Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Association, Los Angeles, February 1969. Research supported by the U.S. Office of Education.

Lecture given before the Annual Conference and Course on Reading (23d, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa., July 10-21, 1967).

Speech rate appears to be an important communicative dimension upon which people evaluate the speech of others. Findings of this study indicate that speech rates at moderate through fast levels generated more favorable impressions of competence and social attractiveness than did slow speech. (PD)

Discusses the ethics of rhetoric in forensics. Analyzes survey results, from three different instruments, on practices in speaking events. Focuses on establishing an ethical framework for evaluating speech contests. (Available from Michael P. Kelley, ed., Communication Studies Dept., Calif. State Univ., Los Angeles, CA 90032; sc. $6.00.) (PD)

The "effectiveness" of a single rhetorical strategy in a speech delivered by the Iroquois spokesman, Kiotsaeton, is studied. This example of verbal art was presented at Three Rivers, Quebec, on July 12, 1645, long before the Iroquois Confederacy became subject to, or influenced by, White culture. (Author)

Verbal interactions of 18 hyperactive boys (8 to 11 years old) with their mothers during 15-minute free play and task periods were studied and compared to interactions of 18 normal boys with their mothers. Both hyperactive boys and their mothers were found to use significantly more utterances in free play than normal mother-child dyads.…

Children's pragmatic abilities were studied focusing on "requesting" in a group of 30 language impaired children (three to nine years old). There was a predominant usage of direct forms with only a slight increase of indirect ones in the older group. (Author/SEW)

Surveys and summarizes the research published in speech communication journals on (1) historical treatments of women (2) sex differences; (3) images of women in the media; (4) education and pedagogy; and (5) surveys and integrative works. (PD)

Discusses student communication in a second language in terms of comprehensibility, irritation, acceptability, communicative strategies, the personality of the second-language speaker, and the differences in perception of the communication by native speakers and nonnative speakers, who are teachers of the language. Recommendations for classroom…

Human languages can incorporate signs without obvious physical relationship to their referents. The nature of the relationship between sign (i.e., word or sign) and referent in signed and spoken languages is discussed from cognitive and historical research perspectives, and observations are given on the biological bases of this phenomenon.…

A study was done to examine whether certain observed play behaviors of young children might show relationships to scores of assessments of cognitive constructs. The investigation sought to determine the extent to which responses related to such behaviors as pretend play, sense of humor, acts of aggression, and talkativeness. (JN)

Subjects (students, coaches, communication instructors, general public) listened to audiotaped speeches, indicated the criteria used in evaluating speeches, rated the importance of criteria, and ranked the speakers. Findings indicate that subjects tended to interpret and apply criteria differently. Study suggests need for stronger feedback between…

An investigation of word-by-word time-course of spoken language understanding focused on word recognition and structural and interpretative processes. Results supported an online interactive language processing theory, in which lexical, structural, and interpretative knowledge sources communicate and interact during processing efficiently and…