The findings from research on written and oral summarization are discussed under three headings: summarizers' strategies, improving summarizers' performance, and the assessment of summary quality. Objective measures of summary quality used by researchers are described, and ways these measures could be adapted for use in higher education assessment…

Discusses whether developmental delays can be the unintended consequence of developmentally inappropriate preschool teacher and staff practices. Describes the interplay between language and knowledge in early childhood. Includes a table that specifies the child's ability to take in information from language input through five developmental stages…

It is proposed that early introduction to basic French phonetic features and systematic emphasis on phonics allows students to learn to speak French clearly understandable to native speakers and relatively accent-free. In addition, this approach tends to improve listening skills. Important phonetic features to include in classwork are detailed.…

Examined the effects of taking notes during a listening comprehension test containing short monologues. A multiple-choice questionnaire surveyed student reaction to the opportunity. Allowing students to take notes had little effect on their performance, and urging them to do so significantly impaired it. (16 references) (Author/CK)

Provides discussions of understanding violence in children's lives (Levin); helping children exposed to violence (Jackson); the role of day care centers in helping children cope with violence (Groves and Mazur); the influence of Power Rangers (Levin); creating a culture of nonviolence (Carter); listening to children to understand violence (Hopkins…

Suggestions are offered to special educators for improving communication at parent-teacher conferences, including relationship skills such as demonstrating genuine caring, building rapport, listening, showing empathy, reflecting affect, and using clarifying statements. A checklist for self-monitoring in these areas is included. (DB)

College students enrolled in an introductory French course viewed 12 French-language videos, with 1 group exposed to oral descriptions and pictures from the videos before viewing and a second group exposed to only oral descriptions. Students in the description-plus-pictures group demonstrated higher levels of comprehension than students in the…

Describes the design of multimedia computer programming for personal computers that uses moving video to assist in the development of business English listening skills for learners of English as a Second Language. Reviews the aims of the project, the basic technological requirements, and the application's key features. (12 references) (MDM)

The hearing ability and related cognitive ability of 26 adolescents and young adults with Down's Syndrome (DS) and 26 matched subjects with trainable mental retardation (MR) were compared. Results revealed greater hearing losses in DS than in other MR individuals, especially in the high-frequency range. DS subjects with poorer hearing needed more…

Presents a collection of fall and Halloween activities for elementary students, including pumpkin poetry, batty bulletin boards (graphing), vegetable variety art, old time radio mysteries, paper doll Halloween safety, career dress-up day, imaginative Halloween writing, and matching animals with foods they eat. A student page offers a Dracula…

A study of a team-building workshop demonstrates that all four levels of Donald Kirkpatrick's classic evaluation model could be applied to soft skills training. Results show that such training can be tied to productivity measures and evaluated as a return on investment. (JOW)

A program for language learning-disabled students is described that uses a whole language philosophy to structure contexts that develop students' pragmatic, semantic, syntactic, graphophonemic, and metacognitive abilities underlying speaking, listening, reading, and writing. This paper describes the program environment, children, thematic…

Describes an approach in which students develop a book about themselves that combines photography and word processing skills. The project is based on the whole-language model of teaching literacy that develops reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. (MLF)

Discusses the course content, methodology, architecture, role of the student, and development process of a unique videodisc self-study program to teach Russian speaking, reading, and listening skills to adults. Equivalent to a 120-hour, teacher-delivered course, the course is designed to produce speaking proficiency at the Foreign Service…

Offers an account of the changes one teacher observed in her reading/writing workshop in a middle school classroom when she and her students took the time to focus on ways of talking to one another, building their speaking and listening skills. (SR)