A case study focused on the set-up, execution, and post-debate review of one specific debate held in October 1988 in Rochester, New York among the candidates for the 30th Congressional seat. Data were gathered via pre-and post-debate interviews with the candidates involved, their party chairs and campaign managers, as well as close on-site…

Many secondary school principals in Belize had expressed a desire and a strong need to start developing in their students the many and varied skills to be gained from participating in debate. The principals feel that the educational system of Belize is their greatest asset and that adding debate to their curriculum would make it even stronger. To…

The idea of establishing some form of exchange among student debaters from the United States and the People's Republic of China (PRC) grew out of the participation of California State University (CSU) (Northridge) in the 1987 debates in Montreal between American and Canadian universities. Since CSU Northridge was in the process of expanding its…

An educational program called KIDSPEAK was designed to teach oral communication skills to children in grades three through six in four public and private school districts in Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota. Topics which have been taught include: basic public speaking skills; oral reading; listening; creative expression and…

This study examined the verbal message strategies employed in the two 1988 presidential debates by Vice-President George Bush and Governor Michael Dukakis, independently and comparatively. A number of broad verbal categories were developed to code the messages of each candidate from videotapes and transcripts. Verbal characteristics under…

Noting that parents play a key role in assisting their children in learning to talk, this pamphlet helps parents to understand the relationship between hearing, talking, and the process and stages of normal speech and language development. The pamphlet also suggests ways in which parents may encourage their children's listening and talking skills…

This module, intended for use by special education teachers, defines pragmatics as the ability to use verbal and nonverbal language to take part in a conversation, based on the situation and the conversational partner. It provides responses to seven frequently asked questions about pragmatics and the transition from school to working life for…

This document contains a two-part bibliography of information that can be obtained in California Polytechnic State University's Robert E. Kennedy Library on today's elderly society. The 381 references in part I are categorized into sections focusing on growing old from various perspectives: (1) aging; (2) Alzheimer's Disease and Senile Dementia;…

Research on teaching has recently focused on the cognitive aspects of teachers' work, using a variety of verbal report procedures. It is argued that the models implicit in this research frequently underestimate the complexity of teachers' professional thinking and that teachers' verbal report data reveal characteristics of teaching which research…

In human speech, messages are conveyed to listeners through both verbal and vocal sources. Comparing verbal content-only with verbal plus vocal content permits assessment of the contribution of vocal cues in spoken messages. This study involved evaluations of physicians interacting with patients via the telephone. Thirty doctor-patient…

A study explored the relationship between personal narratives and their contexts by developing an analytical framework and applying it to the personal narratives told by guests on "The Tonight Show" and "Late Night with David Letterman." Three episodes of each program, containing a total of 22 personal narratives, were…

The concept of "prominence" in intonation is discussed. It treats the prominence of a syllable as a feature determined by the speaker separate from the word itself, and meaningful in and of itself. The decision by a speaker to assign or not assign prominence to a syllable (selectivity) is seen as related to the immediacy of spoken…

A need exists for development of communication competence as a part of management. Although public relations literature has dealt with the nature of management counseling and when and why it should be practiced, the literature has not clearly defined the importance of audience analysis, location of the management counseling sessions, and…

A constructivist analysis of the concepts of communication and environment may go against the traditional ideas of realists. Both concepts are treated as subjective constructs of a cognizing agent. It is held that the basis of the constructivist theory of knowing as the idea that knowledge is a mapping of ways of acting and thinking and the result…

One of the purposes of this study was to develop a coding scheme based on Wertsch's theoretical extension of Vygotsky's ideas for describing parent-child interaction during exploration. This scheme was then applied to identify the most common patterns of parent and child situation definitions, negotiations of shared definitions, and questions…