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Teaching of English Grammar and Communications
and the clergy distrusted the oratory of the day. Saint Augustine, however, presented a treatise in which he emphasized the Aristotelian principle that rhetoric proposes to make the truth effective. As the secular schools developed during the Renaissance, they offered a curriculum which included rhetoric, but the instruction centered on the use of language. By the eighteenth century the pendulum of man's participation in the affairs of his times had again swung toward democracy. In England men were once again allowed to speak out. The schools took up the challenge and taught speech making. Three great writers offered tests: Campbell Blair, and Whately. But, at almost the same, point in history, just as these men were encouraging sound argument, direct communication influential, and imposing: the Elocutionists. Their emphasis was on delivery. Austin and Lovell, among them, went to extremes on teaching an artificial precision in voice and gesture. By now, somewhat past the middle of the twentieth century, we' have moved away form their influences, and we use the word "elocutionist" with a critical disdain. The point we make here is that man is the product of his times. Man preserves his time or alters his times, but always speaks in his time. Great problems bring forth great speakers. Great speakers lead people in decision making. The people elect to office those who speak effectively. They choose for leaders of their service clubs those who speak well. They call on their fellows who are effective speakers to speak on hundreds of various programs. There is man's speaking a cultural context, an environmental image, and a historical rhetoric. Man truly speaks in his times. Interpersonal Speech Communication The Speaker, the message, the audience: these have long held a prominent place in our course work in speech. Our plans have been geared to helping the individual become a better communicator- to stand on a platform facing an audience, to present an uninterrupted speech, planned in its entirety and designed to meet the needs of the audience, and to anticipate the reactions and satisfaction of the audience.