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 communcation training if the community college student?

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of college speech classes upon developing improved listening skills. More specifically it sought to determine the extent to which the students who took Speech 100 or 111 have acquired listening skills. There has been considerable theorizing concerning listening and auding [sic] with only a scattering of experimentation. According to existing data, listening would appear to be a complex human behavior that is only partially understood. There are, however definite listener functions, listening conditions and variables that affect listening. Aspects of attention are also important when considering the occurrence on unoccurrence [sic] of listening. Initially, the Listening Attitude Test (LAT) was developed in order to measure conceptual changes in listening skills. The LAT was statistically analyzed to determine it validity. This test was then presented to three different student populations: 1) students who had just completed Speech 100 or 111; 2) students who were at least one academic year removed from Speech 100 or 111; and 3) students who never had Speech 100 or 111. All of the students from these three populations were selected from Speech 100, Speech 111 or English Composition classes at Portland State University. The performance of the three populations were statistically compared using the t test to determine the significance of differences between means. The following is a summary of the findings. The LAT was correlated with the Brown-Carlsen Listening Comprehension Test Parts A, E and A and E combined. The results indicated that the LAT was testing what it purported to test, i.e., listening attitude. The t test was applied to the data from three different student populations that took the LAT. The results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between students who have not had Speech 100 or 111 and those who have just completed Speech 100 or 111. There was a significant difference between students who have just completed Speech 100 or 111 and those who have completed Speech 100 or 111 but are at least one academic year removed from it. In addition, a significant difference was revealed between students who have not had Speech 100 or 111 and those who completed Speech 100 or 111 but are at least one academic year removed from it. It is clear that the findings support those contending that exposure to speech improve listening skills. The claim made by Nichols and Lewis (1954) that instruction in listening skills would improve listening was not supported by the “just completed group” data and no single overriding hypothesis seems to account for this discrepancy. Nichols and Lewis (1954), however, were dealing with college speech courses which were heavily loaded with training techniques for improving listening ability, which was not the case in Speech 100 or 111 courses at Portland State University.

Psychologists and leaders in the field of education have pointed out time and again that high school curriculums should be designed not only to teach a group of subjects, but also to meet the needs of a large group of individuals - the students. The boy or girl who spends four years in classes of mathematics, history, English, science, and a lot of other subjects does so not in order to parrot back to a teacher a long list of learned facts, but in order that he may prepare himself to take his place in a society as well adjusted and useful citizen in his chosen community. If this premise is true, then it would appear that one of the basic needs of the high school student is effective oral communication. As a consequence, one of the basic curriculum subjects would be a course in fundamentals of speech. This thesis is an attempt to find out if that need is being met by the high schools in the State of California. Briefly stated the thesis problem is: “Are the individual student’s speech needs being met by the California high school curriculums?”

LD2668 .T4 1962 S42

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1965 H37 / Master of Science

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

The problem in this study is to determine the role of speech in general education and to make certain suggestions for teacher training in keeping with the aims of general education which seek to develop the democratic concepts.

The problem of this thesis is to determine whether speech teachers' objectives and methods are in line with educational objectives and certain sound psychological practices and whether speech training has made any contribution to the general education of the ninth grade students in the Odessa Junior High School.

The purpose of this investigation was to examine and estimate the effectiveness of a group speech and language improvement program on the speech and language skills of children at the kindergarten level.

It was the purpose of this study to prepare a content-procedure outline for the Speech Arts I course at Lodi Union High School. The outline is to be used as a text by the high school students enrolled in the class.