Argues that the British government-recommended procedures for assessing oral communication are impractical. Questions the value of any sort of assessment of oral communication. (ARH)

Offers a classroom-tested systematic procedure by which theories can be developed and tested that can be applied to a variety of communication phenomena. Provides a logical set of alternatives for theorizing about human communication events. Includes concrete examples about the theory-building process that reinforce everyday communication skills.…

Investigates the changes in perceived communication in evolving friendships. Changes in depth of communication suggested that after an initial decline, people in deteriorating relationships may increase the intimacy of their communication. Also, deterioration was not a mirror image reversal of friendship development. (SRT)

Clinically depressed persons and dysphoric normals have a negative impact on others. This study attempted to identify what about the dysphoric paralinguistic style creates the aversive impact experienced by others. Results suggest that soft, flat tones, with long pauses and variable loudness and pitch were significant. (Author/KS)

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages' Provisional Proficiency Guidelines are criticized for their narrow view of language use and the inadequacy of their construct of "proficiency." The appropriateness of the guidelines as a basis for developing a syllabus or designing a curriculum is questioned. (MSE)

Described is an interesting attempt by one university to require of students demonstrated competencies in writing as freshmen, quantitative reasoning as sophomores and juniors, and oral communication as juniors or seniors. Quantitative measures of the effectiveness of the program are not provided. (Author/RM)

Suggests that having students precede submission of research papers with oral presentations of their efforts can result in essays that are better grammatically and stylistically and better in the sense of having theses on practicable topics. (HOD)

Views gaming from a communication perspective. Reviews the major benefits of gaming and relates them specifically to academic debate. (PD)

Examined relationships among cognitive complexity (social perception skill), verbal ability, and communication competence in classroom communication. Found (1) moderate correlations between cognitive complexity and verbal ability and between communication competence and verbal ability and (2) minimal association between the overall communication…

Discusses and criticizes the monolingual view of bilingualism, which holds that the bilingual is two monolinguals in one person. Proposes, instead, a view which holds that a bilingual has a unique, specific linguistic configuration. Examines a number of areas in bilingual research that are affected by this different view. (SED)

Demonstrates frequent occurrence of self-initiated repairs in speech of kindergarten and second grade children. Speech during "Show and Tell" sessions was scored for spontaneous occurrence of repetitions; corrections of word choice reference and syntax; postponements; and abandonments. Findings indicate most frequent communicative…

Investigation of commonalities in children's language across tasks showed that children with literate and oral speech styles made both contrastive and similar types of adaptations when portraying events through play and oral narration. As they moved from playing to narrating, both groups edited more carefully and employed more explicit language.…

Demonstrates the inadequacy of students' rating of classroom speeches: student raters were both unreliable and sources of considerable error. Emphasizes the importance of training to reduce error rate. (PD)

The principle of oral fluency instruction concerns the teacher's role, which is to monitor the spread, balance, and flow of the conversation. Techniques have to do with the constituents and mode of oral activity, material resources, and the year abroad. (SED)

After a summary and critique of traditional approaches to politeness that are based on appropriateness, suggestions are made for an approach based on interpersonal supportiveness. The issues in the proposed model pertain to cross-modal ways of expressing emotion, supportive and nonsupportive use combinations, and a redefinition of politeness. (SED)