Focuses on courtroom speech as it occurs when a lay person interacts with an attorney and proposes a framework that includes a (1) macrostructural description of direct and cross-examination sequences as contexts that condition the interaction, and (2) microanalytical model that accounts for the effectiveness of the question-and-answer examination…

Presents findings of ethnographic research on children's talk and behavior, specifically routines in spontaneous peer play and verbal routines in structured activities. Concludes that instructional strategies should incorporate some of the features of children's play routines and peer culture. (SRT)

Directs attention to the varieties of oral communication in the language classroom by discussing four aspects of this communication: (1) whether it is necessary or unnecessary; (2) whether it is obligatory or non-obligatory; (3) whether it is interesting or uninteresting; and (4) whether it is embarrassing or not. (SED)

Discusses organization of community college Spanish courses around themes, such as geography, life sciences, arts, holidays, in conjunction with techniques such as the Natural Approach and Total Physical Response. The discussion includes examples of class activities, suggestions for materials, and notes on accommodating different levels. (SED)

Investigates whether 7- and 10-year-old children and adults are sensitive to their own and another listener's failure to understand literal and nonliteral (sarcastic) uses of utterances. (HOD)

Surveyed speech communication faculty on demographic information (age, sex, earned degree, publication data, etc.), work activities or job profiles, and career paths. Found a relatively young faculty, limited upward mobility, and a diversity of satisfying careers despite a predominate "publish or perish" emphasis. (PD)

Describes the complex multilingual situation that exists among the Tucanoan language groups in Columbia and Brazil, which illustrates interrelationships among cultural patterns and values, language attitudes, language use, and language survival. The groups are patrilineal and patrilocal; thus one's primary language is one's father's primary…

A survey of speech communication departments and a review of the literature indicate that most speech communication researchers continue to use college students as their primary source of subjects. The problem of sampling is discussed and methods for dealing with generality are offered. (PD)

Results suggest that, without competing motivational forces, students high in communication apprehension (CA) spend less time talking than do students in low CA. (PD)

Second grade students'"think-alouds" were analyzed to investigate whether children used different reading stategies to comprehend targeted story grammar categories in two basal reader narratives. Results indicate that the proportion of elaborative and nonelaborative strategies used by children differed as a function of category type.…

Applies an emotion-based theory of human response to resolve conceptual and measurement problems associated with anxiety. Supports the conceptualization of communication apprehension as a personality trait predisposing certain individuals to higher levels of anxiety in oral communication. (PD)

Teachers and researchers of public speaking, rhetoric, small group, or interpersonal communication are all affected by research in communication competence. This essay discusses the consequences of applying a developmental-biological perspective to understanding the nature of communication competence. (PD)

Tested variables that affect how students rate speeches delivered by their classmates. Found, for example, that students who rate the speeches before giving their own are more positively lenient than they are when rating those speeches given after they deliver their own speeches. (PD)

Replicates and extends a previous survey (EJ 283 746) on ethics in forensic activities. Concludes that forensic educators and participants share a basic concern for ethics in speech contest events. (PD)

Discusses changes in speech production and perception occurring in Korean speakers learning English during short-term training in the perception and production of the /r/ - /l/ contrast in English. (EKN)