This document describes a series of activities to teach 30 fifth grade students about history through fiction. Activities began with a prereading brainstorming session in which students came up with topics that they studied during the school year. Next, the school librarian introduced the children to the genre of historical fiction and instructed…

This paper contrasts Edward Hall's microcultural analysis method of teaching members of different cultures how to interact with the others, with Norma Flores' macrocultural Intercultural Assessment of Communication Competency and English Speaking Skills (I ACCESS) method of giving members of different cultures an opportunity to collaborate with…

The personal coat-of-arms speech provides students with specific directions in constructing a speech of introduction and has been used with success at Illinois State University, Daley College (Chicago), St. Xavier University (Chicago), and Ohio State University. The personal coat-of-arms speech gives students concrete experience on which to draw…

This anthology contains 20 commencement addresses delivered by prominent and successful Americans from many different fields of endeavor--all the addresses have in common an understanding of the audience's thoughts and feelings at the important moment of a college graduation. Each speech in the anthology is preceded by a brief biography of the…

This paper provides a unit of instructional design for teaching an undergraduate public speaking course at Southern Arkansas University. According to the paper, the unit, consisting of 6 lessons, is designed to be taught in a 50-minute period 3 times each week. The paper points out that students are given many opportunities to practice the…

A program was developed at the University of Puget Sound (Washington) to meet the needs of students "at-risk" for poor academic performance or attrition because of inadequate pre-college preparation. Advising sections (small--15 or 20 students--sections of regularly-offered courses, whose instructor serves as the student's academic…

In an attempt to get an idea of students' perceptions of cheating and the frequency with which cheating occurs, a study examined 203 students currently enrolled in public speaking classes from two-year and four-year schools on the East Coast and in the Midwest. The survey was divided into four parts which: (1) gathered biographical information…

Few concepts in argumentation theory have produced as much discussion as the idea that argument practices can be divided into distinct public, technical, and private spheres. The first important question relating to the spheres concept is whether the distinction between the spheres is useful. The second primary issue concerns the degree to which…

An introductory speech course was revised to fit the goals of Hispanic students. Content analysis of Hispanic student comments during informal advising sessions indicated that students admire the ability to analyze audience preferences, the ability to attract listeners with melodic discourse tone, and the ability to project a professional image in…

Through personal reminiscences, the author offers a retrospective view of the first fifty years of the activities of the Central States Speech Association. Reflecting on past papers and convention programs, the author calls attention to the proliferation and diversification of interests in speech communication's instructional and investigative…

Views a speech as behaviorally influential and reflective of both the speaker and the audience, and provides a content description of an American public address course. (MH)

This paper reviews the literature on speech fright in the workplace and examines its symptoms, effects, and causes. The paper also identifies various methods of treatment that have proven effective when adapted to individual and situational factors responsible for anxiety. The paper lists seven specific treatments directed toward improving public…

Comparing the manner in which contestants' scores were tabulated at both the 1985 American Forensic Association National Individual Events Tournament (AFA-NIET) and National Forensic Association Individual Events Nationals (NFA-IEN), a study (1) examined whether a correlation exists between contestants placing in the quarterfinals with five…

Traditionally, the study of public address has meant the study of great speakers, focusing on individual speech texts, or the speaking careers of individual orators. So dominant was this traditional study of public address that, in its halcyon decades of the l930s, 1940s, and 1950s, it all but eliminated other approaches to rhetorical criticism.…

Self-report measures of perceived communication competence used properly can help build understanding of communication behavior, but used as indications of communication performance can only retard such efforts. Not all uses of such instruments are either legitimate or appropriate--for example, using self-report measures to determine an…