The seminar concept is a form of independent study that allows children the opportunity to learn as much as they like on a chosen topic while they are acquiring valuable library research skills. The child begins a seminar project by writing down all possible ideas he or she can think of for exploring a topic. This is done on a "brainstorming"…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 14 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the relationships between power, gender, and mode of conflict management in superior/subordinate relationships; (2) the interaction processes of groups with varying levels of…

This handbook, concerning the Ewe language and culture of Togo, presents classroom activities that require the learner to exchange messages in a way that is appropriate to the cultural context. These activities are presented in 30 lessons containing both basic and supplementary material that deal with situations and topics which will be useful to…

Recent directions in ethnographic study of classroom interaction are surveyed for the help they can give to an analysis of classroom language and conversation. Many studies emphasize that children's responses to school tasks are directly influenced by values learned at home and that these factors add to the complexity of communication in the…

This handbook presents many situations in Botswana which the Peace Corps volunteer is likely to be involved in, and it establishes classroom activities that require the students to exchange messages in the Setswana language that are appropriate to the cultural context. An introductory section acquaints the learner with techniques of language…

This paper considers a distinction frequently used in sociolinguistics and ethnography of speaking to describe speech events: their formality or informality. Three principle meanings of "formality" found in the literature concern whether the formality relates to properties of a communicative code, properties of the social setting in…

An exploration of the linguistic patterns and conversational strategies of adult learners was conducted to clarify the relationship between individuals' oral communicative ability and their levels of proficiency in the nonoral literate modes of reading and writing. The connection between social class and language development was also examined.…

Arising from the Schools Council Development Project on Writing Across the Curriculum, this book deals with talking, reading, thinking, and learning, as well as writing, as these processes take place in secondary schools. Suggesting that too much of the writing and talking in schools is used to test what students know and too little used to enable…

The work described in this paper was undertaken to study children's ability to preserve semantic relations during analogical mappings. Two experiments are described based on the understanding that metaphors and analogies are mappings from one semantic region (the domain of origin) to another (the range of application), which convey the idea that…

The 23 articles in this collection suggest practical speech and drama activities for the English classroom. Among the topics discussed are the following: classroom discussion as theatre, using groups for more effective teaching, role playing activities that teach language concepts, improvisation as an instructional method, an oral approach to…

Two theoretical schools have emerged within the field of communication focusing on the alleviation of dysfunctional communications such as speech anxiety, communication apprehension, and speech reticence. The communication anxiety-behavior therapy school regards excessive anxiety to be a primary factor in dysfunctional communication. This school…

The testing of a number of hypotheses about the effect of hearing a prior context sentence on immediate processing of a subsequent target sentence is described. According to the standard deep structure model, higher level processing (e.g. semantic interpretation, integration of context-tarqet information) does not occur immediately as speech is…

Turn-taking in language classroom discourse is analyzed in order to discover patterns of instructional teacher-pupil exchange. It is concluded that traditional modes of second language instruction (especially in English as a second language) tend to stifle student initiative. Since students rarely have the opportunity to open an exchange, it is…

A number of passages from Aristotle's "Ethics" are discussed in this paper, and their implications for teachers and administrators are examined. Among the many topics considered in relation to teaching and administration are: the importance of performing duties for their own sakes, tbe indispensability of knowledge, the need for…

Originally presented at the November 1979 Association for Communication Administration (ACA) seminar, the articles in this journal issue discuss the assessment and accreditation of graduate programs in communication. The 14 articles examine the following topics: a proposed instrument for program quality assessment; the status of program evaluation…