Student Engagement in Listening Strategies Impacts Self-Evaluation of Academic Achievement and Personal Life

Through questionnaires, interviews, and library research, the authors attempted to identify speech communication courses and programs in British institutions of higher education. They discuss the development of interest in speech communication courses in the context of current trends in higher education. Conclusions indicate a quickening interest in speech communication and related courses, usually under the heading of “communication studies.” There is considerable variety in course titles, content, and departmental responsibility, with interesting emphases and omissions from the American academic viewpoint.

A study involving the validation if individual items within the Knower Speech Experience Inventory was undertaken to discover what specific communication‐related experiences distinguish effective from poor public speakers in a basic college‐level speech communication course. Results suggested that thirty of the forty‐eight items successfully discriminated among groups of speakers judged by eight instructor‐raters as effective and poor. The study provides information that can be of value in assigning meaning to the term “speech experience” and suggests possibilities for the prediction of college student public speaking ability on the basis of the revised inventory.

In recent years performance (behavioral) objectives have been discussed widely. At times, the descriptions of what performance objectives should contain have been confusing. Few complete examples of performance objectives in speech communication have been published. High school speech communication teachers who face the task of writing performance objectives immediately need samples of these objectives to use or to modify for their particular situations. This paper presents samples of complete performance objectives which may be used in the first semester of a high school introductory speech communication course. These objectives do not constitute a unified, complete course of study. They provide the teacher with practical suggestions for creating his own objectives.

This article compares traditional methods of instruction on the organization of ideas with both linear and branching programmed methods. In view of the increasing demands on the basic college speech communication course, branching programmed instruction may provide a viable alternative to traditional methods for teaching the cognitive aspects of speech communication in the basic course.

Curriculum revision provides one way of contesting the institutionalized sexism found in basic speech communication courses. This essay presents a case study of a project for moving toward a gender balanced curriculum. The case study illustrates how McIntosh's five‐stage typology of revision can be applied to basic communication courses. This typology presents both a critique of institutionalized practices and a systematic approach to change. Student responses to the project are analyzed as a way of suggesting the impact of curriculum revision.

This survey was designed to ascertain the extent and the nature of speech communication course offerings which indicate concern for “the black experience.” Analysis of course titles and course descriptions revealed regional and state variations in the availability of courses and in course content. The trend to offer a larger number of courses concerning “the black experience” is clearly visible, but is not as strong or as widespread as the authors anticipated.

This study was an investigation of the communication concerns of undergraduate students in two basic speech communication courses, public speaking and interpersonal communication. It was discovered that such students do have concerns which fit the framework of concern for self, task, and impact. While only limited support was found for a developmental sequence in these concerns over one academic quarter, there were significant differences among the common categories, and particularly between students in basic interpersonal and public speaking courses.

Traditional structural designs of the basic speech communication course have not met the professional needs of the technical career student. The alternative model presented in this essay will enable the student to pursue, through independent study and small group interaction, those concepts and skills which will aid her/him professionally. This design offers solutions to staffing and scheduling problems faced by community colleges, and provides a structural format for facilitating the education of technical career students.

The two studies reported here compare two formats for teaching the introductory speech communication course: Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) and lecture‐recitation. Both studies examine the two teaching formats in four areas: 1) attitudes toward and satisfaction with the course, 2) academic achievement in the course, 3) communication apprehension, and 4) growth in communication skills. Data were collected from approximately 900 undergraduate students in each of two separate semesters using a combination of questionnaires and taped interviews. Speech grades, final exam grades, and final course grades were culled from course records. Findings suggest that the PSI‐based model tends to equal or, most often, be more effective than the lecture‐recitation format in all four areas examined.

This study is focused upon an investigation of the content and methodology of the introductory speech course in the Oregon community colleges. The current content appears to be one of an emphasis on skill building in the area of public speaking. Previous research in the area of content and methodology of the basic course have centered on the courses offered at four-year institutions and has asked only faculty and administrators what they felt should be offered in the introductory course. This research study will instead question students and faculty at the vocational level in the community college of Oregon to see if there is a similarity in their concepts of what should be taught in this course. An answer to the following question was sought: to what extent are the underlying assumptions of the basic speech courses at the community college level seen by the instructors similar to or different from the self-reported needs in communication training if the community college student?

This investigation replicates a nationwide survey of the basic course in speech conducted five years ago. Results indicate a decided tendency to report a “communication” or “multiple” orientation toward the teaching of the course. Enrollments generally continue to be held at reasonable levels, and the growth in the basic speech communication course is paralleling or exceeding the growth of the college itself.

Listening is widely regarded as an essential language skill for achieving proficiency in both educational and professional contexts. Despite its significance, listening comprehension remains one of the most challenging tasks for language learners, especially in the context of non-native English accents. According to numerous scholars, the ability to select and apply appropriate listening strategies is crucial for successful listening comprehension. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how Thai EFL students, categorized as high-ability and low-ability listeners, utilize cognitive and metacognitive listening strategies to comprehend Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Englishes-accented conversations. In this regard, 300 participants were required to report their perceived use of listening strategies through a questionnaire adapted from the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), followed by verbally explaining their use of these strategies in detail through a think-aloud task. The findings indicate that the high-ability listeners significantly employ overall listening strategies more frequently than the low-ability listeners. More importantly, the high-ability listeners demonstrate a greater awareness of which strategies to use and how to apply these strategies in a systematic way to successfully achieve comprehension of ASEAN Englishes-accented conversations. Based on these findings, Strategies-Based Instruction (SBI) is recommended as an instructional approach to help low-ability listeners effectively and appropriately utilize practical listening strategies to improve their comprehension of conversations involving non-native English accents.

The purpose of this article is to: (1) identify the types of subjects used in published speech communication research; (2) report the results of a survey of 100 speech communication departments to determine existing practices and policies regarding the use of subjects in research; (3) explain the potential effects of existing subject selection practices on generalizing from research results; and, (4) provide methods for resolving generality problems arising from subject selection practices and policies. This review indicated excessive use of male college students and subjects enrolled in basic speech communication courses. The departmental survey indicated that most subjects participate as part of a course requirement. The generalizing of speech communication research to non‐college populations is questioned. It also is suggested that researchers should take more cognizance of ethical considerations when requiring subjects to participate in research projects.

This article reports the analysis of thirty‐eight textbooks intended for the basic undergraduate speech communication course and published since 1970. The analysis focuses on how and to what extent communication in conflict is treated in these textbooks. Four categories reflecting differences in approaches to communication in conflict as well as in extensiveness of treatment are identified. The approaches discovered are contrasted with the orientations suggested by recent books and articles on the subject of communication in conflict by speech communication scholars.

For more than a half century educators have concerned th mselves with relationship between class size and student achievement. Shane's survey of eighty-five pieces of the most objective research conducted be tween 1903 and 1960, however, reveals conflicting re sults which lead to conclusion that published re search pertinent to class size does not support premise that there must be a fixed student-teacher ratio.1 Shane's survey included 35 studies indicating superiority for small classes, 18 studies in which large were competitive with small class?s, and 32 stud ies in which no conclusion favoring either small or large could be reached. Recent research tends to support theory that class size variations play no significant role in acqui sition of theoretical information.2 However, when one considers affective implications and mastery of per formance skills, recent research points toward su periority of smaller classes.8 Despite empirical evidence that smaller ap pear more desirable for courses (foreign language, English composition, driver's education, speech communication) and traditional arguments that such courses should maintain a maximum student-teacher ratio of twenty to one, spiraling costs of higher edu cation make maintenance of such low ratios all but impossible. The failure of higher education budgets to expand proportionately with increased college enroll ments, coupled with inflationary economy of past decade, has prompted a re-evaluation of costly programs and accompanying demand that departments explore teaching techniques designed to lessen financial burden.4 One such innovative technique has been utilization of graduate students as inexpen sive teachers to handle small-group practicum sessions.5 The obvious advantage rests in availability of one higher salaried professor to serve as a lecturer for sev eral performance classes during any given hour. The advocates of lecture-practicum system, how ever, must eventually concern themselves with cog nitive and affective implications of class size, searching out answers to a number of questions. Do students in large lecture sessions understand practicum assignments as well as students in small lecture ses sions? How does achievement compare? Do students' attitudes toward course or toward course components vary with class size? Partial answers to these questions have already been discovered for in struction in foreign languages.6 The present investiga tion was designed to determine impact of class size on student attitudes and achievement in a lecture-practicum , speech communication course. Specifically, study was designed to answer following questions: 1) Do student attitudes toward lecturers and/or lecture content differ significantly among treatment groups? 2) Do student attitudes toward speech evaluators and/or speech assignments differ significantly among treatment groups? 3) Do student attitudes toward textbook, course handbook, and examinations differ significantly among treatment groups? 4) Does student achievement on examinations and in speech presentations differ significantly among treatment groups?