Discusses the value of oral reports and their place in the ESL curriculum and presents materials developed for use in intermediate level ESL courses. These materials include guidelines for choosing a topic; preparing, recording, and presenting the report; and for leading a discussion. An analysis of evaluations by students and instructor follows.…

Examines Chaplin's movement from silent films to sound films and his reluctant use of the spoken word and inclination to link human speech to basically sterile functions. (JMF)

The effects of speech rate, intonation, and sentence length on children's ability to imitate sentences were examined. Results indicate that adult speech is more readily imitated by children when intonation is normal, sentences are short, and speech rate is close to that of the child. (Author/AM)

Reviews new developments in the field of child language acquisition that emphasize the role of communication and dialogue. Mentions work on precursors to dialogue in infancy, the development of communicative intent, and the importance of cognitive over syntactic strategies of language processing by the young child. (Author/SS)

The utilization of principles from the performing arts to enliven teaching technique is explored through the University of South Carolina's "Teaching as a Performing Art" program. (LH)

Argues for a concept of teacher training which would include language practice, linguistics, and social studies. The language practice should be tied to practical teacher training. (IFS/WGA)

Investigates the validity of the receiver apprehension test, determining the degree to which it (1) correlates with a different measure of trait listening anxiety, (2) predicts specific state anxiety responses to listening tasks, and (3) is stable over time. (JMF)

Outlines some problems that emerged when speech act theory was applied to the analysis of natural discourse, traces these problems to basic flaws or misconceptions in J. R. Searle's theory, and proposes an alternative view of speech acts within the complex organization of discourse processes. (FL)

Outlines the interdisciplinary problems of communication and how such problems might effectively be addressed in the graduate curricula. (JMF)

Measures of pragmatic development for children in the second year of life were developed based on a 30-minute language sample drawn from 20 children. Results support the view that the range of pragmatic functions grows steadily during the one-word and early two-word stage and that it is measurable. (Author/AM)

Presents a reworking of the rules of genitive singular inflection in German nouns, allowing the prediction of the distribution of "s" and "es" in a greater number of nouns than previously possible. (AM)

A neural model in the form of a servo-mechanism is developed to account for certain aspects of language and speech in the human nervous system. Emphasis is placed on encoding processes as well as on-going feedback during production. (SW)

Provides a model for teaching listening comprehension through the use of soap operas. (AM)

Traces the history of the ERIC Clearinghouse at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) headquarters from 1967 (Clearinghouse on the Teaching of English) to 1979 (Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills). (DD)

In connection with a discussion of the problem of language norms, the question is posed. Should not a pragmatic approach to foreign language teaching be emancipated from a pragmatic approach to linguistics? (IFS/WGA)