Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons^™

I’M Not A Tragedy: Speaking Up About Ableist Microaggressions, Kasandra Marguerite Colwell

Communication Senior Capstones

Have you heard of ableist microaggressions? Let me tell you about them, as someone who has experienced them. I have a bi-lateral dislocating knee condition that I was born with. I can walk, but sometimes I need additional stability or reduction of pain while getting around, in which case I tend to use a cane. I have had many othering interactions while using a mobility aid in public, whether that be a knee brace, a cane, or crutches. While it often seemed the stranger didn’t mean any harm, the question is how many invasive questions and comments from strangers can …

Does Whispering Improve Children’S Memory? Comparing Auditory Vigilance And Salience Hypotheses, Christina M. Barnes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Oral communication is one of the primary tools children use to learn new information and speech registers can deliver additional meaning to the words someone uses. Cirillo’s (2004) vigilance hypothesis states “Whispering can affect the psychobiological state of recipients, and in particular raise their auditory vigilance” (Cirillo, 2004, p. 76). Building on this theory, the current study investigates the role of whispering and children’s memory by examining a whispering vigilance, whispering salience which focused on the changes between normal and whisper registers, and combined vigilance and salience hypotheses to determine if whispering contributes to the recall of information. Using video …

Hear Me Roar, Abigail R. Seethoff

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Hear Me Roar, a compilation of personal essays interspersed with short forms, grapples with the nuances of compliance versus autonomy in the context of the male gaze, beauty standards, and pop culture. The collection also explores what it means to treasure something—another person, an object—and how to express and deepen that affection.

Radical Social Ecology As Deep Pragmatism: A Call To The Abolition Of Systemic Dissonance And The Minimization Of Entropic Chaos, Arielle Brender

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper aims to shed light on the dissonance caused by the superimposition of Dominant Human Systems on Natural Systems. I highlight the synthetic nature of Dominant Human Systems as egoic and linguistic phenomenon manufactured by a mere portion of the human population, which renders them inherently oppressive unto peoples and landscapes whose wisdom were barred from the design process. In pursuing a radical pragmatic approach to mending the simultaneous oppression and destruction of the human being and the earth, I highlight the necessity of minimizing entropic chaos caused by excess energy expenditure, an essential feature of systems that aim …

Exploring Communication Apprehension And Its Relationship To Communication Attitude And Socio-Communicative Functioning In Children With Velopharyngeal Insufficiency, Agnieszka Dzioba

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Myriad findings on children with velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) indicate the potential for this population of children to experience feelings of apprehension specific to communication and the potential for other psychological and social difficulties. The purpose of the present investigation was to explore the construct of communication apprehension (CA) and its potential relationship to social and communicative functioning in a diverse group of children with VPI. Potential linkages between CA and multiple socio-communicative constructs including attitude, speech satisfaction, speech and language skill, social competence, and speech severity were explored in a cohort of children with and without VPI, followed by an …

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …

Cultural Language Variations: An Examination Of Appalachian Discourse, Katherine Ward

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Examinations of discourse are essential for documenting the linguistic variations of a particular culture. In turn, linguistic variations across cultures may suggest similar variations in global discourse measures. It is imperative for clinicians to first understand the framework and cultural norms of a particular dialect or language to properly identify deficits in disordered language. By first looking closely at specific aspects of discourse such as story grammar within a normative or non-brain injured population, clinicians can improve treatment protocols for working with aphasic or brain-injured clients. With Appalachia being the heart of the “stroke belt,” research in intervention strategies for …

Organizational Response To Perceptual Risk: Managing Substantial Response To Unsubstantiated Events, Elizabeth L. Petrun

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Analysis and perceived severity of risk influences organizational decisions to anticipated threats. As economic development and technology improve our standards of living, they also create new challenges to conceptualizing concrete and abstract threats. Organizations that face new threats, along with agencies that oversee these organizations, produce tightly coupled systems that increase risks for direct, indirect, and future stakeholders (Perrow, 1999). Natural disasters, political misbehavior, organizational corruption, financial collapse, food and water contaminations, chemical or nuclear accidents, international tension, to name a few, all present risks and challenges. Unfortunately, many of these situations endanger the lives and well-being of persons. The …

The Rhetorical Strategies Of Pregnancy Support Centers Including The Visual Rhetoric Of Fetal Ultrasound Technology, Raymond Kyle Jones

Dissertations

This study examined the rhetorical strategies, including verbal and visual rhetoric, of pregnancy support centers that provide clients with fetal ultrasounds to persuade those who may be considering abortion as a means of resolving their unplanned pregnancy to carry to term. Qualitative data were gathered from 12 interviews of directors and ultrasound personnel from 7 states as well as from television advertisements and printed material. Eighteen research questions investigating the rhetorical transactions between centers and clients were answered. Rhetorical analyses were performed on the verbal and visual messages used in client interactions.

The grounded theory approach of inquiry resulted in …

Effect Of Therapist-Initiated Versus Self-Initiated Vestibular Stimulation On Vocalization In Children With Autism, Carol L. Maddox

Masters Theses

Therapist-initiated vestibular stimulation was compared to self-initiated stimulation to determine their relative effects on vocalization in children with autism. Vocalizations produced during table-top activities were also compared to those produced during vestibular stimulation. Two children with autism participated in the study. Vestibular stimulation was provided by a hammock swing. All vocalizations were recorded during a total of thirteen 15-minute test sessions.

Results indicated that in this study: (a) There was no significant difference in quantity of vocalizations produced during self-initiated versus therapist-initiated vestibular stimulation, and (b) there was a significant increase in vocalizations during vestibular stimulation as compared to during …

Effect Of Tinnitus Maskers On Speech Discrimination Among Those Wearing Tinnitus Maskers, John Alexander Chonka

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect(s) of tinnitus maskers and tinnitus instruments on speech discrimination utilizing a population of subjects who currently have tinnitus and are presently wearing these devices. The hypothesis which guided this investigation states that there is no difference between discrimination scores with and without tinnitus maskers. In an attempt to test this hypothesis, speech discrimination scores were obtained from 26 listeners both in quiet and in the presence of cafeteria noise, with and without use of their tinnitus maskers.

An Investigation Of The Effects Of Self-Disclosing Communication On Attraction-To-Group In The Small Group Setting, Pamela Walker Vredevelt

Dissertations and Theses

A review of the literature on self-disclosure and small group communication showed that few investigations dealt with the effects of disclosing communication on small group process. The present study was conducted in order to assess the effects of the frequency of self-disclosure within small groups on the members' overall attraction to the group. 120 subjects were selected from the East Hill Church senior high youth department in Gresham, Oregon. Subjects were placed at random into ten small groups with twelve members each which met for one-half hour per week for six consecutive weeks. All group communications were audio tape recorded. …

An Analysis Of The Relationship Between The Degree Of Maintained Fluency Improvement Of Former Portland State University Stuttering Clients And The Overall Language Themes They Used, Karen F. Mathew

Dissertations and Theses

This research examined the relationship between the degree of maintained fluency improvement and the type of language used to respond to questions directly and indirectly related to speaking behavior. The subjects included sixteen former Portland State University stuttering clients who had participated in the Ginter (1979) study on fluency maintenance. The subjects responded to a thirteen item questionnaire dealing with themselves and their speaking behavior. Responses were recorded on the Modified Thematic Analysis Form developed by this examiner and analyzed according to guidelines set down by Stone and Casteel (1975) and this examiner.

The Status In 1980 Of The Toulmin Model Of Argument In The Area Of Speech Communication, Jeffrey Robert Sweeney

Dissertations and Theses

In 1958 Stephen E. Toulmin wrote of inadequacies of formal logic and proposed a new field-dependent approach to the analysis of arguments. Despite a generally negative response to his proposal from formal logicians, Toulmin's model for the laying out of arguments for analysis was subsequently appropriated by several speech communication textbook writers. In some textbooks, the Toulmin model has become successor to the syllogism as the paradigm of logical argument. Yet, perhaps due to their seemingly uncritical acceptance of Toulmin's approach there appears to be serious disagreement and confusion among speech communication professionals about the nature and applications of the …

A Description And Analysis Of The Hearing Conservation Program Of The Office Of The Stanislaus County, California, Superintendent Of Schools, Robert Mccord Colville

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to provide a comprehensive description of a school hearing conservation program that might be used by personnel planning other programs, to serve as a guide or for comparison. A secondary purpose of the study was to analyze and evaluate the hearing conservation program of the Office of the Stanislaus County Superintendent of Schools in order to find more efficient ways of administering and conducting the program and otherwise improve its effectiveness.