Selected papers from the 1982 Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages are presented. The theme of the conference was the establishment of communication and cooperation between foreign language and English as second language (ESL) teachers. The papers focus on methods for developing language skills and curriculum frameworks.…

To show that the bottom line for successful operation of a multinational company is understanding the cultural background of its employees and adapting to cultural change, this paper cites studies indicating that attitudes, communication, interpersonal skills, and motivation may be more important than technical skills in ensuring success in…

Both North American and Latin American business professionals were investigated in a study that focused on the perceived communication problems between the two groups. A number of major areas of interest were considered, including the following: (1) source of credibility (what dimensions of personality were seen as most desirable in the…

Three classroom activities that can help students become better writers by building on skills they already have as well as by providing them with necessary strategies are conferences, journals, and class discussions. Conference groups--made up of three to five students discussing rough drafts of each other's written work and recorded by tape or…

Recognizing that nonverbal behaviors typically provide the framework for interpreting verbal messages, this project (the sixth in a series of projects designed to examine teacher power in the classroom) proposed and sequentially tested a heuristic model of student affective learning as a function of behavior alteration techniques and teacher…

This study investigated the problem-solving effectiveness of family units, in order to account for social class differences in problem-solving ability. Basil Bernstein's theory concerning the role of speech styles in perception and information processing formed the basis for investigation; family speech styles, leadership patterns, and role…

This volume contains six workshop papers, each of which deals with one or more aspects of communicative competence. These papers are primarily reports of certain techniques which have been found successful for teaching and testing the ability to communicate in a foreign language. "Communicative Competence: Safety Tips for Riders on the Latest…

This paper discusses an ongoing experiment in teaching the communicative values of intonation to second-year students in an English department at a French university. The communication needs of the learners are described in terms of academic activities (e.g., formal discussion) and social contact. A basic three-term structure -- opening,…

The dependence of reading on speech is based on three assumptions: speech is the primary language system, acquired naturally without direct instruction; alphabetic writing systems are more or less phonetic representations of oral language; and speech appears to be an essential foundation for the acquisition of reading ability. By presupposing…

Kindergarten teachers should be concerned with the development of the child physically, psychologically, and socially. The development of readiness for reading should be part of the child's day-by-day activities in the kindergarten. Structured prereading activities should be conducted in informal, game-like ways. They should involve the active…

A review of research suggests that, for at least 70 years, teachers have interacted with their students using a relatively consistent pattern involving lecturing, seat work by students, and teacher/student interaction. Yet, after thousands of research studies, educators are unable to say that those interactions have any significant impact on…

This monograph represents the results of an attempt to construct at least one portion of a theoretical framework for describing and analyzing the performance routines used by the native actor to realize his competence to make culturally appropriate decisions. In general the concern is to describe in theoretical terms the structure and operation of…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 14 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the rhetoric of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; (2) the rhetorical strategies employed in the political speaking of George C. Wallace in the 1968 United States presidential…

It is unfortunate that the field of organizational communication has neglected communication in political settings, because the bulk of students enrolled in social science curricula are likely to work in public or semipublic institutions. Problems unique to the political setting stem from the fact that most public agencies must tailor their…

To help transfer communication theory to the real world, the University of Central Florida (Orlando) has applied communication theory and social science research techniques to answer questions raised by attorneys, judges, and others interested in the dynamics of the legal process. The social scientific techniques have thus far been applied in…