The Speech and Language Department is comprised of faculty who utilize a diverse array of perspectives, knowledge, and expertise in order to enhance students' overall communication and language competence, including their spoken English usage. Our instructional endeavors are collaborative and incorporate current knowledge and best practices in assessment, teaching/learning processes, and use of technology. These endeavors promote student attainment of communication success in educational, social and work situations.
Our primary purpose is to optimize students' freedom of communication and language choice by offering instruction to enhance overall communication competency and self perceptions of competence and control. We recognize that students make decisions about communication in educational, social and work situations and that they should therefore participate in multiple levels of decision-making ranging from course selection to the identification of personal goals and objectives. Our responsibility thus is to offer an array of experiences to address students' desires and needs and to operate with an adult-learner model that recognizes their role in such activities as establishing goals, setting priorities, selecting activities and assessing progress. While addressing a broad range of communication competencies, we have a unique role in serving the many students who want to use spoken communication, with or without signs, either as a primary means of communication with signing and non-signing individuals or a s an alternative means of communication when engaged in face-to-face interaction with non-signing individuals.
In order to accomplish its mission, the department offers individual and group activities to:
- enable assessment of students' speech, language, and communication competence
- provide learning experiences in articulation, voice, pronunciation, vocabulary usage, spoken English grammar, discourse organization, conversational rules and strategies, public speaking, group discussion techniques, interpersonal and intercultural communication, and job interviewing
- utilize state of the art technology for communication instruction including instrumentation for visual feedback regarding speech production
- engage students in self and group analyses of job interviews, conversational interaction, and formal presentations
- foster development of major-specific communication skills important for academic and career success
Speech and Language Department Goals:
- to enhance students' overall communication and language competence
- to engage in instructional endeavors that are collaborative
- to incorporate best practices
- to disseminate information to external publics
- to educate other professionals in their field and advance their knowledge
- to promote appropriate attitudes about the use of spoken English as a viable option for individuals deaf and hard or hearing
- to incorporate communication instruction in a broader base of their educational experiences
- to incorporate communication instruction in preparation for employment
- to remain current
- to apply state of the art technology
- to provide the opportunity for all students to have access to communication services
- to enhance the academic community's understanding of the educational implications of communication
- student's self-understanding about communication skills and options
- to contribute to the Institute's development and provision of communication
- assessment as it relates to major-specific graduation competencies
The faculty are certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. The department is accredited by the Professional Services Board (PSB) of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
