RESEARCH WAS CONDUCTED IN THE DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF A SELF-MONITORING METHOD OF TEACHING PROPER INTONATION AND INFLECTION PATTERNS TO THE DEAF. THIS TEACHING METHOD INCLUDED USE OF A VISUAL DISPLAY WHICH IS BASED ON PITCH INFORMATION DERIVED FROM A LIVE SPEECH SIGNAL. FOUR PROFOUNDLY DEAF CHILDREN WERE THE SUBJECTS FOR THE EXPERIMENT. A…

The Massachusetts Supreme Court overturned a lower court's ruling against a speech pathology teacher whose contract was not renewed following a parent's complaint. The teacher had explained 4-letter words to 13 year-olds, bringing them up in class, then discouraged further usage. Judges decided the teacher had acted creatively in response to…

Focusing on the problems of assessing the speaking skills of secondary school students, this paper provides one example of how those problems were addressed in the Massachusetts speaking assessment. The paper identifies four requirements for measures of speaking skills: (1) feasibility, (2) reliability, (3) validity, and (4) freedom from bias. The…