Eight severely retarded subjects (ages 9-22), four with functional language and four without, performed identity and nonidentity matching tasks employing objects, photographs, and line drawings. As representational complexity increased, greater difficulty in matching stimuli was observed in the nonfunctional language group, with line drawings…

Explores the ability of 5 children aged 1 month to 30 months to initiate and maintain topics of conversation. The data demonstrate that at the beginning of development children simply attract attention to themselves as the topic of conversation and that later, as their interests broaden, their topic repertoire expands. (Author/SED)

Investigates whether first- and fourth-grade children vary their production of redundant messages (saying more than the minimal necessary to be informative) as a function of sharing common experience with a listener. (HOD)

Examined the effect of manipulating source competence, task level, and social cues on worker attitudes. Results suggest that source competence can be affect the social information processing approach (SIPA) and the formation of worker attitudes. (SRT)

Suggests that if the Association for Business Communication does not adopt an aggressive posture and seek greater responsibility and accountability, then it will not meet the professional needs of many of its members. Outlines steps toward improving the effectiveness of the association. (SRT)

Presents a course for teaching managerial communications that would assist managers facing complex business communications planning in keeping with the advances in information technology. (SRT)

Investigates the silent pauses in continuous speech in three genres: political speeches, political interviews, and casual interviews in order to see how the semantic-syntactic information of the message, the duration of silent pauses, and the acoustic environment of these pauses interact to produce the listener's perception of pauses. (Author/SED)

Examines and defends two forms of dissent in organizational life, "rocking boats" and "blowing whistles." Suggests ways speech communication teachers can prepare students to cope with the organizational world. (PD)

Examines ways in which meaning is extracted in authentic language contexts and claims that whatever level of language people use deviates from some putative ideal. Such deviant use of language is common to everyday conversation. Examines two common contexts in which authentic but deviant language is the medium of communication. (Author SED)

One teaching approach for basic writing students is to have them transcribe their inner speech--of matching their oral language to written language. (HOD)

Reports on a study which followed the language development of a hearing son of deaf parents from his seventeenth month to twenty-third month. Various aspects of the child's language acquisition in sign and speech are described, as is his early ability to alternate languages (sign and speech) according to addressee. (SED)

Discusses a court case involving a student's use of puns in an assembly speech, Shakespeare's use of puns, the relationship between banning offensive words and the censorship of ideas, and the difficulty with placing a ban on the expression of "indecent" puns and double entendre and of deciding what is "appropriate." (EL)

Six exercises intended to promote conversation skills are presented, including five survival games situated in space, caves, the middle of the ocean, the Sahara desert, and the North Pole; and a game to select a prison parolee from a group of candidates. The games involve role playing and decision-making activities. (MSE)

Discusses an alternative framework for handling language testing and proposes some tentative hypotheses concerning principles of language testing. Suggests that taking account of both interlanguage domain engagement and contextualization in testing research, production, and interpretation allows for a richer conceptualization of the language…

How classroom debates can be used in a developmental psychology course to teach students about controversial issues and to help them improve their thinking and oral communications skills is described. Evaluations indicate that students consider debates to be a positive learning experience. (Author/RM)