This study attempted to explore one aspect of the communicative styles of Japanese and Americans: their approach to discourse. In a literature review, four distinctive characteristics were surveyed: linear/nonlinear presentation, inductive/ deductive reasoning, explicit/implicit communication, and analytical/emotional statements. The American style of argument was characterized by: 1) a linear presentation as evidenced by its preference for a sequential paragraph development, its reliance on logic, and its direct introduction of the subject. 2) either inductive or deductive reasoning. 3) explicit communication as shown by its emphasis on the use of concrete language, definite qualifiers, clearly stated conclusions and a wider perspective. 4) analytical and objective statements. The Japanese style of argument is characterized by: 1) its nonsequential presentation, noncontiguous paragraphs, its apparent disregard of logic and indirect introduction of the subject. 2) neither inductive nor deductive reasoning. 3) implicit communication as shown by its emphasis on the use of ambiguous language, the frequent use of conditional qualifiers, implied conclusions and a narrower perspective. 4) emotional and subjective statements. The literature review corroborated the author's hypotheses that Japanese express themselves in an ambiguous manner, whereas Americans express themselves in a more clearly defined manner. The differences of style of arguments were tested in a statistical setting using content analysis of current newspapers.

The name of John Chrysostom has historically been held in high esteem by the Christian Church. John was born, circa A.O. 350, in the Syrian city of Antioch. His rhetorical career led him to the apex of religious power as bishop of Constantinople. As a result of his verbal harangues of the political and religious leaders, he was sent into exile, where he died in A.O. 407. During his life time he was recognized both for his eloquence and his controversial style. Since the fifth century he has been remembered by the epitaph "Chrysostom," a tribute to his oratorical abilities, which translated means "the golden mouthed."

When the primary mode of communication is speech, the crucial ingredient for successful communication is intelligible speech. The speech of children with disordered phonologies is often unintelligible. Accurate and reliable measurement of speech with compromised intelligibility is essential if appropriate treatment procedures are to be chosen and implemented. The focus of this investigation was the measurement of speech intelligibility in young children. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the subjective method of trained ear estimation and the objective method of orthographic transcription when measuring the speech intelligibility of young speakers with a wide range of phonological profiency. For this study, the standard measurement of intelligibility was operationally defined as the percentage of words understood in a continuous speech sample derived from orthographic transcription of the sample. The secondary purpose was to investigate the accuracy of the speech-language pathologists' estimates as compared to the standard measure for each of the three groups: (a) the children with the most intelligibility, (b) with average intelligibility, and (c) with the least intelligibility. Data were collected from 47 children, aged 4:0 to 5:6, who comprised three groups with varying levels of intelligibility. Two groups of listeners who were unfamiliar with the speakers, but familiar with the topic, rated the children's percentage of intelligibility from continuous speech samples via orthographic transcription or trained ear estimation. The two methods of measuring speech intelligibility investigated in this study were found to correlate highly (£ = .96). However, there was a significant difference between the percentages derived from orthographic transcription and those derived from trained ear estimation for some speakers. The 1-test analyses revealed significant differences between the two measures for the two most intelligible groups, and no significant difference for the least intelligible group. It appears that the subjective method of estimating speech intelligibility with trained ears correlates with the objective method of orthographic transcription, but yields a different percentage score for some speakers.

The purpose of this research was two-fold. First, this thesis sought to uncover the implicit concepts associated with mothers in children's stories. Second, this thesis attempted to chart changes in portrayals of mother when translated from print to a visual medium. This research maintains that the concepts of mother in children's stories contain cultural ideals that are related to society's evolving perceptions of mother. Eighteen mother/surrogate mother portrayals were analyzed in 15 novels and 15 videotapes. Each portrayal was coded according to marital status, range of behaviors, 41 individual behaviors within five categories, and the amount of storytime. The results of this thesis reveal that the two most frequent behaviors associated with the role of mother in both media and print are authority and nurturance. The research also found that mother portrayals, when translated to film and television, displayed less dominant and less supportive behaviors than in print versions. Of the 41 individual behaviors coded in both novels and videotapes mothers in films and television were found to display less ability and more affection than their print versions. In conclusion, this study found that mother portrayals, when translated to film and television, may be altered to increase their mass audience appeal.

Aphasia is an acquired general impairment of the language processes resulting from brain damage that is frequently caused by cerebrovascular accidents (CVAs). Persons with aphasia have a history of retaining important communication competencies that have the potential for helping them succeed in using augmented communication systems. Using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems by adults with aphasia has been studied, but few studies have reported successfully using AAC systems in rehabilitating adults with aphasia. New advanced technologies including the availability of devices that talk, store a lot of information, and are relatively small can give AAC the potential to affect a greater change in functional communication skills for more persons with aphasia, particularly as experience with AAC rehabilitation grows. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether an adult with severe, nonfluent aphasia could communicate independently by adding a voice output communication aid (VOCA) to his natural communication repertoire. This study also sought to answer the following question: Does the addition of a VOCA to natural expression facilitate independent communication in an adult with severe, nonfluent aphasia? One subject was drawn from the out-patient members of a recreationoriented communication treatment group which is conducted at the Portland Veterans' Affairs Medical Center. The subject had been diagnosed with severe, nonfluent aphasia by a certified Speech/Language Pathologist. This study used a single-subject, component assessment research design to explore the relative effectiveness of components in an aphasia and AAC treatment package. It compared the relative effectiveness of Promoting Aphasics' Communicative Effectiveness (PACE) only treatment using natural communication strategies with that of PACE treatment for natural strategies plus a VOCA component. The subject's attempts to convey information were videotaped and analyzed using mean scores and a split-middle method of trend estimation to determine whether performance differences existed under two treatment conditions. The data for the number of conversational turns show an increase in the number of conversational turns which confirms an overall decrease in efficiency of communication for a severely aphasic person in this structured task in the augmented condition. Second, although the data for the number of communication breakdowns, the number of repair turns, and the repair turns as a percentage of total turns show a decline which would confirm an overall increase in effectiveness, this study does not conclusively demonstrate that the use of a VOCA enhances communication in this setting for this person compared to PACE only treatment. Lastly, the data for the number of messages conveyed correctly show little change which confirms by the measure used in this study, no difference in accuracy of communication for this activity in the augmented condition.

One of the most common articulation errors made by children is on the phoneme Ir I. Treatment techniques for this sound have varied and have included the stimulus approach (Van Riper, 1972), phonetic placement techniques (Scripture, 1923), the sensory-motor approach (McDonald, 1964), the motokinesthetics approach (Young & Hawk, 1938), and sequential programming approach (Shriberg, 1975; Wood, 1988), to name a few. An integral part of many of these treatment methods is the use of the auditory stimulation. An innovative technique using a prosthetic device to facilitate the production of Ir I was used by Leonti, Blakeley, and Louis (1975), in the treatment of a 9.8 year old male. A follow-up study was conducted by Clark, Schwarz, and Blakeley, (1993) in which a prosthetic device, the R-appliance, was used to facilitate the production of Ir I at the word level. The results of the study indicated that the appliance facilitated the production of Ir I in isolation, in words, and in spontaneous speech. The present study investigated the use of the R-stick appliance as a facilitative device for the production of the Ir/ phoneme at the word level. It was hypothesized that the experimental group (R-stick) would have higher mean scores at the word level than the control group (no R-stick). This hypothesis was not supported by the data. Both groups showed significant improvements in their Ir I word productions, but no difference was shown between the two treatment approaches. There are several possible reasons for these results: (a) insufficient training with the use of the R-stick and the treatment protocol, (b) lack of probes during the course of the study, (c) length of treatment, (d) the small number of subjects participating in the study, and (e) the R-stick appliance is a clinician-manipulated tool.

This thesis examines the manner in which Ronald Reagan responded to the Tower Commission Report concerning his involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair. It explores the following questions: 1) What were the factors leading to a rhetorical situation as defined by the media and which required Ronald Reagan to provide a public response of self-defense; 2) what strategies of apologia did Reagan employ; and 3) how did the media and the White House characterize the outcome of Reagan's speech? Data for analysis were drawn from nationally recognized newspapers that shaped public perception of the Iran-Contra Affair: The Washington Post, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Christian Science Monitor. In addition, The Tower Commission Report and Ronald Reagan's March 4, 1987 speech were used as primary texts. It was found that the events of the Iran-Contra Affair qualified as a crisis, and exemplified an exigence needing a response. The thesis demonstrated that the Iran-contra Affair was an appropriate case for study as a rhetorical situation. Analysis demonstrates how Ronald Reagan made full use of the conventional apologetic strategies of denial, bolstering, differentiation, and transcendence to regain lost credibility; moreover, analysis provides further evidence of the utility of genre criticism.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine communication issues which are most frequently identified as the concerns of u.s. managers who work with culturally and ethnically diverse workforces, and skills which are identified as useful in dealing with those issues. This thesis used a qualitative method of data collection. Information was generated through a review of literature in the fields of communication, management, and organizational behavior to determine frequently occurring themes concerning intercultural communication issues in the workplace. Following the review, three case study interviews were conducted with managers in the Portland metropolitan area to determine what they perceive as communication issues frequently encountered in a multicultural workforce and skills needed to effectively address these issues. Themes in the literature are compared with what the managers report are communication issues in managing a multicultural workforce. Interview results indicated that there are both differences and similarities between what the manager reports and the literature themes. The similarities chiefly concerns the importance of nonverbal behavioral differences as a cause of intercultural communication differences. Differences between the themes in the literature and the interview results chiefly concerns the number of additional factors which could affect intercultural communication between manager and employee. More themes are suggested in the literature as sources of communication difficulty than in the interview results. These results suggest that language differences were more often the type of intercultural communication difficulties that managers encounter than is indicated by the literature.

This study investigated cultural differences, U.S.A. and Japan, in the selection of compliance-gaining strategies by lower status people as differentiated from a group leader in a short-term, task-oriented relationship. The subjects for this study consisted of 114 (59 male and 55 female) U.S. college students and 165 (65 male and 100 female} Japanese college students. All subjects lived in Oregon. After the subjects read the hypothetical scenario which involved changing a task for a classroom project, a 21 item questionnaire was administered. The questions were taken from Kipnis, Schmidt, and Wilkinson's (1980} study, and a six-point scale was used. The 21 questions were categorized into four compliance-gaining strategies: rationalization, exchange of benefits, ingratiation, and assertion. Rationalization and exchange of benefits were used to test hypotheses regarding culture as a whole. Hypothesis one was "Japanese lower status people who are in short-term, task-oriented relationships will use more rationalization compliance-gaining strategies than U.S. people who are in short-term, task-oriented relationships," while hypothesis two was "U.S. lower status people who are in short-term, task-oriented relationships will use more exchange of benefits compliance-gaining strategies than Japanese lower status people who are in short-term, task-oriented relationships." Ingratiation and assertion were used to test the hypotheses regarding gender in different cultures. Hypothesis three was "U.S. lower status females who are in short-term, task-oriented relationships will use more ingratiation compliance-gaining strategies than Japanese lower status females who are in short-term, task-oriented relationships," and hypothesis four was "U.S. lower status males who are in short-term, task-oriented relationships use more assertion compliance-gaining strategies than Japanese lower status males who are in short-term, task-oriented relationships."

This study examined the heuristic value of applying the organizational model of Jablin, Putnam, Roberts, and Porter (1987), who studied newcoming employees assimilating into an organization, to the study of newcoming students integrating into an educational institution. Three hundred and fifty-five college students were surveyed. I used an adapted version of Mowday, Porter, and Steer's (1982) Organizational Commitment Questionnaire. Two hypotheses were tested. Hypothesis One states: The higher the level of expressed commitment the more likely it is that the student will express the intention to remain. Hypothesis Two states: Within Terms One, Two, and Three, the higher the level of expressed commitment, the more likely it is that the student will express an intention to remain. A Pearson Correlation test revealed no significant correlation between commitment and intent to remain for either hypotheses. The high percentage of the subjects who reported that they were 80 to 100 percent certain that they intended to remain and receive their degree yet whose commitment levels were low, suggest that personal goal commitment to receiving their degree is stronger than commitment to the institution. Commitment to the institution was not supported. Therefore, it was determined that the organizational model had little heuristic value in leading to a clearer understanding of the integration process of college students. However, the survey was distributed to students attending an urban university. This element alone may be a mitigating factor in students' institutional commitment.