A survey of the status of oral communication in the K‐12 public educational system in the United States

Abstract

This article summarizes the results of a survey sent to State Directors of Education to determine the nature of oral communication in state standards/requirements in K‐12 education. State directors were asked to indicate the role and importance of oral communication in their statewide curriculum. Thirty states reported requiring oral communication as part of an integrated language arts curriculum, while only one state reported no statewide standards of any kind for oral communication. Only two states reported oral communication is included in state standards separately from language arts. Twelve states reported exit level testing (or competencies to be met/performed) of graduating high school seniors which included oral communication in some form. This article concludes with a recommendation that communication educators become proactive in assisting state language arts consultants in their development of standards and materials for teaching oral communication in order to ensure the communication discipline is well represented in K‐12 curriculum.

Keywords:

• standards
• competencies
• communication education
• oral communication instruction
• language arts curriculum