NORTHAMPTON, Mass. -- Not long ago, Smith College English professor Patricia Skarda was walking behind two students deep in conversation. A strict grammatical constructionist, Skarda took note of their syntax.

"One used 'like' 48 times," she reported, "the other, 37."

Skarda was appalled but not shocked. After all, the insidious proliferation of the youthful sub-dialect known as Mallspeak -- also unlovingly called, in some quarters, Teenbonics -- was part of the reason Smith followed nearby Mount Holyoke College in instituting a new curriculum that makes speaking as important as writing.

A product of both the urban street scene and the consumer centers of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, Mallspeak is the speech form that gave forth the dreaded phrase "gag me with a spoon" and made "like" the first word to be a verb, adjective, adverb and conjunction -- all at once. "Minimalist," "repetitive," "imprecise" and "inarticulate" are some of the words Smith College President Ruth Simmons uses to describe Mallspeak, adding, "It drives me crazy."

At the start of this academic year, Smith launched its "speaking across the curriculum" program, featuring "speaking intensive" first-year seminars taught by senior faculty members and an emphasis in many classrooms on oral presentations. At Mount Holyoke, 15 miles down the road, the speaking, arguing and writing program initiated a year and a half ago as what is believed to be the country's first combined speaking and writing program is even more extensive.

From the day they first pass through the heavy iron gates of this country's oldest women's college, Mount Holyoke students are assigned speaking mentors. Each class includes an oral component, and some professors have added oral exams -- long the purview of graduate degree candidates, not undergraduates -- to their course outlines. In a special Speaking Center, students can videotape each other and are encouraged to critique their work.

At both schools, the premise is that writing skills and a degree from a prestigious institution are no longer enough. In order to face the world beyond college, students must speak effectively, be able to organize cogent arguments and be ready to function in an increasingly team-oriented workplace. It's verbal competence-cum-confidence: understanding that Mallspeak is fine when you're with your buddies, but beginning a meeting with "I was, like, y'know, whatever" just won't cut it.

Mount Holyoke College President Joanne V. Creighton calls the linking of these skills with liberal arts "revolutionary" and predicts that her school's effort will be widely emulated.

Already, that seems likely. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Holy Cross College and Wesleyan University this year began focusing on speaking skills. Before launching its "speaking across the university" initiative in the fall, University of Pennsylvania officials consulted with Lee Bowie, the philosophy professor who heads Mount Holyoke's Speaking Center. Faculty members from Stanford University also have contacted Bowie to learn about the Mount Holyoke curriculum, whose future seems guaranteed by a $4 million endowment from an alumna and her investment banker husband, Harriet and Paul Weissman of White Plains, N.Y.

A school with just 2,000 students hardly reflects the planet at large. But it's a start, said Bowie, a recognition that "if students have something important and interesting to say, they're going to be able to say it well."

Over lunch at Mount Holyoke, speaking and writing mentor Emily Stork, a sophomore from California, said that often "students want to know if they're right or wrong" when they speak.

Or, said Carrie Alme, a sophomore speaking mentor from Bloomington, Minn., "they express anxiety about standing up and forgetting what they're going to say."

"Or just anxiety, period," added Speaking Center Coordinator Donnetrice Barbee, 27.

Pub Date: 3/23/99