Speeches of black college students were content analyzed for selected stylistic features. The purposes of the investigation were to collect normative data on the speaking styles of black college students in public speaking and to determine whether selected stylistic features of speeches of black college students at a predominantly black university were different from those of black college students at a predominantly white university. / Audiotapes were made of students presenting speeches in beginning speech classes at Florida A & M University and at Florida State University. From these speeches, 25 presented by black college students were randomly selected from the predominantly black university and 21 by black college students from the predominantly white university. Three samples selected from each of the 46 speeches were taken from the beginning, middle, and ending of the speech. These samples were coded for the following stylistic variables: word length, sentence length, segmental Type-Token Ratio, Adjective-Verb Quotient, T-unit length, main clause coordinate index, clause length, subordinate clause index, Flesch's Reading Ease Score, Flesch's Human Interest Score, nonfluencies, and black dialect syntax. / The means computed for the speeches of the black college students on the 12 variables were as follows: (1) A mean word length of 1.46 syllables per word. (2) A mean sentence length of 18.04 words per sentence. (3) A mean segmental Type-Token Ratio of .74. (4) A mean Adjective-Verb Quotient of .33. (5) A mean T-unit length of 14.86 words per T-unit. (6) A mean main clause coordinate index of 1.22 T-units per sentence. (7) A mean clause length of 9.48 words per clause. (8) A mean subordinate clause index of 1.59. (9) Flesch's Reading Ease mean score of 60.68. (10) Flesch's Human Interest mean score of 41.65. (11) A mean nonfluency index of 3.28 nonfluencies. (12) A mean black dialect syntax score of .70. / As a group, the speeches were similar to speeches of other college students on the twelve variables studied. Great variability in speaking ability existed among the black college student speakers. / A significant difference was found between the speeches of the black college students at the predominantly black university and those of the black college students at the predominantly white university on mean word length, mean sentence length, mean main clause coordinate index, and mean Flesch's Reading Ease Score. A comparison of the means of the two groups of speeches suggested a more complex speaking style for the speeches of the predominantly black university group. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-03, Section: A, page: 0848. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74148 |
| Contributors | EVANS, ADELINE LEMELLE., The Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 217 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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