Minimal expressions are at the heart of interaction: Interjections like "Huh?" and "Mhm" keep conversations flowing by establishing and reinforcing intersubjectivity among interlocutors. Crosslinguistic research has identified that similar interactional pressures can yield structurally similar words (e.g., to initiate repair…

It is well-established that language skills are amongst the best predictors of educational success. Consistent with this, findings from a population-based longitudinal study of parents and children in the UK indicate that language development at the age of two years predicts children's performance on entering primary school. Moreover, children who…

It is well-established that language skills are amongst the best predictors of educational success. Consistent with this, findings from a population-based longitudinal study of parents and children in the UK indicate that language development at the age of two years predicts children's performance on entering primary school. Moreover, children who…

A study of scientific communication in the United Kingdom indicates that informal communication, which has significantly changed from a decade ago, appears to have had an idiosyncratic impact. Two emerging themes were the effects of information technology and scientists' sense of information overload. Information staff observed increasing emphasis…

Summarizes a two-part study examining the role of the school brochure as a marketing tool for (British) primary schools. The 12 local education authorities sampled provided little guidance in preparing, presenting, or distributing brochures. In the four brochures studied, headteachers' attitudes toward using brochures as a marketing tool was…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of community of practice in sustaining teachers' participation in a blended (face-to-face and online) professional development course. Design/methodology/approach: A longitudinal multiple-case study methodology was used in researching groups of five teachers in Australia and four teachers…

Experimentally tests for direction of causality in negative correlations previously found between a measure of teacher control of conversation and measures of deaf primary school children's initiative and loquacity. Results show that as teachers change style, their students follow them, exhibiting changes in initiative and mean length of turn. (RH)

Investigates how organizational dimensions of companies in the United Kingdom relate to conditions in a company's internal and external environments. Finds that the organizational relationship between the two primary departments involved in a company's external communication programs were correlated with such internal environmental conditions as…

Describes a civil engineering program at Aston University that integrates successfully the development of communication skills with technical training. Explains how the course on Public Sector Planning includes instruction and student work in written, oral, and decision-making skills. (KEH)

A study examined procedures used to test the oral communication skills of students between the ages of 15 and 18 in the United Kingdom, with special attention given to strategies which might be of value to adopt in the United States. Subjects were 4 pairs of students tested from a randomly selected sample of 112 schools. Twenty-two assessors were…

Surveys members of the Association of Language Excellence Centers in the United Kingdom and language training providers in Ireland to assess the level of language and cultural awareness. Finds the percentage of British and Irish companies carrying out an internal foreign language audit is disturbingly low, and the number of companies wishing to…

This article reports the findings of a 3 year research project which investigated disciplinary variation in student writing. Within an Open University course in the history of science, students from an arts background were found to achieve significantly higher grades than those from a science background. Textual and interview data suggest that…

The current study was conducted in an effort to examine whether increased levels of communication using visual learning environments (VLEs) alters student perceptions of lecturers. Eighty-six MSc students in Computing Science participated by using She and Fisher's (2002) Teacher Communication Behavior Questionnaire (TCBQ). In addition to using the…

This account draws on the experience of five final-year students of human communication and one tutor from the Manchester Metropolitan University who conducted collaborative research into life stages. The research was personally developmental for all those involved and resulted in an increased sense of personal power. The authors discuss the use…

Twelve educational psychologists in training on the M.Sc. course at the University of Strathclyde were provided with e-mail and on-line computer conferencing facilities with the aim of developing critical thinking and transferable information technology skills. A follow-up 6 months after the end of the course revealed that the use of…