Three prelinguistic, profoundly deaf children (aged three to four) used a wearable, single channel, vibrotactile communication aid in conjunction with hearing aids during individual speech and language therapy at school. Subjects exhibited a faster than average rate of learning to understand spoken language after the onset of vibrotactile…

Advocates the integration of media studies into a liberal education to promote inquiry into the role of communication media systems in the information age. Describes a media law course which widened its scope to include perspectives such as the relationship among law, the media, and social life. (SR)

Explores the ways in which nonscientists inform themselves and make decisions about complex and technological controversies. Explores the prejudice against emotion in a 1976-77 case before the Cambridge Experimentation Review Board. Suggests that, in spite of some cultural bias against pathos, emotional appeals play a vital role in the shaping of…

Illustrates the diversity and complexity of the issues arising from new communication technologies. Traces the development of two of these issues: computer communication networks at home and the demand by Third World nations for a "New World Information Order." (MS)

Describes the masters and doctoral programs offered by West Virginia University (WVU) that focus on communication in instruction for secondary and elementary teachers. Discusses the antecedents of the programs, the beginnings at WVU, the assumptions underlying the programs, and the nature and benefits of each program. (SR)

"Why" questions used by teachers and students were examined to determine whether they produced words or phrases (short answers) or extended student responses (long answers) in 12 English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) courses. Results indicated that both teachers and students ask few why questions, which could be better used in ESL classes to elicit…

Projects and investigations, which provide evidence of communication in mathematics, are discussed as a means to the direct assessment of the true objectives of the curriculum. Included are discussions of appropriate assessment, authentic assessment, and assessment of oral communication. (23 references) (Author/MKR)

Examines the sociolinguistic aspects of Saudi greeting rituals, discussing the phraseology and nonverbal signals employed by greeter and greetee in various situations. Also explores the communication problems that Saudis and Americans have when communicating in each other's language and culture. (MDM)

This study used direct observation procedures to analyze communicative intent and subsequent frequency of turntaking between four adults with developmental disabilities and their residential staff. Results suggest that in group discourse, questioning-type speech may set the occasion for a greater number of subsequent conversational turns than does…

Reviews recent literature concerning what to do to help foreign learners of Italian develop communicative competence, i.e., a functional knowledge of the uses of the language. This literature shows that to be conceptually fluent in a language is to know how that language encodes concepts on the basis of metaphorical reasoning. (33 references) (CK)

Natural language conversational samples were collected from hearing-impaired preschoolers who were either using cochlear implants, tactile aids, or hearing aids over a 33-month period. Children using cochlear implants increased their overall communicativeness, their breadth of functions, and their use of intelligible speech faster than other…

Clarifies the functional relationships within the fourfold deictic NAN/CAN adverbials in Hausa, a system that requires analysis in terms of several person-centric positional parameters. The primary determinant of speaker choices is the (spatial) position of the intended referent in relation to the participants at the time of the exchange. (50…

Attempts to demonstrate how recipient design can structure an interaction. Choices of words and phrases, intonation, and the larger structure of the discourse itself are all made with a greater or lesser awareness of others' reactions. Evidence of how recipient design is at the service of altercasting is found in shared knowledge, agreement, and…

Examines Nickels's claim that interactive models of lexical access in speech production cannot account for naming data from a group of anomic patients. This paper reiterates that the behavior of connectionist models is not easily predictable without running the appropriate simulations, and discusses the role of frequency in lexical access in…

Compared self-deprecation, self-confidence, and fatalistic belief among 1,034 Mexican American eighth graders who reported themselves a biliterate, English monoliterate, Spanish monoliterate, or oral bilingual. Found that Mexican American children who identified themselves as biliterate had higher self-confidence than the other groups. (Contains…