This article discusses the interactive behavior that accompanies verbal exchange. It specifically describes a set of experiments designed to isolate an important subset of interactive behavior, the vocal (as opposed to the verbal) and to relate this information to a wide range of social impressions resulting from verbal exchange. (Available from…

Research on how communicating human beings produce and understand language has focused mostly on what language is, less on how language is processed, and little on who produces and understands language. However, the interaction between what, who, and how is very significant. The importance of who does languaging is related both to the cognitive…

This report, the first of a series of three, describes a study of the structure and use of language in a defined type of communication situation. Following a review of psychological, sociological, and linguistic studies dealing with the structure of communication or the structure of discourse, a type of goal-directed (convergent) communication is…

Teachers of different languages diconnect themselves from one another, which fragments the profession. Secondly, the choice and use of language often has a disconnecting force. Theses of a book by Neil Postman are considered concerning ineffective communication and communication that has unreasonable or trivial purposes. (SW)

One hundred and ten college students, placed in 22 problem solving discussion groups, interacted for three fifty minute periods each. Three trained observers systematically recorded the interaction. Group members were classified as being task or socio-emotionally oriented and the functional leader in each group was identified by role category.…

After describing scenes that reveal a pattern in which whites regard blacks' speech behavior as threatening, aggressive, or hostile, and in which blacks disagree with their interpretation, this paper explores differences between black and white cultural assumptions, values, and conventions of aggressive behavior to account for the different…

Persons from minority groups often are at a linguistic disadvantage in (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Nov. 22, 1975) the language and culture of the physician or psychoanalyst, who may be unaware of problems of understanding. Patients have certain language rights in medical care. (1) The right to human dignity in the medical relationship is…

Educational cognitive style refers to a person's preferred ways of gathering meaning from surroundings. It involves four groups of behaviors: receiving, expressing, reasoning, and handling the receiving/expressing in specific settings or modalities. A comparison of communication and educational cognitive style shows that several ideas are common…

True learning requires that students "make meaning" for themselves, but the patterns of verbal behavior that prevail in secondary classrooms tend to stifle rather than facilitate this process. Excerpts from tape recordings of lessons in three secondary classrooms show that, whereas the teachers display great autonomy and control over what they…

This book deals with the pedagogical, personal, and theoretical contexts of foreign language teaching. Part 1, on the pedagogical context, discusses the psychology of language learning, individualized language instruction, new directions in language teaching, and the role of pattern drills in language teaching. Part 2, on the personal context,…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the symbolic languages of movement and drama in terms of their ability to stimulate and expand the oral communication of children in grade two. Included was a substudy to determine the effect of such a program upon the self-actualization of children in grade two. The oral language was studied…

NOTING THAT RECENT RESEARCH POINTS TO LINGUISTIC CODE DIFFERENCES AS AN IMPORTANT FACET OF CULTURAL DEPRIVATION AND THAT THE MAJORITY OF EDUCABLE MENTALLY RETARDED (EMR) CHILDREN COME FROM LOW SOCIOECONOMIC LEVELS, IT WAS HYPOTHESIZED THAT ONE OF THE KEYS TO LEARNING FOR EMR CHILDREN IS THE COMPLEXITY OF THE TEACHER'S LANGUAGE IN RELATION TO THAT…

This is a report on a proposed research project on the interaction processes (verbal, non-verbal, and kinesic) present in a seminar situation, with a view towards positing a model of interaction in this type of situation. The seminar was chosen as a setting because it provides a structured context with a variety of discursive acts, favoring the…

This pamphlet is the second in a series of ten stemming from the view that language is central to learning, that teachers can gain insights into their work and into learning by examining the language of the classroom, and that current language theory can be the means to such insights. The pamphlet contains a description of a study designed to…