Classroom techniques associated with conflict management and the six stages in the Managing Interpersonal Conflict (MIC) technique that can be used in basic interpersonal communication courses are outlined in this paper. Before presenting information on the MIC technique, the paper discusses the use of Jay Hall's Conflict Management Survey (which…

Despite a professional commitment to "teach ethics," speech communication literature and textbooks contain almost no advice or help on how to accomplish this task. An integrated teaching approach, however, can involve students more directly in the ethical issues that may arise in a persuasion course. The first element in increasing student…

In a study of the role of internal communication as a contributor to total organizational effectiveness, 300 employees of a large manufacturing plant were surveyed to determine the relationship between supervisory communication and employee noninjury medical visits to the company hospital. The survey form consisted of 61 items requesting…

Noting that rhetorical critics have ignored the study of nonwestern movements and have failed to construct theories that help to explain and interpret the rhetorical form of such movements, this paper synthesizes concepts from rhetorical theory and anthropology to explain the linguistic process that made up the 1978 Israeli peace movement. The…

The work of Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard on life-cycle leadership was compared and contrasted to three studies on group phase theories. The studies on group phases were conducted by Robert Bales and Fred Strodtbeck in 1951, Thomas Scheidel and Laura Crowell in 1964, and B. Aubrey Fisher in 1970. The two theoretical approaches were found to…

The intent of this booklet is to provide a general structure for sequential instruction in the oral communication skills of listening, speaking, and responding. The skills are presented in five grade level categories: preschool, kindergarten through grade three, grades four through six, grades seven through nine, and grades ten through twelve. The…

Because many college communication departments employ graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) to provide instruction in undergraduate courses, a study was conducted to determine how much inservice training departments provide their GTAs to prepare them for effective teaching. A questionnaire was completed by 136 speech communication departments across…

In response to the glut of communication degree holders in a time of rapidly diminishing demand for teachers and the subsequent need for alternative careers in communications, the department of speech and theatre at an Arkansas university developed a one-semester internship program for seniors in communications. The program began with students…

While several paradigms for judging debate have been thoroughly discussed, the view of the judge as a tabula rasa has received little treatment. The tabula rasa approach can take the form of a framework added onto a traditional judging framework, or it can take the view that making debate theory debatable is only one of several implications of…

The practical value of the systems approach to rhetoric may be enhanced by attending to distinctions between the various types of symbolic activities. One such distinction exists between popular discourse, understood as intentional communication, and theoretical or descriptive statements about such discourse. A second distinction is between…

A study that examined two speech events, "giving testimony" and "being interviewed," was conducted to test the relevance of the "ethnography of speaking" approach to communication research proposed by Dell H. Hymes. These speech events occur when someone seeks information from another for a formal purpose. The study…

The differential activation of self-evaluative reactions to performance attainments on tasks varying on their relevance for subjects' sense of personal adequacy was investigated. All subjects (N=97) spoke extemporaneously on prescribed topics and received the same random sequence of performance scores. The same task was designated as assessing…

A two-tiered model of group influences on individual choice behavior is developed and evidence relevant to the model is reviewed in this paper. The model consists of two parts: a model of individual choice, and models of group influence on components of the individual choice model. The model of individual choice is based on the…

Speech departments from 658 colleges and universities completed questionnaires in an investigation of the status, philosophy, content, methods, and materials of the interpersonal communication course as it is currently being taught. The study revealed that there is a consistent pattern in the nature of interpersonal courses. Generally, they are…

The study reported in this paper addresses the problem, "What makes an answer appropriate?" The claim is made that an appropriate answer must address the goals of the question either directly or indirectly. The conditions of the experiment were dialogues between an expert and an apprentice who were repairing an appliance. In the…