Finds that students' reported levels of apprehension about meetings decreased significantly in class sections with videotape feedback; they reported significant increases in competency and decreases in apprehension across work and social settings; but reported the largest improvements in the classroom setting. Notes a limited differential impact…

Discusses the importance of public speech in society, noting the power of public speech to create a world and a public. The paper offers a theory of public speech, identifies types of public speech, and types of public speech fallacies. Two ways of speaking of the public and of public life are distinguished. (SM)

Technology supplements to college textbooks, such as self-guided quizzes and exercises available over the Internet, have become commonplace. The current study examined student perceptions regarding the utility of technology supplements that accompanied a public speaking fundamentals textbook. At semester's end, students reported the supplements to…

Six recommendations that instructors can employ to encourage effective classroom code-switching practices among Black English-speaking students in the basic communication course are discussed. These include reconsidering attitudes, communicating expectations, demonstrating model language behavior, affirming students' language, creating culturally…

Objective: To address cultural diversity within the context of informative speaking. Type of speech: Informative. Point value: 15% of course grade. Requirements: (a) References: 3 (1 reference must be an interview); (b) Length: 5-6 minutes; (c) Visual aid: Optional; (d) Outline: Yes; (e) Prerequisite reading: Chapters 3, 18 (DeVito, 2003); (f)…

Frederick Douglass's oration, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" is a rhetorical masterwork of irony. It illustrates a strategy for enlisting the liberatory potential inherent in the detached and multiple perspective of irony without allowing that detachment to culminate in political impotence. The speech accomplishes this through opening…

Educators increasingly recognize that students need a more contemporary, multimodal literacy that requires them to examine how their written, oral, visual, and electronic modes of communication inform one another to generate meaning. Helping students hone their multimodal literacies will enable them to develop PowerPoint presentations in ways that…

The Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) field continues to experience increased valuing of experiential practitioner knowledge. A welcome result of this evolution has been the broadening of research perspectives. The 16 practitioner narratives in "Insights on Teaching Speaking in TESOL" are written by…

Projects are not new in education (for example, see Kilpatrick, 1918), but in the last 20 years, they seem to have become more popular in second language education, as projects fit with emphases on communication, tasks, cooperation among students, learner autonomy, curricular integration, alternative assessment, links between the classroom and the…

Noting that many university speech students suffer from communication apprehension (CA) and must face the fear and anxiety of performance in front of the class, a study examined the effectiveness of group discussion, interpersonal communication, public speaking, and small group activities and interactions in reducing CA. Subjects, 57 students,…

This paper focuses on the use of emotional memory skills to reduce communication apprehension, pioneered as a new cognitive intervention treatment called "The Imaging System for Public Speaking" (Keaten et al, 1994). The paper briefly explains other cognitive intervention strategies commonly used, including rational-emotive therapy,…

This paper, after a brief review of social construction theory and its application to identity, emotions, and relationships, explores the introduction of social construction of reality into the basic communication course. It offers the broad based theoretical perspective as a way to open the minds of entering college students and to integrate the…

This paper discusses what is perhaps the most overlooked, understated, under-rated aspect of the contemporary elementary school syllabus--the virtually forgotten 4th "R," recitation. The paper's overview points out that this component of the integrated language arts curriculum is typically deemed to be substantially subordinate when…

A practium study sought to improve the confidence, clarity, and fluency of 115 seventh graders' public speaking skills. Students' public speaking skills were evaluated before and after the practicum by rotating peer review committees of three students each. The first month the practicum focused on self-esteem and a study of the history and…

This paper presents steps for incorporating research into a community college public speaking class curriculum. It outlines, from an historical perspective, the different techniques and tools of research, including face-to-face contact, the printing press, modern machinery, and computers. It suggests discussing research surveys and taking students…