Introduction: Due to a considerable lack in empirical efforts and appropriate instruments, and theoretically rooted in a cognitive-motivational perspective on academic personality development, the present study analyzes a questionnaire for measuring EFL learners' self-perceptions of oral narrative competencies and perceived anxiety concerning oral…

Presents arguments for oral language work in classrooms that go far beyond "the principal means of human communication" justification. Topics discussed include relationships between oral language and literacy, intelligence, problem solving, cognition, "the hypothetical mode of learning," and personality growth. Recommendations…

An eight-month longitudinal study measuring infants' (N=8) temperament characteristics of activity level, task persistence, and affect and discourse and pragmatic features of their mothers' speech revealed complex interactions between maternal speech and infant temperament. It is argued that nonlinguistic child behaviors may influence maternal…