Business Communication Students Learn To Hear A Bad Speech Habit

Students were trained to perceive filled pauses (FP) as a bad speech habit.  In a series of classroom sensitivity training activities, followed by students being rewarded to observe twenty minutes of live television from the public media, no differences between male and female Business Communication students was revealed.  The practice of teaching students to regard FP as a “bad” speech habit was supported by the literature.  Male and female students learned to recognize FP they heard professional and non-professional speakers make.