Teaching, as a communicative process, ranges between purely message-oriented communication (the goal) and purely language-oriented communication (a means). Classroom discourse ("Close the window", etc.) is useful as a drill but is also message-oriented. Skill in message-oriented communication is acquired only through practice in this kind of…

The temporal patterning of speech, primarily within the context of interpersonal exchanges, is traced in this cross-section of research exploring the major directions such studies have taken. Eighteen authors contributed selections to support the thesis that time as a dimension of speech reflects many of the important processes that occur during…

Serving as an introduction to a conference for Australian educators on developing oral communication skills, this paper reviews current methods of teaching speech skills. The paper describes a basic approach that holds that a learner's improved use of a skill is related to the number of satisfying experiences the learner has using the skill. It…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 23 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: the rhetoric of various reformers and reform groups; speech disorganization and information retention, credibility, and attitude; the concurring and dissenting…

A survey of graduate teaching assistants and associate instructors at 102 graduate speech communication departments provided information on the amount, type, and assessment of orientation programs currently available to novice instructors. Of the 1,246 graduate students who were polled, 352 supplied data. Only 2.6% of these teaching assistants…

A study to determine the relationship between feelings of self-esteem and style of communication involved 71 college students enrolled in a basic speech communication course and implemented an inventory of self-worth (ISW) developed to isolate internal feelings about self that would most likely be consistent across situations. The subjects…

The study described here offers a model of target-context relations in language comprehension. It is based on the hypothesis that the same formal mechanisms that produce cohesion in discourse and texts are critically involved in language comprehension. The model posits that: (1) the comprehension of a target turn is primarily dependent on the…

The present "crisis of leadership" in the United States presidency owes much to a communication environment that undermines the politician's ability to behave like and be perceived as a traditional "great leader." Through constant electronic coverage politicians' freedom to isolate themselves from their audience has been…

A telephone conversation was transcribed and marked for stress. A portion of the transcription, not marked for stress, was given to native English speakers who were asked to underline the word(s) in each sentence or phrase that should receive the most prominent stress. The overlap of actual stress and the assignments of the participants who were…

DESIGNED AS A RESOURCE FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS TO USE IN HELPING CHILDREN THINK CLEARLY AND COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY, THE ST. PAUL CURRICULUM GUIDE IS DIVIDED INTO THREE SECTIONS--SPEAKING, LISTENING, AND WRITING. AN OVERVIEW OF EACH SECTION DESCRIBES CURRENT THINKING IN THE FIELD AND GENERAL SKILLS WHICH NEED TO BE ACQUIRED BY STUDENTS.…

THIS STUDY OF LANGUAGE PRESENTS A SPECIFIC, SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION OF THE WAYS IN WHICH A SPEAKER ADJUSTS HIS MANNER OF SPEAKING ACCORDING TO THE CONTEXT IN WHICH HE EMPLOYS LANGUAGE. FOUR USAGE-SCALES OF "NATIVE CENTRAL ENGLISH" ARE INTRODUCED--AGE, BREADTH, RESPONSIBILITY, AND STYLE. A KNOWLEDGE OF THESE FOUR DIMENSIONS HOPEFULLY WILL OVERCOME…

BASED ON THE OYO-IBADAN DIALECT OF YORUBA, THIS COURSE CONTAINS SIX UNITS OF DRILL EXERCISES WHICH STRESS PRONUNCIATION (ESPECIALLY TONE CONTROL), BASIC SYNTAX, VERB STRUCTURE, AND SOME TYPES OF CLAUSES AND SENTENCES. DESIGNED FOR USE WITH A YORUBA-SPEAKING INFORMANT, THE APPROACH IS ENTIRELY ORAL, SO THAT THE STUDENT WILL POSSESS A COMMAND OF THE…

PROJECT ENGLISH AT PURDUE PRODUCED 14 "OPUS-CENTERED" UNITS INTEGRATING STUDIES OF LITERATURE, LANGUAGE, AND COMPOSITION. FIELD TESTING IN READING, WRITING, SPEAKING, LISTENING, AND REASONING INVOLVED OVER 1800 INDIANA, KENTUCKY, AND OHIO SEVENTH-GRADERS RANGING IN IQ FROM 80 TO 130, FROM ALL ABILITY LEVELS EXCEPT READERS RETARDED MORE…

THE FLUID 1-2 PROGRAM IN THE PLAINFIELD, N.J., ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS IS BRIEFLY DESCRIBED IN THIS ARTICLE. THE PROGRAM IS DESIGNED FOR CHILDREN WHO AFTER COMPLETING KINDERGARTEN HAVE READINESS PROBLEMS WHICH WILL HINDER THEIR DOING FIRST GRADE WORK. THE AIMS OF THE FLEXIBLE AND INDIVIDUALLY TAILORED PROGRAM ARE (1) TO HELP THE CHILD ADJUST TO THE…

The teaching of intercultural communication has been characterized by a lack of a general paradigm for research; consequently, most texts are a potpourri of trends. The types of information that ought to be summarized and integrated into a coherent frame of reference are in the intrapersonal-interpersonal areas, group communication, and mass…