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Contents

Basic Communication Course Annual

Table of contents and abstracts for all articles in the volume

Three Metaphors For The Competencies Acquired In The Public Speaking Class, Michael Osborn

Basic Communication Course Annual

The many skills taught in the basic public speaking class come together in three fundamental metaphors. The first of these, the speaker as builder, suggests we need to shape our surroundings through the spoken word. The second, the speaker as weaver, includes the arts of shaping symbols into the fabric of a speech, and of designing evidence and proofs into the tapestry of argument. The third, the speaker as climber, emphasizes overcoming interference. Barriers of fear, indifference, suspicion, and cultural variation recede as speakers and listeners learn to climb them.

Written Feedback In The Basic Course: What Instructors Provide And What Students Deem Helpful, Karla Kay Jensen, Elizabeth R. Lamoureux

Basic Communication Course Annual

Although the issue of speech evaluation has been a mainstay in our discipline, an updated discussion of written feedback merits our attention. To revisit this topic, this two-part content analysis first reveals the type of written feedback instructors offer students in basic public speaking classes.

Building on these findings, the second part focuses on student perceptions of the helpfulness of the written feedback. The findings are collectively discussed and their implications for written evaluations of students' oral performances are considered. Any instructor who has labored over written critiques, wondering whether students actually read and/or use the comments can value from …

Culture Shock In The Basic Communication Course: A Case Study Of Malaysian Students, Eunkyong Lee Yook

Basic Communication Course Annual

Malaysian students compose a large student group coming to the U.S. for higher education. Despite these numbers, however, there has been little attention given to their culture shock in the classroom. The present study investigates the concerns of Malaysian students in the basic communication course. Through interviews with Malaysian students, this study concludes that Malaysian students perceive having three major problems in presenting speeches in basic communication courses.

The first problem is the language barrier. Another is that certain nonverbal behaviors such as gesturing and talking in a loud tone are seen as disrespectful in their culture. Third, they have …

The Em-Powter-Ing Of America: Using Info-Mercials To Teach Persuasion And Popular Discourse In The Basic Communication Course, Daniel W. Heaton

Basic Communication Course Annual

This article describes how a critique of Susan Powter's "Stop the Insanity!" info-mercial provides educators with an effective, class-tested, and fun assignment to be included in the persuasion section of a basic communication course. This assignment provides students with an excellent example of a message from popular discourse that follows Monroe's Motivated Sequence. It also facilitates discussion of several key issues related to persuasion in general. Additionally, because this activity uses a popular discourse text, students enhance their critical thinking skills and become more critical consumers of messages they receive through popular discourse.

The Use Of Simulation In The Beginning Public Speaking Classroom: Let's Make It Realistic, Relevant And Motivating, John J. Miller

Basic Communication Course Annual

This article offers the instructional method, the simulation, as an alternative public speaking assignment in the beginning public speaking course. The three phases of simulation, play, debriefing, and journal writing, are described. Simulations should be realistic and relate to student goals, interests, or career aspirations. As a result, the assignment has two benefits. Simulation creates a clear rhetorical situations which aids students in the topic selection process. Further, its relevancy to the student increases the motivation to learn the art of public speaking.

Computer-Mediated Learning Environments: Theory And Research Into Practice, Chris R. Rasch

Basic Communication Course Annual

Information technology is furnishing modes of accessing and manipulating knowledge which are radically different from those offered by the traditional curriculum. Teaching effectiveness in the basic course is likely to depend increasingly on understanding the nature, function, benefits and potential costs of computer-mediated communication. The purposes of this article are to: (1) review theory and research illuminating the potential benefits and costs of computer-mediated instruction, (2) suggest some starting points for implementing computer-mediated instruction, and (3) identify factors which are likely to influence the effectiveness of teaching in computer-mediated environments.

Two Heads Are Better Than One? Setting Realizable Goals In The Basic Course, Glen Williams

Basic Communication Course Annual

Establishing goals is central to the success of the basic course. The degree to which those goals are realized depends, in large measure, upon the manner in which they are established and reviewed. This article assists course directors and instructional staff by examining the process of defining objectiveness, a process which encompasses goals, mission, and vision and which benefits from widespread, active involvement. This article presents sample objectives for consideration, and it notes the conditions under which the process of defining objectives thrives or is threatened.

A Commentary: The Basic Communication Course, General Education And Assessment, Lawrence W. Hugenberg, Barbara S. Moyer

Basic Communication Course Annual

The importance of developing student communication skills in a general education program is a focal point of each college and university accrediting agency in the United States. However, course directors and faculty frequently find themselves at the center of a controversy when trying to include a basic communication course in skill development in a general education program. This article develops a case for the inclusion of a basic communication course in a general education program.

Author Information

Basic Communication Course Annual

Biographical information about those who contributed scholarly content to this issue.

Back Cover

Basic Communication Course Annual

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Basic Communication Course Annual Vol. 9

Basic Communication Course Annual

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The Effects Of Sex Guilt And Communication On Condom Use, Renée M. Souva

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine whether sex guilt and communication were related to condom use. Past research has examined variables that affect condom use and has found that individuals who communicate more about sexual matters, and individuals who have low sex guilt, have been found to use condoms/contraceptives more consistently. This study examined sex guilt and communication and how they predict condom use. The participants were 80 female undergraduates recruited from psychology classes at Eastern Illinois University. Mosher's revised Sex Guilt Inventory and Catania's Health Protective Communication Scale were administered along with a question that assessed condom …

Young Children's Talk At Play: Orientation To Self And Orientation To The Joint Exigencies Of Conversation, Paige K. Parker

Masters Theses

This study employed a conversation analytic approach to determine how children in naturally constructed play episodes use language as an object of play and how children in their naturally occurring talk display orientation to their own individual activities and others' social actions. The participants were thirty-nine kindergarten and first grade students at South Elementary School in Marshall, Illinois. The study is based upon fifteen hours of conversation collected during recess periods. Relevant segments from the corpus were transcribed according to an adapted version of Jefferson's Transcript Notation System (1984). The findings suggested that (1) the groups of children used language …

Communication Effects On Divorce Mediation: How Participants' Argumentativeness, Verbal Aggression, And Compliance-Gaining Strategy Choice Mediate Outcome Satisfaction, Jill E. Rudd

Communication Faculty Publications

Presents a study which examined the interrelatedness of compliance-gaining strategies, argumentativeness, verbal aggressiveness and satisfaction with divorce mediation. Process in which divorcing spouses negotiate some or all of the terms of their settlement agreement with the aid of a neutral and trained third party; Types of compliance-gaining strategies; Trait which predisposes the individual in communicative situations to advocate positions on controversial issues and to attack verbally the positions which other people take on the issues.

Accounts And Self Image: A Pilot Study, Jarrett Bourne

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the Caudill College of Humanities at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Communication by Jarrett Bourne on April 23, 1996.

A Home Of Her Own: (Writing) A Family Story Of Separation And Second Chances, Lisa M. Tillmann Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

On March 16, 1996, I interviewed my mother, Beth Tillmann, about her parents' divorce and her life as a foster child. From detailed notes taken during our phone conversation and from family stories told to me throughout my life, I constructed a narrative titled "A Home of Her Own." Its structure and tone mimic the way my mother speaks about the dissolution of her family of origin and her attachments to and separations from those who tried to help her rebuild a sense of home. After the story, I discuss what narrative representations of loss offer the writer, the participant, …

Review Of Resolving Environmental Conflict: Towards Sustainable Community Development, Wendy A. Kellogg

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Review of Resolving Environmental Conflict: Towards Sustainable Community Development by Chris Maser

The Differential Impact Of A Basic Public Speaking Course On Perceived Communication Competencies In Class, Work, And Social Contexts, Michael W. Kramer, J. S. Hinton

Basic Communication Course Annual

Communication departments generally choose between a public speaking and a hybrid course of their basic course. Previous research has shown that students' perceptions of their communication competencies increase after completing a hybrid course (Ford & Wolvin, 1992, 1993). After noting similarities between public speaking and hybrid courses, this study examines students' perceptions of their competencies after completing a public a speaking course.

Results indicated that students' perceptions of their competencies changed significantly in class, work, and social contacts in such areas as public speaking, interpersonal and group communication, interviewing, listening, and self-confidence. The largest gains were in perceptions of their …

Title Page

Basic Communication Course Annual

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Editorial Board

Basic Communication Course Annual

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Contents

Basic Communication Course Annual

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[En]Visioning Success: The Anatomy And Functions Of Vision In The Basic Course, Glen Williams

Basic Communication Course Annual

The success of the basic course depends largely upon a vision that values the course and its place in the undergraduate curriculum, emphasizes the necessity of ongoing training and development of teaching assistants and other instructors, and that values the scholarship that will enhance those efforts as well as improve instruction.

Facilitated by a participative style of leadership, the vision and the process of visioning helps to forge group consciousness and dedication, and it helps to clarify tasks, enabling peak performance. The vision also acquaints outsiders with the course and its goals in a manner likely to foster appreciation and …

Students Who Stutter And The Basic Course: Attitudes And Communication Strategies For The College Classroom, Bryan B. Whaley, Aimée Langlois

Basic Communication Course Annual

Individuals who stutter are erroneously perceived by those who do not as having undesirable personality traits. As a result, those who stutter are discriminated against in social situations, in the workplace and, of special concern here, college classrooms. However, the college experience for those who stutter can be enhanced when they are provided with a communication atmosphere that meets their needs. This essay, therefore, argues the necessity for communication instructors to have a basic understanding of stuttering, and provides strategies for meeting the classroom communicative needs of students who stutter.

Rethinking The Role Of Theory In The Basic Course: Taking A 'Practical' Approach To Communication Education, Shawn Spano

Basic Communication Course Annual

This essay advances a particular form of communication theory, known as "practical theory," and illustrates how it can be integrated into the basic course. A practical approach to theory involves the "rational reconstruction of practices" such that the events studied and the principles used to study those events co-evolve through the act of theorizing and the actual performance of communication. The essay examines some of the obstacles prohibiting the use of practical theory and provides a model and extended example for illustrating how the practical approach can be used in the basic communication course.

Rethinking Our Rethinking Retrospectively: A Rejoinder To Spano, Mark Hickson Iii

Basic Communication Course Annual

After reading Spano's (1996) essay several times, I was struck by the title of the work in opposition to its substance. When I read "practical" approach in the title, I first thought that the discussion would progress (or regress) into the work of Watzlawick, Beavin, and Jackson (1967) and their "pragmatics," or perhaps even further back to the pragmatic philosophy of Peirce (Houser & Kloesel, 1992). However, nowhere in the paper did I find these works mentioned. As I reread the paper, I detected a vocabulary that was more reminiscent of phenomenology than pragmatism: "here-and-now," "situated communication action," "embodied persons," …

Should Class Participation Be Required In The Basic Communication Course?, Jennifer Wood

Basic Communication Course Annual

This article explores the purpose of the class participation requirement in the basic communication course. In it the following arguments are developed: 1) Class participation is not an effective measure of students' abilities nor does the requirement encourage students to participate in class. 2) Class participation is better conceptualized as a skill which can be taught to students. If instructors require students to participate in their classes, instructors are obligated to teach students how to participate. 3) The basic communication course offers an excellent framework for teaching students the class participation skills.

The Basic Course: A Means Of Protecting The Speech Communication Discipline, Charlene J. Handford

Basic Communication Course Annual

During the summer of 1995, Spectra included articles and news items regarding speech communication programs designated for elimination. Some leaders in the discipline warned that this trend would likely continue.

This article argues that departments of communication, operating under federal and state requirements for communication competency, may be well advised to work toward establishing the basic course as the sole fulfillment of their institutions' core requirement in communication and to plan a marketing strategy for their discipline. In addition, this paper suggests that the basic course, taught as public speaking, may be more easily defended in meeting the course requirement, …

Introduction To Cultural Diversity In The Basic Course: Differing Points Of View, Lawrence W. Hugenberg

Basic Communication Course Annual

The scholars participated in the one-day seminar and submitted their papers for wider dissemination through the Basic Communication Course Annual. Each participant approaches cultural diversity in the basic communication course from their own frame of reference.

The manuscripts include theoretical approaches to cultural diversity, rationales for the importance of integrating cultural diversity in the basic course, teaching tips and assignments for integrating diversity, and an analysis of some textbooks specifically prepared for the basic communication course.

Teaching Communication Behaviors/Skills Related To Cultural Diversity In The Basic Course Classroom, Nancy Rost Goulden

Basic Communication Course Annual

Basic course educators find themselves responsible for a number of new and often difficult curricular decisions that come from the awareness of changing student populations and needs. The impetus for curricular change based on response to cultural diversity issues differs somewhat from some curriculum movements in recent history. Most waves of curricular modification occur after and as a response to some disruptive event such as the publication of A Nation at Risk, the launching of Sputnik, the passage of the GI Bill. In the present ease, educators are not put in a position of damage control or crises management. Although …