Several pedagogical approaches are described that aid at in-depth understanding of the journalistic text by examining the way the journalist's discourse functions. By demystifying the discourse, the instructor makes the learner aware of the mechanisms of manipulation and orientation at the journalist's disposal. (Author/MSE)

Describes a study designed to test if, when children describe actions, they consider the role an entity plays in an action, independent of the animateness of the entity. Results indicate that young children have relational intentions which are independent of animateness. (EKN)

Examines the conversation behavior of mothers toward their children with respect to two hypotheses: that the mothers' underlying interactional intent can be inferred from patterning in their conversation and that the utterances having a directive or controlling function will show a negative relationship to those designed to elicit conversation…

A discussion of the cultural context and the reaction of Samoan high school boys to J. D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye" when it is taught in English class. (RL)

The importance of talk in the drama classroom is described. Students view talk as either development of vocal skills or preexperience for various kinds of social situations. Teacher talk was dominant, however, and emerged in the form of verbal control through closed questions and instructions to students. (JN)

Reports on the success of a writing center's phone service, which answers questions about English usage, grammar, punctuation, diction, and documentation. (RL)

Describes the attitudes of Black and White, male and female, middle- and lower-class adolescents and preadolescents in response to tape-recorded samples of standard English and Black English. (HOD)

Presents results of a study on how accurately instructors in composition identified various kinds of errors. (RL)

Suggests that nonfictive writing typically employs a vocabulary different from that used in works of fiction. Characterizes the vocabulary of essays, asserts that students are usually not given enough assistance in acquiring such vocabulary, and offers steps for giving students help in acquiring the vocabulary of essays. (RL)

An experiment was designed to find out whether there were any quantitative and qualitative differences in the spoken discourse of 'high' and 'low' ability 16-year-old pupils in discussions of problems arising from textual material. Cognitive, linguistic and quantitative analyses of the discourse were carried out. (Editor)

Describes the processes by which distinctive varieties of English develop in areas where English functions as a second language. The distinctions between rhetorical and communicative norms for speech events in these varieties are discussed. (Author/AM)

Studies the developmental stages deaf children pass through in acquiring the adult forms of pronominal classifiers in American Sign Language. Data were obtained on production, comprehension, and imitation from nine children aged 3 to 11. Complexities of classifier usage influence the learning strategies used. (PJM)

Tells how a teacher used activities involving puppet making and puppet play production in helping a group of five timid children develop feelings of personal worth, confidence, and responsibility. (GT)

The pragmatic and semantic categories used by Ss varied across age groups. Results are discussed with regard to age, expressive modality, mean length of utterances, and hearing loss. There was much variation among these parameters in communicative development across Ss. (Author/DLS)

The influence of the oral input of five deaf mothers on the language development of their two-year-old children was investigated. The results indicated that children, when cognitively ready, need little exposure to the normal model language to learn to speak during the early stages of development. (Author/DLS)