The article presents a summary of the language characteristics of autistic children and relates them to existing research supporting both sign alone and sign plus speech as viable training modes. Procedures for determining the optimal sign teaching mode for a given child are also discussed. (Author/SB)

Describes the functioning of Murray's Interpersonal Communication Laboratory (first established in 1949) designed to help students internalize the principles of general semantics and apply them to everyday problems in communication. (PD)

Argues that the study of speech may present the characteristics of a "tao"--a path leading to an increase in humane being. Calls for speech teachers to profess the primacy of speech: "...the source of life of the human mind, the source of the compassion of the human spirit." (PD)

The author analyzes the responses of males and females to interruptions in same-sex and cross-sex conservations. She uses these results and related research to suggest that the significance of actions changes according to gender and to consider the implications for managers who are women. (SK)

Argues for the holding together within a single academic field of study all or as many of the communication disciplines as possible. (PD)

Describes an exercise to help students prepare for emergencies that arise in public speaking situations. (PD)

Focuses on people "having arguments" and "making arguments" in conversation. Considers (1) examples of ordinary arguments, (2) argument as the disagreement-relevant expansion of speech acts, and (3) felicity conditions and the interpretation of arguments. (PD)

Presents evidence of a positive relationship between self-perceived anxiety and hand-arm tremor for both male and female subjects. Results indicate that trembling may be a useful variable for inclusion in multimethod approaches to studying speech anxiety. (JMF)

Discusses problems arising from the treatment of oral interpretation as communication. Two aspects of particular interest are the notion that the communicative situation demands a particular style of performance, most often described as suggestion; and the view that the audience is the most important single element in the interpretative situation.…

A 22-question interview was conducted with 41 severely hearing impaired students at tht National Technical Institute for the Deaf in order to compare speech intelligibility in communicating social and technical information and in responses which varied in message predictability. (Author/PHR)

Investigates the effects of the rhetorical use of deliberate vagueness on the audience's recall and agreement. Results indicate that recall was significantly worse when disagreeable issues were vaguely stated instead of clearly stated, and that vague messages produced more agreement than clearly stated messages. (PD)

Discusses some of the ethical questions involved in a teacher/author requiring the purchase and use of his/her own textbook in the class. Suggests guidelines to protect the rights and obligations of students, authors, and administrators. (JMF)

Comments on the main features of a course in the history of public address as it has developed; characterizes the outlook toward speeches and speechmaking that has been engendered as a result; and offers a rationale for the continued inclusion of this course in the contemporary speech communication curriculum. (JMF)

Presents Georg Simmel's methodological synthesis as a means of unifying the following contrasting systems of inquiry in the study of speech communication: (1) the artistic endeavor of rhetorical criticism and (2) the scientific or empirical study of communication behavior. (PD)

Presents experimental evidence supporting the assertion that successive single-word utterances share certain suprasegmental characteristics with multiple-word utterances and that they are therefore not single words but the first manifestation of syntax in speech. (AM)