The Effects of an Instructor's Use of Hesitation Forms on Student Ratings of Quality, Recommendations to Hire, and Lecture Listening

Explaining the Effects of Powerless Language Use on the Evaluative Listening Process: A Theory of Implicit Prototypes

“…Factor two, comprised of items 4, 7, and 9, was named "teacher competence." This represents the same factor structure found by Johnson, et al (1989). Thus, it provides some evidence of the validity of the instrument.…”

“…The lecture contained 16 hesitation forms (1.33% of total word content). TI1is lecture was shown to significantly lower ratings of credibility and lecture listening scores (as compared to the same lecture containing no hesitations) (Johnson et al, 1989).…”

“…Those who study the powerfuVpowerless language construct report that using these language features affect evaluative listening (Johnson, Vinson, Hackman, & Hardin, 1989;Vinson & Johnson, 1990). For example, speakers who use hesitations ("uh," "um").…”

“…Research bas shown that the effects of powerless language use are consistent with what one would expect from applying Implicit Prototype theory. Researchers have shown that powerless language use is a behavioral index of low communication competence (Johnson et al, 1989;Vinson & Jolmson, 1990). That is, powerless language use may be said to be a behavioral component of the low competence communicator prototype.…”

The Relationship Between the Use of Hesitations and/or Hedges and Lecture Listening: The Role of Perceived Importance as a Mediating Variable

“…To measure lecture listening, recall of information contained in the lecture is tested.If theuseofpowerless talklowerslecturelisteningscores, then instructors, trainers, public speakers and others can be counseled to avoid powerless speech forms in order to enhance lecture listening/ recall. Although little research has been done on the connection between powerful and powerless speech and recall, one recent study (Johnson, Vinson, Hackman, & Hardin, 1989) found that listeners recalled significantly less information when an instructor used hesitations in the the delivery of a lecture. While the findings of this study suggest that powerless talk lowers lecture recall scores, this investigation had a number of limitations.…”