has had an impact upon the teaching of composition and which has evolved into the language across the curriculum approach to education, focuses upon the interaction of language and learning. By teaching about speaking and writing, educators are potentially teaching students how to learn. Language functions to…

This paper investigates deaf children of deaf parents who do not use formal sign language. Interactions of two deaf mother-deaf child dyads were videotaped every 2 months for 3 years from 14 and 22 months of age. Mothers and children both made extensive use of gestures. Findings included: (1) the rate of gesture sequencing was high, but even…

This paper examines existing and model curriculums from all disciplines offering public relations courses in terms of the philosophical and theoretical developments relevant to public relations. First, the paper outlines the model curriculum derived from the 1987 study cosponsored by the Public Relations Society of America and the Association of…

To develop a taxonomy of Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) critics, a study associated professed judging philosophy and responses to survey questions with ballot behavior and elaborated judging profiles. Subjects were debate critics who judged rounds at CEDA tournaments in the Northeast during the Spring 1989 season. In all, 13 critics…

Given that elderly adults depend more heavily on their ability to communicate as independent activity becomes more restricted, their ability to alter the supersegmental component of the message becomes crucial. A study investigated the ability of older speakers to alter their speaking rate and to determine the strategies used to accomplish rate…

In response to tighter school budgets and improved technology, a two-way interactive video was successfully used to provide an alternative "delivery system" for forensic competition. Two university sites were selected to organize and host an interactive video speech and debate tournament for area high school students. The program was…

A study tested an indirect assessment instrument in examining the cognitive component of communication competence. The instrument was administered to 36 seniors graduating in speech communication and mass communication at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Findings revealed that test performance was mediated by overall grade point average,…

Students readily pick up occupational jargon from their special interests and studies. Nevertheless, the education and culture of teachers of communication typically have stressed the outright rejection of jargon of all kinds in the interests of honesty, directness, clarity, and economy of statement. Supporting the teachers ideologically are the…

Oral interpretation of translated Chinese poetry is both difficult and audacious. However, non-native readers are less bound by the Chinese literary canon than native readers and therefore are more free to develop their personal taste and discover new modes of expression. As a result, these performers are potentially ideal translators of Chinese…

Rather than being trained and supervised, graduate teaching assistants in rhetoric and speech should be taught and advised. Teaching assistants, or graduate instructors, should be considered colleagues, not merely cheap labor to teach courses the rest of the faculty does not want to teach. The first step in establishing an effective teaching and…

Shifting theoretical perspectives of intercollegiate policy debate, especially the changing affirmative case constructs, warrant reformulations of various strategies open to the negative case such as those developed by W. Ulrich, R. Dempsey, and D. Hartmann. Options open to the affirmative have increased, e.g., the comparative advantages case, the…

Observing that speech communication, by whatever term it is called, is now a popular major among the traditional liberal arts, this paper proposes an essential speech communication curriculum for the small, comprehensive college. The first part of the paper presents a rationale for the curriculum by exploring how the curriculum reflects (1) its…