Two experiments examine the effects of positive (happy), neutral, and negative (sad) affective states on children's mastery of a learning problem. Subjects were 96 four-year-old children. (MP)

Though speaking ability receives priority in FL teaching, grades are given with little attention to it. Tests in current use are examined; a new one is proposed. The individual test is preferred to group tests. Various aspects of the individual oral test are discussed. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Children deprived of the normal give-and-take of family during the first three years of life often suffer long-term psychological damage, according to Alberta Siegel, professor of psychology and psychiatry in the behavioral sciences, Stanford University Medical School. Discusses the importance of a caring environment as a requisite for language…

Describes several techniques of informal assessment which might supplement test results. (DD)

States communication programs are expected to operate in some harmony with communication activities of organizations outside the university in professional settings. Describes one possible activity in this matrix: use of student internships as a means of assessing the communication program. Presents a case study involving public relations…

Focuses on three issues: social evaluations of speech deemed patronizing towards the elderly in a language other than English, such as, Dutch; stereotypes about the elderly as a social category; and the empirical possibility of a link between evaluations of so-called patronizing speech towards older people and stereotypes about the elderly held by…

Argues that statistical data can be misleading. Explores two types of indicators of growth and transformation of communication studies: statistics on degrees granted and trends in the classification of books and serials. Shows that, for each type of indicator, the emergence of communication as a category involved qualitative transformation of the…

A study investigated the long-term effects of a Botulinum Toxin Type A injection on the glottal competency of a man with adductor spasmodic dysphonia. Results suggest that change in degree of glottal adduction over time can be observed even when vocal instability is present within each recording session. (CR)

Examines the hypotheses about how print represents the speech that preliterate children select when they receive input compatible with several such hypotheses. Results indicate that most preliterate children do not select phonologically based hypotheses, but instead focus on morphophonology and/or semantic aspects of words' referents. (40…

Focuses upon one aspect of legal preparation where effective communication skills are crucial, trial advocacy. Queries 30 practicing attorneys about the role of communication in the everyday conduct of trial procedures. Finds strong support for the study of communication as preparation for a legal career. (PA)

Examines "question-response" sequences in Japanese political discourse, with particular reference to how questions are used to control other interlocutors as well as the relationship between questions and conflict. Findings reveal that the tendency to avoid overt control and conflict is reflected in questioning strategies employed in…

Examines how "-guo," a perfective aspect marker in Chinese, is used to narrate a sequence of events in speech. The study's analysis of transcribed audio-recorded natural conversation shows "-guo" indicates that a situation is viewed as a bounded whole with an emphasis on the situation's end-boundary, and that the confusion in…

Presents a rationale for teaching communication to graduate business students as a process--a means through which students communicate their knowledge of management, marketing, finance, accounting, etc., rather than strictly a subject matter or product. Argues that communication skills can be maintained only if reinforced through the curriculum.…

Two types of phonological training of children with reading disabilities were compared. Children trained in speech discrimination, letter-sound correspondence, and phonemic awareness (SP/LPA) and children trained only in letter-sound correspondence and phonemic awareness (n=35) improved in phonemic awareness, but only the SP/LPA group scored…