Creating and Teaching Special Sections of a Public Speaking Course for Apprehensive Students: A Multi-Case Study

This study explored how university professors describe the development and operation of a special communication apprehension (CA) section of a basic public speaking course that is part of a core curriculum requirement. The professors interviewed pointed out the need for more media for instructors and students. They described their efforts in detail and said the CA sections were time consuming, yet rewarding for both faculty and students. Several questions for future research include: Where there is a core curriculum requirement for a public speaking course, what is being done to help the students with high CA? If many of the programs from Foss\u27 (1982) survey are no longer in operation, what happened to them? Where is the media and information to aid college instructors who want to set up a CA section of a required class? As a recent national survey indicated, a majority of universities see the necessity for treatment programs, but lack innovative ways to structure programs within budget and departmental restraints (Raker, 1992)

Assessment of E-textbook Usage in a Large Public Speaking Program

This study examined student usage of an e-textbook in a large multi-section basic pubic speaking course that fulfills the oral communication general education requirement at a large state university in the Midwest. The results collected from students surveys (n=598) indicated that they are not yet using e-textbooks across other university classes, they prefer printed textbooks to e-textbooks, they perceive advantages of e-textbooks to be cost, weight, ability to quickly find topics and conveniences, while they perceive advantages of printed textbooks to be the ability to highlight and take notes, ease of reading, and keeping the printed text-book for future reference. When it comes to e-textbook reading, they prefer computers to smaller computing devices like iPads, iPods, cellular phones or other electronic readers, and only 18% of the students at this public university reported access to an electronic tablet and only 16% had access to an e-reader. Students preferred using an e-textbook to a printed textbook when they had prior experience reading an e-book. In general, students report spending less than one hour per week reading the course e-textbook

Speech Center Support Services, the Basic Course, and Oral Communication Assessment

This study examines the role a speech center plays in supporting university-wide oral communication assessment. Specifically, this study queries student usage of speech center support services and perceived changes in public speaking anxiety, public speaking confidence, and public speaking skills. The findings indicate that students who report more visits to the speech center also perceive that using the speech center helped reduce their speech anxiety and increase their confidence in public speaking. In addition, those who report it “helpful” to self-evaluate recordings of their in-class speeches also report a greater reduction in speech anxiety, a greater increase in confidence, and a greater increase in public speaking skills over the course of the semester. Implications for basic course assessment programs and speech centers are discussed

The Influence of Diaphragmatic Breathing to Reduce Situational Anxiety for Basic Course Students

Researchers in physiology and health fields have reported a significant impact from using diaphragmatic breathing (DB) to help individuals reduce anxiety. However, few communication researchers have explored the use of this simple DB technique to help basic course students reduce communication apprehension (CA). Thus, this investigation explored the use of diaphragmatic breathing (DB) in helping students moderate CA. Respondents completed McCroskey’s (1982) Personal Reports of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) after each of four formal classroom speeches. Results indicated the experimental group using DB reported a significant decrease in state anxiety from speech the first two speeches to the last two speeches. Applications for basic course teachers and suggestions for future research are discussed

Communication Apprehension, Self-Efficacy, and Grades in the Basic Course: Correlations and Implications

This article presents a study examining the relationship among communication apprehension (CA), self-efficacy (S-E), and grades in the basic communication course. Data were gathered from 208 undergraduate students enrolled in a public speaking course that fulfills a university-wide core curriculum requirement. Respondents completed MCroskey\u27s (1982) Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24), the Self-Efficacy in the Class scale (SECL) adapted from Pintrich and DeGroot\u27s (1990) Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, and two researcher-designed questions regarding S-E for college (SECOL). Results indicated that although trait and context CA are significantly correlated with final grades. In fact, multiple-regression showed that S-E contributed significant unique variance to grade. Implications for teaching the basic course are discussed

Isolation, Culture, and Immunophenotypic Analysis of Bone Marrow HSPCs From Patients With Myelodysplastic Syndromes

Drug testing assays in hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) are fundamental in biological studies of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) but have historically entailed a technical challenge. This protocol allows the efficient isolation of MDS HSPCs from bone marrow mononuclear cell fractions and their culturing with the support of stromal cells for improved maintenance during drug testing. Lastly, specific steps are given to quantify surviving cells and assess changes in the HSPC hierarchies. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Ganan-Gomez et al. (2022)

Impact of High School Preparation on College Oral Communication Apprehension

This study examines the impact of high school public speaking skills training and public speaking experiences on college overall communication apprehension (CA) and public speaking context CA. The results show that public speaking skill-training in high school is significantly related to lower CA levels or students upon entering a college-level basic speech course. In addition, students who report more public speaking experiences both in high school setting and outside the high school setting, tend to report lower overall CA and lower CA in the public speaking context

Communication Apprehension and Basic Course Success: The Lab-supported Public Speaking Course Intervention

This study examined a lab-supported public speaking course as an intervention for helping reduce overall and context communication apprehension (CA) for high and moderate CA students. In addition, this study queried whether actual lab usage was related to CA reduction and to course grade for those students. Results showed that the lab-supported public speaking course helped high and moderate CAs significantly reduce overall CA and CA in public speaking, group discussions, meetings and interpersonal conversation contexts. There was no difference in reduction of CA level between high and moderate CAs who utilized the speech lab and those who did not. However, high CAs who utilized the speech lab earned higher course grades than those who did not use the lab

Student Misbehaviors, Instructor Responses, And Connected Classroom Climate: Implications for the Basic Course

The concept of connected classroom climate focuses on student-to-student communication behaviors that are paramount in creating the climate of a class, especially in the basic course. While previous studies have focused on the positive and cooperative behaviors of students and instructors that may contribute to perceptions of classroom connectedness, the role that incivilities may play in detracting from or undermining a connected classroom climate has not been investigated. This study examines perceptions of a connected classroom climate and its relationships to student misbehaviors and instructor responses. A total of 542 university students enrolled in 30 sections of the basic public speaking course completed the Connected Classroom Climate Inventory (CCCI) and scales measuring student misbehaviors and teacher responses to student misbehaviors. Results showed that student perceptions of a connected classroom climate were inversely related to both inconsiderate and harassing student misbehaviors. The results also revealed a possible relationship between classroom connectedness and the manner in which instructors respond to students when they misbehave. These findings suggest that basic course instructors need to consider how to reduce student inconsideration and harassment misbehaviors in their classes, and how to positively respond to these behaviors when they do occur so that classroom connectedness is not diminished