Master of Arts / Department of Speech Communication, Theatre, and Dance / LeAnn Brazeal / Though communication and learning theory suggest that human interaction is a key component that could enhance both processes, little has been done to incorporate these findings into the basic public speaking course. This study is an attempt to develop a dialogic approach for teaching the introductory college public speaking course. Through the incorporation of standardized analytic grading rubrics, instructor feedback prior to the public speaking performance, peer workshops, and peer evaluations of performances, a process-centered teaching approach is developed that has the potential to increase cognitive learning, improve the quality of student speeches, and increase the consistency between public speaking sections. After implementing this teaching approach for one semester, the results showed an increase in cognitive learning but no improvement in the quality of student speeches or grading consistency. However, a review of other research and the qualitative data collected in this study suggest that there might be greater impacts than could be seen here and that this approach needs to be developed and implemented over a longer period of time for its effects to be fully seen.

This thesis explores the role, if any, that implicature plays as a strategy in informal debate. Transcripts of spontaneous debates from television and radio public affairs talk shows were analyzed with a focus on the use of implicature as a strategic rhetorical tool employed to gain advantage in an argument.

Since 1943, six studies have been made of speech education in Oregon public schools. Several make reference to forensics, but none discuss this aspect of speech education in depth. As a result, the role of forensics in the schools has been assumed or denied. With the educational situation as it is, however, it is necessary that we have a greater under.standing of the relationship between forensics and general speech education and language arts education.

The American demographic landscape is no longer a homogeneous melting pot where all colors and flavors blend into indistinct variants. The challenges brought about by such a societal shift have made diversity issues increasingly important. Chief among them is the issue of organizational diversity. Although there has been an increase in organizational diversity research, there is a noted lack of organizational diversity research in the area of college-level forensics programs. This study seeks to fill this void. Specifically, the purpose of the study was to describe diversity levels in college and university forensics programs, and to compare current levels with those of five years past. Survey questionnaires were completed by almost 200 college and university coaches in AFA, CEDA, and Phi Rho Pi. The results of the survey show no significant increase in diversity levels has occurred since Swanson's indictment of elitism in 1989. Forensics continues to have an overwhelming white majority of coaches and competitors; two-thirds of all programs indicate no effort has been made to increase diversity. These results suggest forensics may be in a state of stasis, one inconsistent with its evolving environment.

The purpose of the study was to investigate whether metacognitive self-regulation, self-efficacy for learning and performance, and critical thinking could be identified as predictors of student academic success and course retention among community college students enrolled in online, telecourses, and traditional Fundamentals of Speech (public speaking) courses. The study was conducted during the Fall 2005 semester at Valencia Community College (VCC). Data for this study were collected from participating students enrolled in either one of the two online, two telecourse, and two traditional face-to-face public speaking courses chosen for analysis. Fifty-seven participants answered Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, and McKeachie (1991) Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). Quantitative statistical analysis was used to investigate the impact of metacognitive self-regulation, self-efficacy for learning and performance, and critical thinking on academic success and course completion in the three delivery modes. Data were analyzed and found self-efficacy was a significant predictor of final course grade. There was a significant relationship between critical thinking and self-regulation but not final grade. Self-efficacy was a predictor of informative speech grade however; self-regulation and critical thinking were not. No variable was a significant predictor of course completion which may be due to the small sample size among students who took the survey and did not complete the course. There was no statistically significant difference found with self-efficacy, self-regulation, critical thinking and course type (online, telecourse, traditional).

Of all social situations, public speaking is the most prevalent fear in both the general population and among social phobic individuals (Mannuzza, Schneier, Chapman, & Liebowitz, 1995; Stein, Walker, & Forde, 1996). The fear of public speaking is referred to as communication apprehension (CA) by members of the communication field; in other programs of study, this condition has been categorized and conceptualized in a wide variety of ways ranging from stage fright to reticence. Several scholarly fields including communication, social psychology, the health sciences and the social sciences, seek to find an explanation and effective intervention for this prevalent condition. This study sought to examine relationships between several constructs, each associated with well-established and tested measurement instruments: The first construct, communication apprehension, was thought by communication scholars to be a generalized personality trait and was measured by the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24). The second communication instrument employed was the Self-Perceived Communication Competence Scale (SPCC). Generalized social anxiety pertaining to public speaking was measured by the Self-Statements during Public Speaking (SSPS) scale developed within the field of social psychology. Finally, a popular tool within social psychology was utilized, the Brief Version of the Fear of Negative Evaluation (BFNE). An analysis of data utilizing Pearson’s Product-Moment Correlation illustrated that there was a moderate relationship between the constructs being tested through the SPSS and the BFNE and the PRCA-24 and the SPCC

California began with an Indian society which was station and provincial. From this territory Spanish invaders, seeking adventure and wealth, erected an outpost which was someday to be- A come the empire of the West." The short period of Mexican domination influenced by Spanish tradition brought a change in this empire. The search for gold, the search for new homes and ad- venture, ended the life of the sleepy province. The annexation of California to the United States meant a new life and new problems for many. Through her people and through their willing- ness to fight for their honor and their welfare, California gradually became one of the most important states in the Union.

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