In a two-year Title IV-C project, Content Area Reading, junior high art teachers attended workshops to improve their skills in teaching reading, then collaborated with reading resource teachers to develop art activities which reinforce reading, study, and listening skills. (SJL)

Analyzes an innovative and optional French language proficiency certificate designed to test proficiency in oral and written language on the undergraduate level at the University of London. (AM)

This report discusses some of the factors that account for students' failure to understand everyday spoken language. Classroom language may be misleading when compared to everyday language. Pace of delivery is an obvious but ignored barrier to comprehension. Students should, therefore, be exposed to uncontrolled language data in the classroom.…

Hypotheses concerning second language learning and foreign language learning in general are described, and the role of listening comprehension in the development of language skills is discussed. (CLK)

Describes dialogues and songs used to teach listening comprehension. (SW)

The task of the teacher of foreign languages is to enable the students to progress gradually from teacher/coursebook controlled utterances to complete linguistic autonomy. Role play and a progression of information-gap activities are discussed in terms of developing students' personal autonomy at each level of linguistic competence. (Author/LMO)

The faculties of the postsecondary institutions in Florida, using the authority of the State Board of Education, have implemented a testing program that increases the assurance that all students who complete their sophomore year in college have achieved the communication and computation skills expected of them. (Author/MLW)

Group counseling sessions featuring activities focusing on relaxation training, self-disclosure, nonverbal communication, role playing, positive feedback, individual strengths and weaknesses, and listening skills helped to decrease emotionally-handicapped (N=6) and learning-disabled (N=6) students' acting-out and distracting classroom behaviors.…

Presents a study in which entry-level employees who recently graduated with business degrees were surveyed to discover what forms of communication they used most, which they felt were most important, and what types of communication problems interfered with their work. (JC)

Comparison of the English comprehension of 16 non-native speakers on task directions presented by a native English speaker indicated that comprehension was best assisted when the content of directions was repeated and rephrased in interaction. Reduction in linguistic complexity in the premodified input did not significantly affect comprehension.…

Describes the use of language lab materials supplied by the pedagogical journal "Russkij Jazyk Za Rubezom" in an advanced Russian-language class. Each week students were given a relevant picture and vocabulary list prior to listening to a taped story. The story was used as the basis for conversation. (LMO)

Explains the difference between a reading aloud to children program designed to motivate children to read, and a developmental listening program which provides a focus for listening in a whole language environment and requires response and evaluation. (SD)

Analyzes the frequency of preschoolers' (N=250) spontaneous use of "thank you" while playing games with unfamiliar adults or peers. Findings indicate that girls and low socioeconomic status children said "thank you" spontaneously more often than boys and middle socioeconomic status children. Children said "thank you"…

Findings imply that while preschool children both enjoy and profit from listening to stories read to them in unelaborated fashion, they gain much more from observing and participating in the actions portrayed in the stories. (FL)

The article details on three classroom projects using computers and synthesized speech software to foster expressive language and facilitate language comprehension in severely visually handicapped preschoolers and in preschool- and school-age Downs syndrome children. Computer use with a cerebral palsied child for story comprehension and…