Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Education Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Speech and Rhetorical Studies

PDF

Basic Communication Course Annual

Public Speaking

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Education

Promoting Critical Deliberation: Bridging Civic Engagement And Social Justice In The Basic Course, Jennifer Y. Abbott, Jordin Clark, James Proszek Apr 2024

Promoting Critical Deliberation: Bridging Civic Engagement And Social Justice In The Basic Course, Jennifer Y. Abbott, Jordin Clark, James Proszek

Basic Communication Course Annual

With increasing threats to democracy, we call for communication educators to renew and re-examine their commitment to advancing civic engagement in the basic course. Given recent scholarly criticism that civic engagement pedagogies falsely present democratic practice as neutral or apolitical and reinforce the status quo, we set an agenda for basic course instructors to re-envision civic engagement through a more critical and equity-oriented approach. To aid that effort, we present a Critical Deliberation speech assignment that challenges student groups to prepare a 20–25-minute informative presentation about a public controversy and then lead their classmates in a 25-minute deliberative discussion. In …


Vocal Fillers, Contagion Effects, And, Um, Overlooked Pedagogical Opportunities In The, Uh, Public Speaking Classroom, W. Benjamin Myers, Theresa A. Wadkins Jan 2021

Vocal Fillers, Contagion Effects, And, Um, Overlooked Pedagogical Opportunities In The, Uh, Public Speaking Classroom, W. Benjamin Myers, Theresa A. Wadkins

Basic Communication Course Annual

The current study explores the relationship between social contagion and vocal fillers. An experiment was conducted in which 100 students presented speeches. Prior to presenting their speech, half of the students were exposed to a speech with excessive vocal fillers and half were exposed to a speech with no vocal fillers. Students who heard a speech with excessive vocal fillers used more vocal fillers in their own speech. Students were unaware of this transmission, which further demonstrates the example of social contagion. Social contagion highlights the presence of linguistic communities in public speaking classrooms. The study then provides a review …