Evidence has been mixed on whether speakers spontaneously and reliably produce prosodic cues that resolve syntactic ambiguities. And when speakers do produce such cues, it is unclear whether they do so ''for'' their addressees (the "audience design" hypothesis) or ''for'' themselves, as a by-product of planning and articulating utterances. Three…

This Research Note reports on a large-scale staff-student project focussing on the use of English for Specific Business Purposes in a number of promotional genres (TV commercials, annual reports, corporate web-sites, print advertising) within several of the EU member states: Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Spain. The project as a…

Amy Richlin, a professor of classics at the University of California at Los Angeles, has just translated "Poenulus," a comedy likely written between 224 B.C. and 184 B.C. by the Roman playwright Plautus. To make the comedy comprehensible for modern audiences, Richlin came up with with a bolder and deliberately controversial approach: Seek out…

Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black, known for being a liberal First Amendment absolutist and a courageous defender of individual freedom, is considered one of the best justices ever to serve on the nation's high court. This essay examines the events surrounding Justice Black's controversial nomination to the Supreme Court, focusing on his…

One of the factors that have contributed to the explosive popularity of the World Wide Web (WWW) is the ease with which almost anyone can become a web publisher. It has been estimated that 30 million new websites are created every day on the WWW, with a vast majority of these being health related. It is further asserted that there is a healthy…

This paper looks at the diffusion and applications of mobile phone technology in Asia and Africa, compared with North America. It indicates that Asian distance education can be the global leader in the development of educational uses for the mobile phone; and it considers the potential for mobile learning in Africa and other developing regions.…

This article investigates the critical thinking difficulties of finance majors when asked to address ill-structured finance problems. The authors build on previous research in which they asked students to analyze an ill-structured investment problem and recommend a course of action. The results revealed numerous critical thinking weaknesses,…

Objective: The objective of the RESPECT approach to tailored telephone education (TTE) is described. This approach was shown to be highly effective through a randomized intervention trial for increasing the rate of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. Methods: At the conclusion of the trial, the investigators identified the main principles that…

The Clinical Laboratory Science (CLS) department at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center is investigating the use of audience response systems (ARS) in its lecture style classes. ARS, or clickers, as they are more commonly called, are wireless hand held devices about the size of a small calculator. Students may use clickers in class…

To examine the rhetorical vision of nuclear war presented in the television show "The Day After," it is necessary to consider (1) the motives of those involved in producing the film, (2) the debate over the film that preceded its presentation, (3) the effect of the film's message, and (4) how the film's rhetorical structure contributed…

To determine whether the structure of religious programs helps develop ethos (the image held of a communicator at a given time by a receiver) in terms of character, intelligence, goodwill, and charisma, an analysis was made of four religious programs: "The PTL Club", "The 700 Club", "Jimmy Swaggart," and "The…

Examines research methods and data related to television audiences in the United Kingdom. Topics addressed include defining the concept of an audience, time spent watching television and on other media activities, programs watched, audience composition and program scheduling, ways programing addresses audiences, audience research, audience…

The actor-observer hypothesis (E. E. Jones & R. E. Nisbett, 1971) states that people tend to explain their own behavior with situation causes and other people's behavior with person causes. Widely known in psychology, this asymmetry has been described as robust, firmly established, and pervasive. However, a meta-analysis on 173 published studies…

In this installment of "Members Speak Out," the author discusses a game that teachers can play with their band and orchestra students. Called "Drop the Needle," it involves starting a musical recording in the middle and trying to determine what period it is from and who might have composed it. This game allows more experienced…

This article presents a public speaking assignment that takes the study of rhetoric seriously. First, it shifts the approach from the common typology of informative, persuasive, and ceremonial speeches toward forensic, deliberative, and epideictic rhetoric. Second, this assignment takes rhetoric seriously by generating the understanding that all…