Reports a study conducted to assess the knowledge, attitudes and opinions of preschool children concerning a public figure through use of a questionnaire administered orally. (ED)

Continual repetition by a speaker may signal his need for recognition and understanding. (JH)

Argues that the Spanish language spoken in Puerto Rico has flaws and virtues similar to Spanish spoken in any other country. (Text is in Spanish.) (DS)

A discussion of teaching reading aloud. (CH)

Language development and writing skills are encouraged by a language arts program that incorporates wordless picture books which require children to develop their own plot. (JH)

Briefly describes an elementary school career awareness program in Pennsylvania. Unique to this program is the use of parents as speakers and information sources on different careers. (PC)

A study tested the assumption that a number of independent constructs are needed to explain phenomena associated with spoken language communication. Measurement was operationalized through the use of categories of talk statements used in interpersonal communication. These categories, labeled "comemes," were derived through the use of an…

Professional and personal success is related to a person's ability to listen, speak, read, and write effectively. As with other acquired abilities, communication skills must be supported and reinforced in a variety of contexts. Colleagues in the Speech Communication Association have raised valid issues regarding the appropriateness and…

While oral narratives have received much attention in recent years as texts for performance, the literature is weakest at the very base of the narrative script, the interview. The shaping of the narrative, which can include distortion and alteration, begins during the course of the interview. Excerpts from interviews with coal miners illustrate…

Including speech transcripts and judges' critiques, this book presents the results of the 1986 (1) National Debate Tournament Final Debate, sponsored by the American Forensic Association, including the affirmative and negative presentations; (2) National CEDA Tournament Final Debate, sponsored by the Cross-Examination Debate Association, including…

Noting the diversity in the nature and format of individual events in debate tournaments, a study surveyed the reactions of individual events coaches and students to the events offered at tournaments, the descriptions, and the time limits. Thirty-one coaches and 71 students from colleges and universities in the eastern United States responded to a…

In the past, rhetorical criticism relied heavily on an Aristotelian approach; critics judged a speech by how well it fulfilled the speaker's purpose and persuasion was the accepted goal of rhetoric. Political and academic forces have brought about a methodological perspectivism or pluralism of rhetorical theory, and in turn, caused a shift from…

A study investigated the influence of conversational dyads' sexual composition upon the accommodation of speaking characteristics--turn duration, speaking rate, and vocal jitter. Subjects, 130 undergraduate students, were assigned to 65 dyads (with control for male-male, male-female, and female-female). In a sound studio, each participant in the…

Standardized tests can be a valuable part of a value-added assessment package which attempts to determine what students gain from the college experience in general, and from communications courses in particular. The critical issues concerning assessment center around who will evaluate what skills and values with which instruments. Within the…

At the Educational Research Centre (S.C.O.) in Amsterdam, a study determined the applicability and construct validity of ratings of speaking performances by examining tape-recordings of subjects in four dimensions. Subjects were 200 pupils of 11 and 12 years of age, and performances on four different oral tasks were investigated. The rating…