This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The eight titles deal with the following topics: (1) the effects of self-instructional and discrimination communication training on the development of confrontation skills in prepracticum counseling trainees, (2) cross-cultural…

Second language students come to the class with knowledge of a first language and with understanding of communication strategies. Creative exercises must build on this basis from the beginning of the course. Short dialogues, structure drills, and controlled grammar sequences based on a real situation should be integrated into the course from the…

The primary aim of this minimum essentials course guide for grade 11 English is to increase students' confidence and sense of worth by allowing them opportunities to experience success in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The five goals of highest priority are (1) to help students listen effectively, (2) to help students speak…

The ending of the academic year of second language instruction is discussed. It is suggested that vocabulary and grammar review be used in communicative activities and that the review should not be started too early in the final grading period (i.e., a week and a half may be allowed for the review and the test). Emphasis should be placed on the…

This training package consists of materials for use in helping vocational rehabilitation clients develop conversational skills. The first item in the package is a trainer's manual that includes 11 lessons dealing with the following topics: when to start a conversation, the components of a conversation, greetings and opening remarks, techniques for…

One factor identified as vital to managerial success is that of being a part of a mentor relationship. That this is primarily a male relationship is due to subtle communication patterns within organizations that have grown out of male experiences with team sports and therefore exclude women. Among the various barriers women in organizations must…

An ethnographic study of kindergarten through grade two classrooms was conducted of various sociolinguistic contexts in which young students were developing oral and written language competencies. Nonparticipant observations were conducted in both regular classrooms and Chapter I small group classroom settings. The observations were analyzed from…

Communication is essential in each and every sphere of life, and is considered the fundamental social process because human beings interact with each other through communication in social settings. Classrooms have their own social settings in which teachers and students interact. During interaction, the main purpose of the teacher is to…

The present study aimed at investigating learners' beliefs about different learning activities and the degree of discrepancy between learners' preferences and instructors' awareness of those preferences in foreign language learning. The study involved 603 EFL students majoring in different fields who responded to a questionnaire on their preferred…

This paper discusses the results of a study comparing the language of preschool children from low-income homes to that of their parents as affected by the adult participation in training sessions planned to encourage language development. The study was conducted in three preschools in the Detroit metropolitan area. A total of 96 children from ages…

Spontaneous speech performance of ethnically diverse subjects was investigated by measuring within- and between-group lexical interface and by assessing direction of vocabulary overlap. Interview data were collected from 144 elementary school children, comprising equal white, chicano and black subsamples evenly divided among lower and upper…

More than 800 publications released from 1911 through 1975 dealing with the oral interpretation of literature are listed in this index. The publications are divided into four major groups: books, collected essays, articles, and theses and dissertations. Within each grouping, items are listed in chronological order according to publication date. A…

Besides lack of motivation and insufficient time allowed for foreign language study, one reason for the failure to develop communicative competence in second language students lies in the methodology. Until recently, most second language pedagogy has centered on linguistic competence, or knowledge of how to communicate in a language. Research in…

The basic outline for a 16 sentence structured essay is a pattern that helps remedial writing students to improve their writing skills and that can be applied in the basic speech course and the remedial reading program as well. This document presents introductory comments about grading procedures for student essays based on the model and a…

In a recent paper (1977) Levenston and Blum suggested that lexical simplification operates according to universal principles, and that these derive from the individual's semantic competence in his mother tongue. This paper examines the validity of this suggestion by means of a comparative study of lexical simplification in three different…