Speech Evaluation

Principles of speech communication have long been documented, but no hierarchy of competence has been available to guide speech teachers. Teachers need a hierarchical model to guide their curriculum, to organize their expectations for student progress and to measure that progress.

This research develops a speech evaluation measurement system for ascertaining speech student competence. The data are 1,022 ratings of 168 speeches by 34 speakers enrolled in Persuasive Speaking at Roosevelt University. Class 1 met two nights a week for eight weeks. Class 2 met one night a week for sixteen weeks. The test items represent ethos, pathos and logos - aspects of rhetoric defined by the ancients and used by speech teachers. The items also represent the motivated sequence popularized by Alan Monroe in 1928. Rating was performed by the instructor, two teaching assistants, all speakers and four independent raters who viewed videotapes.

Rating scale analysis was accomplished by Linacre's FACETS program (1988). The item analysis demonstrates that public speaking ability can be managed as a unidimensional variable. The item difficulties form an invariant hierarchy of competence difficulties which defines a useful range of inquiry. The item map ("An Evaluator's Guide to the Difficulty of Public Speaking") shows the item hierarchy for each sub-scale.

The learning curves of speakers show that improvement is not related to initial ability but to length of course and class attendance. Gains for the sixteen week course were significantly higher than for the eight week course. Speakers who missed classes improved least. But an individual's speaking ability was not related to their severity as a rater. Some good speakers were lenient raters. Some poor speakers were harsh.

Two new rating forms which capitalize on this research are available: a diagnostic form to assist teaching public speaking and an evaluation form for use in speech assessment.

Speech Evaluation, D S Tatum … Rasch Measurement Transactions, 1991, 5:2 p. 144-145

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