This research investigates how pupils perceive performance anxiety and where this trait may originate. Based on the findings from the interviews, it was factors such as lack of studying technique, expectations of a high grade, and pressure from home as well as classmates that were the main reasons to why their performance anxiety arose from the very beginning. In relation to this, the study aims at discussing how rhetoric as a subject in school may reduce performance anxiety amongst pupils. A qualitative method was used to investigate the research question of this essay. The interviews have been done through semi-structured interviews as a primary source. Through these interviews, the work aims to examine performance anxiety amongst students and exploring how public speaking skills and performance anxiety may be influenced by preparation and rhetorical knowledge. Although this study cannot conclusively argue that the teaching of rhetoric would reduce performance anxiety, the results of the interviews suggest that better rhetorical skills would enhance students public speaking skills.”

This thesis explores the ways that certain artists-including Joseph Conrad, Alan Moore, Richard Attenborough, and Francis Ford Coppola-break from their inherited traditions in order to speak from an alternative perspective to western discourse. Conventional narrative formulas prescribe that meaning will be revealed in a definitive end, but all of the texts discussed reveal other avenues through which it is discerned. In Heart of Darkness, the tension between two divergent narratives enables Conrad to speak beyond his social context and imperialist limitations to demonstrate that identity is socially constructed. In Watchmen, Moore breaks from comic convention to illustrate ways meaning may be ascertained despite the lack of plot ends. The third chapter explores the ways that Attenborough and Coppola subvert technical and plot conventions to resist static constitutions of identity endemic to Hollywood film. The several texts discussed subvert the Self/Other duality by suggesting alternatives to the western narrative model. / by Adam Berzak. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis advisor: David S. Vanderhooft / The book of Haggai emerged from a dispute in the early Persian period over the propriety and feasibility of rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem in 520 BCE. As a record of that dispute, the book is a rhetorical artifact that displays a variety of strategies designed to persuade the Yehudite community that Yhwh wanted his house rebuilt. Theological and socioeconomic objections and obstacles to reconstruction had to be overcome before the Yehudites would accept Haggai’s call to rebuild. This dissertation argues that although some of the Yehudite community accepted Haggai’s claim that Yhwh wanted his temple built, others remained unpersuaded, fearing that the adverse agricultural and economic conditions, as well as the lack of a royal builder, were signs that Yhwh was not ready to begin the period of restoration. The oracles and narrative portions of the book are intended to counter these fears by arguing that Yhwh will provide for the adornment of the temple, bring prosperity to Yehud once the temple is built, and has already designated the Davidide Zerubbabel as the chosen royal builder. Haggai further strengthened commitment to reconstruction by vilifying those Yehudites who failed to support the temple as unclean and non-Israelite. Rhetorical analysis illumines not only particular features of the text but also indicates what theological and socioeconomic sources of opposition to temple reconstruction were most important in this period. This sheds further light on the socioeconomic conditions of early Persian period Yehud. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

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This dissertation examines how gender operates as agencies for women’s environmental justice activism. I contend that women’s activism, often taking place through collaborative and collective means, presents new opportunities to theorize rhetorical agency that include women-centric and leaderless forms of grassroots organizing. To this end, I explore various agencies for women’s collaborative environmental communication—motherhood, eco-spirituality, and political calls for recognition—that work to test the boundary conditions of rhetorical studies in ways that find empowerment and resistance in a collective rather than in any one particular person. In developing these accounts, I construct a framework that emphasizes the agentic capabilities possible through collaborative rhetorics of resistance—the communicative performances of defiance and empowerment put forth by groups of people that often result in the articulation of collective identities, the challenging of dominant structures and institutions of power, and work to inspire mutual critique and reflection in others. Theories of rhetorical agency assist in documenting and illuminating the ways speakers navigate discursive and material constraints as they bring their audience to action, but often do so by privileging the rhetoric of individual (male) speakers. By exploring collaborative rhetorics of resistance, this dissertation project tests the boundary conditions of rhetorical agency and generates a more comprehensive understanding of how loose networks of people enter into, take part in, and possibly redirect the course of environmental deliberations. This dissertation project is focused on the ways in which women rhetorically collaborate to craft collective subjectivities, protest environmental threats to their families and communities, and inspire mutual critique and reflection in others.

The phonological awareness skills of children with language disorders has been well addressed throughout the literature. Research into the phonological awareness skills of children with highly unintelligible speech, however, is still in its infancy. One published study has looked at the relationship between phonological awareness skills in children with persistent phonological impairments and in children with normal phonology (Webster & Plante, 1992). Significantly higher scores were recorded on three of the four phonological awareness measures for the children with normal phonology As phonology improved, so did the children's phonological awareness skills. The purposes of the present study were to determine if there is an improvement in phonological awareness skills of children with highly unintelligible speech who receive speech sound intervention services, and to determine if there is a difference in phonological awareness skills between children who receive a phoneme-oriented treatment approach and those who receive a phonological cycling treatment approach. Children who took part in a larger study (Buckendorf, 1996) in which the effectiveness of the two treatment approaches was examined, were given the Assessment of Metaphonological Skills-Prekindergarten (Hodson, 1995) early in the course of treatment and again 2 to 3 months later. The following specific questions were addressed: 1. Is there an increase in phonological awareness skills for children who receive articulation/phonological intervention? 2. Is there a difference in the amount of improvement of phonological awareness skills for children who receive a phoneme-oriented treatment approach as compared with children who receive a phonological cycling treatment approach? To test if the subject's phonological awareness skills improved from pretest to posttest, a one tailed !-test for paired differences, and the Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Signed-Ranks test were performed. Results on both of these analyses indicated a statistically significant improvement between pretest and posttest scores. To test if there is a difference in the improvement of phonological awareness skills between the two groups, a !-test for independent samples of group and the Mann-Whitney LI-Wilcoxon Rank Sum W-Test were performed on pretest, posttest, and pretest-to-posttest. Results on both analyses indicated no statistically significant differences between the two groups on any of these variables.

This single-subject study was designed to compare the effectiveness of two phonological-based treatment approaches with a preschool male with unintelligible speech characterized by multiple deficient phonological patterns. Four phonological patterns were chosen as targets based on results of the Assessment of Phonological ProcessesRevised (APP-R} (Hodson, 1986), as analyzed by the Computer Analysis of Phonological Deviation (CAPO) (Hodson, 1992a). The subject participated in 60-minute intervention sessions three times a week over an 8-week period. The phonological cycling approach (Hodson & Paden, 1991) was the focus of 4 weeks of intervention, and the minimal pairs approach (Tyler, Edwards, & Saxman, 1987) was the focus of 4 weeks of intervention. Remediation programs were alternated every 2 weeks, and began with the phonological cycling approach. Results were measured through pretests and posttests of the APP-R, as well as baseline and generalization probes that were administered periodically. Results of the CAPD indicated minimal changes between pretest and posttest scores for all of this subject's targeted phonological patterns (i.e., consonant sequences I stridents, velars, liquid /1/, and liquid /r/). In addition, no significant differences in scores were noted between remediation programs. Results of probe measurements indicated little, if any, generalization to targeted and non-targeted words in an imitated word probe task for any of the targeted patterns, except for the target phonological pattern of consonant sequences I stridents after the phonological cycling approach. This finding may suggest that the phonological cycling approach was more effective for this subject than the minimal pairs approach.

Hearing aid users often complain of poor speech understanding in the presence of background noise. There have been many attempts to overcome this problem by hearing aid manufactures and dispensers. The purpose of the present study was to determine if differences existed between three different styles of hearing aids (i.e. in the ear (ITE), in the canal (ITC), and completely in the canal (CIC)) in the presence of a multi-talker babble. Five sensori-neural hearing impaired subjects were selected from the Portland State University audiology clinic. The subjects were required to listen to a recording of the California Consonant Test (CCT) against a background noise of multi-talker babble. Stimuli were presented through headphones in the sound booth. The stimuli were recorded through three different hearing aids placed on KEMAR's left ear and adjusted to a 10 dB signal-to-noise ratio. Once the speech samples were recorded and digitized, they were routed through a GSl-16 audiometer to the listener. In order to determine performance differences across the three hearing aid configurations from within a single-subject design, each subject's performance was compared in a pairwise fashion between the hearing aid configurations. An analysis of the data was completed using the Randomization test. Using this statistical model, no significant difference was found between the individual scores. Further research is warranted to determine if a better measure exists that qualitatively defines the effect of microphone placement on speech understanding ability in hearing aid users.

Communication is an integral part of all relationships. The intent of this study was to discover if certain individual preferences for approaching conflict occur in a significant fashion between the partners of particular types of marriages. In addition, this study meant to better understand how conflict is perceived and responded to, in marriage and/or long term relationships. Fitzpatrick's (1977) Relational Dimensions Inventory (RDI), was used for this study to characterize three dimensions of marriage: interdependence, ideology, and conflict engagement/avoidance, resulting in the following marital types: Traditionals, Independents, Separates, and Mixed. Rahim's (1983) instrument, the Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory (ROCI), was also used to measure five independent patterns of handling interpersonal conflict: Integrating, Dominating, Compromising, Avoiding, and Obliging. Based on prior work of Fitzpatrick (1975, 1983, 1988) and Rahim (1983), this study asked: Do conflict styles vary across marital types? Individual hypotheses examined occurrences of particular conflict styles within specific marital types. The data represent 103 couples. Data were derived from a Likert type survey instrument of Fitzpatrick's RDI and Rahim's ROCI-II, with a total of 65 questions. Chi-square and cross-tabulation were used to reveal associations between marital type and conflict style. Bonferroni procedure for multiple hypotheses was applied. Cross-tabulation did not indicate a relationship between marital types and conflict styles. One hypothesis was statistically supported. As couple level data produced few significant results, post hoc analysis at the individual level was conducted. Conflict styles were conceptually divided into concern for self and concern for other. ANOVA was run on marital type, other orientation, and satisfaction. Significant results are reported for wives.