Systematically determines the current status of the introductory small group communication course at American colleges and universities. Examines specific content areas being taught, pedagogical approaches used, and teaching problems encountered to identify current curricular trends in teaching the course, charting subsequent course modification,…

Suggests that business communication students learn a foreign language, concentrating on conversation more than reading, in order to interact more effectively with foreign clients. (SRT)

Recounts students' reactions to the videotaping of their speeches in three speech communication classes. Shows how the students found the taping experience valuable. (EL)

Examines theoretical issues concerning the development of and the unity or diversity underlying private speech and studies the developmental progression of private speech in a low-income, culturally different sample. The effects of age, sex, environmental context, and the relationship of social speech to varieties of private speech are also…

Writing, speaking and listening are communication skills that are important in all subject areas in the curriculum. Hence, literacy should have a central position in the curriculum. Even so, differences between students' levels of literacy mean that some students fail to acquire the verbal foundations for learning. For this reason, increasing…

This book contains papers from the 2001 Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics, "Linguistics, Language, and the Real World: Discourse and Beyond." Papers include: "Introduction" (Deborah Tannen); "A Brief History of the Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics" (James E.…

This book contains the following articles on research in the field of general linguistics and sociolinguistics: "Papago Plurals" (Jane H. Hill, Ofella Zepeda); "Typological Characteristics of the Yumanas Languages" (Mauricio J. Mixco); "Observations on Accent in Yutoaztec" (Leopoldo Valinas); "Development of…

This paper lays out techniques for investing different types of phonation from acoustic data. Nearly all the world's languages distinguish between voiced and voiceless phonation. Many languages use other phonation types, such as the breathy voice--also described as speaking while sighing. Another kind of voice quality, one frequently found in…

Examined some of the factors which influence college students' evaluations of their instructors. Found that a student's relationship with the instructor was the best predictor of the student's evaluation of the instructor. Also lends partial support to the idea that students evaluate male and female instructors differently. (PD)

The author defines literacy as a communication skill and argues that India's national adult education program should promote vernacular literacy rather than standard language literacy, using the traditional vernacular oral communication channels with writing as an extension of but not a replacement for the oral mode. (MF)

Observers coded student-teacher classroom discussions and laboratory conversations which could be described as advisement, interpretation, confirmation, or reflection. All four verbal response modes imply presumption of knowledge of the person addressed. As hypothesized, teachers were more presumptuous than students, suggesting a link to social…

Discusses the language laboratory as a means of developing practical abilities in a foreign language. Two topics are treated specifically: (1) the laboratory from a technical and theoretical perspective, and (2) an analysis of the language skills most effectively trained through use of the language laboratory. (AMH)

Describes a one-semester conversational course taught at Harvard University designed to teach basic oral communication skills in French with the main emphasis on teaching students to pause while speaking. (AM)

Discusses whether teachers should intervene when communication between learners of English as a Second Language breaks down and, if so, what form that intervention should take. The article concludes that teachers should resist intervention at the outset of communication problems and that any subsequent intervention must be specifically tailored to…

Describes a study of 189 elementary and secondary school educators with accounts on Tenet (Texas Education Network) whose logins and online time for one year were correlated with nine variables: writing apprehension, oral communication apprehension, computer anxiety, age, teaching experience, telecomputing experience, gender, professional…