A mixture of theoretical and practical essays points up the purposes of, barriers to, and means of facilitating communication. Four models of how people communicate are presented. A series of essays describing communication messages and channels include considerations of "gobbledygook," nonverbal communication by touch, smell, or body movement,…

This inquiry examines the composing process of twelfth-grade writers, using a case study method. Eight twelfth graders were asked, in four sessions, each, to give autobiographies of their writing experiences and to compose aloud three times in the presence of a tape recorder and an investigator. Four hypotheses were formulated: (1) Twelfth-grade…

This project was launched to discover if the communications gap between technical information about educational issues and lay consumption of the data could be breached. One of these issues, the financing of public education, was selected, and an investigation was launched to ascertain how written communications about educational finance could be…

This paper examines the use of content analysis of speech in the objective recording and measurement of changes in emotional and cognitive function of humans in whom natural or experimental changes in neural status have occurred. A brief description of the data gathering process, details of numerous physiological effects, an anxiety scale, and a…

A current vocabulary of argot terms and meanings was collected from a Black male control group in the South Central Los Angeles ghetto. This lexicon was used to elicit and compare responses from 5 male groups of youths between 15 and 20 years old. Two of the groups consisted of lower class blacks separated geographically. The other groups were…

The purpose of this research project is to specify critical events within a person during linguistic processing. The experiments reported here cover such topics as the effects of increased reading rate on covert processes, covert behavior as a direct electro-myographic measure of mediating responses, enhancement of speech perception by…

This study examined the most frequent communicative and linguistic errors made by 24 intermediate ESL students, and determined the effect of direct teacher correction upon these students' writing proficiency. Students were identified as having high or low communicative proficiency and were randomly assigned to one of two error correction…

This study investigated the effect of locale, grade, and subject on instructional quality. Rural and urban teachers were observed teaching grades 4, 5, and 6 in social studies, mathematics, and language arts. It was hypothesized that teacher verbal behavior in a classroom predicated the quality and quantity of cognitive behavior of pupils. Rural…

This study addresses three issues: (1) the influence of proxemic variables (distance, furniture presence) on dyadic interaction; (2) the consistency between measures of self-disclosure; and (3) the applicability of reciprocity and distance-equilibrium views of dyadic interaction. Dyads of male college students were randomly assigned to one of four…

Curriculum units are presented which were designed and field-tested by four school divisions in Virginia. It is felt that neither the regular, level-one foreign language course nor the conventional exploratory program are satisfactory for the junior high school. The present course is designed to: expand the middle school curriculum to include…

Evaluates a two-year intervention program for low income families in which a toy demonstrator modeled verbal interactions with children ages two to four. Contrary to earlier results, finds no detectable program effects in children's IQ, achievement, or school adjustment three years post-program. Considers problems of ensuring that samples are…

Recounts students' reactions to the videotaping of their speeches in three speech communication classes. Shows how the students found the taping experience valuable. (EL)

Toward providing administrators more convenient classroom observation techniques, this article describes how to use the Flanders' Interaction Analysis System (which encodes classroom verbal behavior) with microcomputers and videotaping. (JW)

Thirteen years after the first edition of this book, significant changes in social and intellectual life have made the subject of classroom discourse more important than ever, and this new edition integrates current perspectives and research. New features in the book include: a new rationale for the importance of student-teacher talk (the…

This paper discusses the findings from a study that investigated the information processing characteristics of 93 children (ages 8-16) who have been diagnosed as having either attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) only, ADHD-Predominately Inattentive Type, and combined ADHD and learning disabilities (LD). Thirty-nine average students,…