The speech of a five year old boy who suffered a profound hearing loss following meningitis was sampled at two week intervals for nine months. It was speculated that phonetic processes such as diphthongization, syllabification, and prolonged duration may be strategies for enhancing feedback during speech. (Author)

Discusses a questionnaire administered to beginning Spanish students at Iowa State University, designed to identify and set priorities for student-perceived communication needs. Compares the results with a similar survey of beginning French students at Purdue. (EKN)

Presents abstracts of 17 documents from "Resources in Education" on programed instruction, personalized system of instruction, and computer-assisted instruction. (PD)

Describes (1) the development of a successful curricular articulation system; (2) the kinds of problems faced (particularly with speech communication courses) and how they were solved; and (3) some ancillary benefits of the system, such as mandatory student advising by the faculty. (PD)

Found that in poorly adjusted relationships, high levels of stress during conflict discussions (1) increase blame; (2) decrease communicative complexity; (3) may affect speech productivity; but (4) do not affect speech hesitation. Calls for moderation in stress levels and social cognitive bias so that people can communicate in a flexible way. (PD)

College students and secondary school teachers completed measures of communication apprehension about public speaking, meetings, small groups, and conversation. Results indicate that males may be slightly shyer than females, females may be slightly more apprehensive about public speaking than males, but neither differs meaningfully in terms of…

Argues that studies on how and why humans talk, however precise the methodology, do not have the quality of science. Contends that these studies contain the essence of criticism and should be regarded as such. (PD)

Discusses a recent conceptualization of argumentativeness. Reports on an investigation of characteristics of argumentative students, which included variables such as birth order, family size, high school training, college grade point average, etc. Supports the assumption that argumentativeness is a desirable communication trait and considers…

The perception of syllable-initial stop consonants as voiced or voiceless was shown to depend on prevailing rate of articulation. Reducing articulatory rate of a precursor phrase causes a greater proportion of test consonants to be identified as voiced. Timing should be regarded as intrinsic to the acoustical specifications of phonetic events.…

Argues that efforts to promote the Communication Department should begin within the departments and students of the institution itself. Details six steps a Communication Department can take to promote its product. (PD)

Presents an annotated bibliography of resources from the ERIC database on the relationships between speech communication (speaking and listening) and the language skills of reading and writing. (PD)

The purpose of this article is to describe the nature of communication apprehension and its academic implications, to present initial data on its incidence in Australia, and to indicate some methods used to reduce its effects. (Author)

Found statistically significant differences across the three relationships for the importance of communication skills such as listening, routine information exchange, management of conflict, small group communication, etc. This study allows speech communication instructors to articulate the competencies needed by nurses across relationships. (PD)

Surveying alumni who had taken a basic communication course, this study obtained perspectives on communication training. Most alumni felt their speech classes prepared them "fairly well" for on-the-job communication. Although all communication skills were rated as important, interpersonal skills were rated somewhat higher than public speaking…

Argues that researchers questioning the communication needs of the business community have based their research on the wrong assumptions. Uses the language of business rather than academia to determine the communication skills desired by the business community, skills involved in motivating people, delegating authority, listening, direction…