Argues that critical reading is educationally and logically distinct from functional reading and a disregard for this distinction and for the sequential primacy of functional reading decreases the efficiency of reading instruction. (Author/RB)

Discusses two studies which indicate that student audiences rated speeches of their peers significantly higher if they thought that the speakers had completed a course in public speaking. (MH)

Offers a composite picture of the typical junior high school speech programs in two Ohio suburban school systems. (MH)

"Oral skills" are defined in detail. A survey is given of the kinds of oral skills which should be taught in foreign language courses, with some discussion of appropriate methods. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Investigates the status, rationale and effectiveness of simulation and game exercises and the extent to which they are used in the classroom. (MH)

Surveys the field of legal communication in order to determine where Speech Communication teaching and/or research can make the most significant contributions. (MH)

Suggests that the performance appraisal interview be used to evaluate student speeches and other performances and discusses three preferred methods for conducting the interview, the merits of the three methods, and suggestions for implementing these methods. (MH)

This research disputes the traditional position on babbling by showing that the phonetic content of babbled utterances exhibits many of the same preferences for certain kinds of phonetic elements and sequences that have been found in the production of meaningful speech by children in later stages of language development. (Author/RM)

In this longitudinal investigation of the emerging grammar of seven children, differences in linguistic acquisition were observed. Analyses revealed two distinct styles of syntactic acquisition that appeared to be sex- and speed-related with specific ties to particular utterance types and grammatical-relational specification. (Author/RM)

The purpose of this study was to investigate undergraduate teaching assistant (UTA) competence and character and its relationship to learning in the basic communication classroom. Also of interest were the specific UTA communicator behaviors that increase or decrease student perceptions of competence and character. Students responded to a survey…

This 21st annual progress report summarizes research activities on speech perception and spoken language processing carried out in the Speech Research Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Indiana University in Bloomington. As with previous reports, the goal is to summarize accomplishments during 1996 and 1997 and make them readily available. Some…