Course Content and Outcomes Guides (CCOG)

CCOG for COMM 212 Winter 2025


Course Number:
COMM 212
Course Title:
Voice & Diction
Credit Hours:
4
Lecture Hours:
40
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Voice production and articulation of speech sound, with attention to elementary speech physiology and phonetics. Develops more effective speech for teachers, radio and television speakers, public speakers and others who require special competence in speaking. Prerequisites: WR 115, RD 115 and MTH 20 or equivalent placement test scores. Audit available.

Intended Outcomes for the course

Upon successful completion, students should be able to:

  1. Use learned skills to continue to improve effective speech for such areas as teachers, radio and television speakers, and those who need additional support in speaking.
  2. Manage voice production and articulation by understanding basic speech physiology, acoustics, and phonetics.
  3. Continue to use learned speech tools, such as Standard American Speech, in order to continue to build communication competence and mutual understanding.

October 2009

Outcome Assessment Strategies

This course will include phonetic transcriptions and oral presentations.

Other forms of assessment, listed below, will be determined by the individual instructor.

  • In-class participation
  • Peer and instructor evaluations
  • Journals
  • Qualitative examinations
  • Quantitative examinations
  • Essays
  • Research papers
  • Projects
  • Group work

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

  • Voice, Diction, and Effective Communication
  • Language, Accent, Dialect, Idiolect
  • Dialects in the United States (Geographic, Socioeconomic, ethnocultural)
  • Standard American English Pronunciation
  • Speech Production-Mechanisms for Speech (Voice and Articulation)
  • Anatomy and Physiology of Respiration (Respiration for Life/Respiration for Speech), Breathing for Effective Vocalization
  • Fundamentals of Articulation using the International Phonetic Alphabet
    • Anatomy of Articulation
    • Classification of Sounds
    • Diacritic and Phonetic Symbols
  • Vowel Articulation
    • Formation of Vowels
    • Characteristics of Vowels
  • Diphthong Articulation
  • Consonant Articulation
    • Characteristics of Consonants
  • Pronunciation: Types of Mispronunciation: addition, omission, substitution, reversal, distortion, misplacement of stress
  • Vocal Variety and Expression in speaking and reading
    • Pitch Variety (Inflection, Step Shifts)
    • Time Variety (Rate, Duration, Pause)
    • Loudness Variety
    • Vocal Integration

Competencies and Skills:

The successful student should:

  • Be able to explain the complexity of effective communication
  • Be able to determine the role voice principles of pattern, quality, and pronunciation, have on the communication process
  • Be able to identify the International Phonetic Alphabet symbols and sounds of Standard General American speech
  • Be able to explain the role articulation principles have on the communication process
  • Be able to explain the physiological structure of the voice
  • Be able to effectively deliver oral messages using Standard American Speech

A textbook is required. Approved texts are listed below. Alternative texts need Department/SAC Chair approval.

The Articulate Voice, An Introduction to Voice and Diction,  4th ed., Wells

Speaking Clearly, Hahner