2011 Archive - PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAVE REPORT

In England my most significant discoveries were uncovered at two “Further Education” colleges much like our own, in fact remarkably like Lane Community College in both student demographics and college mission. These schools confirmed that they had no actual required courses in oral communication, but that they introduce oral communication skills informally, “as a way of teaching.” Their recent government attempts to pinpoint “Key Skills” have led to a recognition of literacy as both vocal and written competence. Thus, the pedagogical method of question and answer is an integral part of every class, and students are required to express orally their understanding of subject matter as a part of their standard course assessment. The instructor evaluates student responses much as our speech communication instructors evaluate speeches, looking for speech structure, nonverbal demeanor, extemporaneity, and strict articulation standards. In addition, every discipline assesses both oral and written communication skills and requires a group presentation, and in each discipline students must meet rigorous oral performance criteria.

In my conversations in England regarding English language and literature classes, I learned that as a matter of course 20% of a student’s grade is based on oral communication skills; English instructors frequently testified to the virtue of requiring oral communication exercises—because they establish in students a vivid sense of audience and provide ripe and efficient opportunities for teaching standard English, communication purpose, appropriateness, clarity, and other skills required to engage an audience.

Instructors in England universally cited, however, that emphasis on the grand oratorical skills (those concerned with elevated political or legal advocacy) is most common at private and “elite” schools; state schools do not train students in this way. This difference clearly reflects the contrast between a severely class-conscious society and our own, which though sensitive to relative economic status remains more flexible to mobility between levels of society. Nevertheless, the British vocational/transfer colleges I observed do possess a keen sense of practical skills in oral communication, via diverse communication media, required at all social levels.

Although my findings in France were less comprehensive (in part because of less ready availability of staff in a highly structured culture), I was able to discuss with two students and with several educators and administrators typical oral communication pedagogies employed in the classroom. Here I found ready consensus about three such methods: the précis, the explication du texte, and the commentaire du texte. Admittedly, these methods are most common to humanities studies (a distinct difference between England and France in expectations for oral literacy among the vocationally trained).[1] The goal of these assignments is to ensure that students can summarize, explain, and comment on textual material. The pedagogical form most commonly applied is the thesis/antithesis/ and synthesis—so that students are drilled in an analytical methodology, so useful to the discovery of ideas as the origin of public discourse. Likewise, the teacher’s critique examines the students’ analyses rather than their oral delivery, which is more strenuously taught and evaluated at the elementary and secondary education levels.

In short, whereas British further education stresses the form of student output (what is traditionally considered under the heading of delivery by rhetorical and communication theorists), the focus in French higher education (L’Éducation Supérieur) is on students’ thought processes (what theorists refer to as invention), essentially on understanding course material as well as on developing original views on a subject. Interestingly, both cultures are intensely interested in the articulation of the language, in England at the college level as well as in earlier stages of education; this pride in the beauty of prosody, the sound of language as well as in diction, le mot juste, reflect each culture’s admiration for and emulation of the art of beautiful expression and precision in usage. Clearly this cultural dedication to protecting the beauty of the language is not a common value on the United States.

In retrospect, I am heartened by the knowledge that cultures can and do integrate oral communication education throughout the curriculum, and I am stimulated to investigate the establishment of a speech center at Lane, where students assigned oral performances in various classes might seek assistance and where instructors requiring those performances could obtain ideas for exercises and help in formulating and assessing them. I hope to attract at least a few instructors from my own or other departments to a presentation outlining possibilities that lie before us. The following points suggest ways in which this might be accomplished.

1. Establish a tutorial center for speech communication skills, much like our writing center. The center would be staffed by a part-time instructor and by students who have proven competent in the performance-oriented speech classes (Public Speaking, Persuasive Speech, Business and Professional Speech, and Forensics; Voice and Articulation students could provide assistance in American English articulation for international students in particular).

2. Sponsor a workshop or workshop series at fall inservice promoting oral communication assignments such as reports, commentaries or analyses, and peer instruction within any discipline. This series would suggest ways of providing oral communication opportunities as well as guidelines and practice in assessing these assignments. Some of the skill sets we might consider assessing include

3. Further develop the tutorial center as a resource for oral literacy in the Lane Community College classroom, staffing eventually with a full-time instructor whose job description includes, in part, the promotion of an articulate student population.

Our speech communication staff are already on fire with a sense of the value of this discipline. I have no doubt that we could elevate our LCC students’ prospects for success by integrating oral performance requirements throughout the curriculum, thereby developing their comfort level and competence in presentational contexts. As a culture we need not stand aside and weep for the sorry state of American oral performance; we can raise the bar at our own institution, thus communicating a standard to anyone who may be watching, not the least of whom may be our students’ employers. If these students are, as we say, our future, one cannot help wondering how concerned we should be with shaping our own futures through their training in effective oral communication.

[1] Whereas England separates oratory from basic communication skills at the college level (between public and private schools), in France fewer students may survive the difficult baccalaureat to move on to the higher education schools where these methods are likely to be employed.