Interpersonal and Small Group Communication Commons^™

A Digital Divide? Assessing Self-Perceived Communication Competency In An Online And Face-To-Face Basic Public Speaking Course, Joshua N. Westwick, Karla M. Hunter, Laurie L. Haleta

Basic Communication Course Annual

Previous research has documented an inverse relationship between speaking anxiety and self-perceived communication competence (SPCC). However, a recent assessment case study of an online basic public speaking course revealed that while the course decreased students’ speaking anxiety, it failed to increase their SPCC. Prompted by this surprising discrepancy and bolstered by continuing calls for increased exploration of educational quality of online public speaking courses, the current study compared SPCC between online (n = 147) and face-to-face (F2F) (n = 544) delivery of the large, standardized, multi-section basic public speaking course at our institution. Pretest scores of students’ overall SPCC were …

Assessing The Effects Of A Public Speaking Course On Native And Non-Native English Speakers, Tara Suwinvattichaiporn, Melissa A. Broeckelman-Post

Basic Communication Course Annual

This study tested whether there is a difference in the benefits of a traditional public speaking course for Native English Speakers (NES) and Non-Native English xii Speakers (NNES). The study assessed changes in Communication Apprehension (CA), Self-Perceived Communication Competence (SPCC), and Willingness to Communicate (WTC) before and after participants took the traditional public speaking course.

The findings indicate that NES and NNES had equal benefits and growth in these self-report measures and suggest that we should further investigate which public speaking course structure is most beneficial for NNES.

The Unaware, Accurate, And Overly Critical: Video Technology Use Of Improving Public Speaking Competency, Luke Lefebvre, Leah E. Lefebvre, Mike Allen

Basic Communication Course Annual

Students often hold overly favorable views of their public speaking skills. In this study, students set goals prior to speaking, and then assess the presentation via video replay. Although some basic courses use video, the technology is not standard practice nor consistently utilized to aid student skill development for speechmaking.

Differences between students’ self-estimated and earned grades students were categorized into five estimator groupings. Study 1 (N = 102) results indicated video self-evaluation positively influenced student ability for predictive goal-setting, improved accuracy for assessing speech quality, and diminished overestimation from the informative to persuasive speech.

To further explore the findings …

Assessment Of Student Learning Gains In Oral Competency, Lynn O. Cooper, Rebecca Sietman

Basic Communication Course Annual

The basic course in communication has a well-established record of enhancing oral competency, which plays a primary role in personal, academic, and professional success. However, there is limited empirical support to substantiate that the ways we teach this course are responsible for these gains. A 24-item Likert- like scale instrument developed from the eight Competent Speaker categories (Morreale, Moore, Taylor, Surges-Tatum, & Hulbert-Johnson, 1990; Morreale, Moore, Surges-Tatum, & Webster, 2007; SCA, 1993) has been reliably used for the past decade in campus pre- and post-assessments.

In Study One, measures of 2485 students taking the basic course over the past six …

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Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Basic Communication Course Annual Vol. 28

Basic Communication Course Annual

Full issue (222 pages, 8.5 MB)

An Alternative Approach To The Singer's Breath: Method And Workshop, Bradley S. Williard

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This research endeavors to stretch the boundaries of vocal training, a field defined by its century-old techniques and teachings, to include the cultivation of a relationship with the breath, body, and Self. The paper reviews the contributions of Ilse Middendorf and Carl Stough’s work with the breath and body and outlines a new method, Unlock Your Breath (UYB) – Performance Breathwork, which integrates the greatest strengths of those methods. UYB Performance Breathwork teaches the singer’s breath as a way towards deeper embodiment of Self (mind-body-voice relationship), while creating a stronger breath-body-voice connection with minimum effort and maximum efficiency. This …

The Religion Of Social Media: When Islam Meets The Web, Zaina Salem

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this feature article is to identify the reasons why some social media users disclose their religious beliefs through sites such as Facebook and Twitter. According to the Pew Research Center, 20 percent of Americans share their faith online. After a series of in-depth interviews, I discovered that for some, religious-related posts serve as personal religious reminders. Others share their religious views on social media to feel a sense of community, or to eliminate stereotypes and ignorance surrounding their religion.

What Makes A Man?: An Alpha Male’S Fight For Masculinity Against The Media’S Muscular Ideals, Julie A. Yockey

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Previous studies have focused heavily on media effects on women however growing trends in male ideals are finding that men are no longer static observers. The media constructs the ideal male body as lean, strong and muscular and men exposed to these idealized images may experience body dissatisfaction. Therefore, this project explores the effects of media ideals on men and the possible relationship between the media depictions of the muscular ideals and masculinity. Current research analysis shows that exposure to media ideals not only causes body dissatisfaction among men; trying to achieve the perfect body may result in unhealthy behaviors. …

Initiation Of Communication From Users Of Aac And Preceding Communication Partner's Utterances, Lauren Vaughn Welser

Honors Program Theses

This study examined the effect communication partners’ have on the initiations produced by users of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). The data was reviewed from a larger study; it included transcripts and videos of a set of four students from an elementary school classroom in the Midwest. The students had a wide range of abilities. Both the student and teacher utterances were analyzed for: different types of communication functions, environmental factors and conversational factors. It was hypothesized that the communicative function of the previous utterance and the level of aided input used would affect the number of initiations. The findings …

Building Hope: An Experiential, Interfaith And Peacebuilding Leadership Curriculum Design For American, Israeli And Palestinian Teenagers, Jack M. Karn

Capstone Collection

This research explores the design, implementation, and results of an interfaith and peacebuilding leadership curriculum prepared for the 2015 Jerusalem Peacebuilders Leadership Camp in Brattleboro, Vermont. Drawing upon different theories of moral and transformative leadership, experiential education, youth leadership, and peacebuilding and conflict transformation, this curriculum design offers a new and unique approach to leadership development for Israeli, Palestinian, and American teens. Spanning six 1.5-hour units, the curriculum includes: icebreaker and teambuilding activities, theory and practice connections, dialogue, and opportunities to practice leadership and peacebuilding skills on several small group projects. Supported by a literature review, eight interviews from youth …

My Friendship Story: Tanzanians’ Tales Of Friendship Analyzed Through Knapp’S Relational Model, Dorcus Nakalembe

Masters Theses

From both theoretical and practical considerations, there is a critical need to study friendship development processes within different sociocultural worlds, because today’s world has become a crossroads for a diversity of cultures. To date, research in friendship development mainly addresses cognitive and psychological implications to the process and rarely gives attention to the stages/ processes individuals of different sociocultural backgrounds experience as they build friendship. The present study aimed at comparing friendship development in a non-Westernized group to the stages of relational development suggested by a Western psychological theoretical framework. Tanzanian friendship experiences were analyzed through Knapp’s Relational Model to …

Provider Recommendation Of Hpv Vaccination: Bridging The Intention-Behavior Gap, Erica Landis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study, guided by preproduction formative research principles, employed in-depth interviews and a brief survey with pediatric healthcare providers (N=15) to investigate the consistency between behavioral intention to strongly recommend the HPV vaccine, and implementation of the actual behavior. Specifically, the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction (IMBP) was used as a framework to examine the impact of skills and environmental constraints on that behavioral intention-behavioral performance relationship. Results suggest providers intend to strongly recommend the HPV vaccine at a high level, but actually recommend the vaccine with a slightly lesser frequency. A thematic analysis of interview transcripts yielded a …