The proceedings of a conference designed to give researchers and educators the opportunity to discuss issues affecting public education, this report opens with a description of the Research and Development Exchange Coordinating Group's initial efforts to address teacher concerns in oral and written communication instruction. It then lists…

In response to the needs of teachers for assistance in developing second language speaking and instructional skills, Tarrant County Junior College, Northeast Campus, designed a series of 10 16-hour workshops for teachers of foreign languages for summer 1989. The "Strategies for Proficiency Workshops" were intended primarily as in-service training…

In reorganizing its core curriculum, Duquesne University (Pennsylvania) created a course that combined the required freshman composition and speech communication courses. A two-term pilot course offered eight hours of credit, meeting for one hour three times a week and for a two hour lab once a week. Oral readings were assigned in order to help…

This informational booklet outlines the services available to New Jersey elementary school children in the area of basic skills development and offers suggestions as to how parents can support their child's educational development. The first part of the guide outlines the content, admissions criteria, and funding sources of New Jersey's Basic…

Intended for speech teachers and classroom teachers who work with elementary school children, this guide focuses on the sequential development of oral language skills and related skills. Following an introduction is a brief orientation lesson guide designed to interest children in the speech program and introduce the basic forms of communication.…

In summer 1988, Tarrant County Junior College, Northeast Campus, conducted a series of eight 16-hour workshops and three 32-hour workshops for high school teachers of foreign languages. The workshops were intended primarily as in-service training to help foreign language teachers: (1) improve their oral proficiency in the language they teach; (2)…

In the last decade there has been a noticeable decrease in the number of minorities recruited and retained in graduate professional education programs for human communication sciences and disorders and in the number of minority members of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). A number of causes have contributed to the decline,…

The communication activities described in this guide for Spanish-speaking students emphasize functional competence over passive knowledge and focus on verbal strategies which enable students to interact. Communicative competencies are highlighted through stress on developmental levels (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) and nonverbal…

Second language learning in small groups with creative student-centered activities is discussed. A rationale for teaching for communication is offered, along with classroom management procedures that encourage communication in the target language and some communication activities that have been successfully implemented in the classroom. Three…

The child brings to the classroom a socially conditioned way of behaving, both verbal and nonverbal, which reflects both the maturational process and sociocultural conditioning, and a socially conditioned view of what the norms of the dominant society are and what that society expects of him or her. The school attempts to transmit the cultural…

An ESL (English as a Second Language) program has been set up for international students at a small, two-year college for women, Immaculata College, in Washington, D.C. It has been integrated into the regular school curriculum and the courses carry academic credit. Courses emphasize specific language skills. Spoken English empasizes oral facility…

This is the tenth annual issue of the UCLA TESL (teaching English as a second language) workpapers. It includes the following papers: (1) "An Attempt to Model the Role of Cognitions in Language Learning," by R.L. Allwright; (2) "A Comparison of Language Proficiency Tests," by J. Donald Bowen; (3) "Language Study Through…

Causes of language fossilization and ways to overcome it are considered. Fossilization is the relatively permanent incorporation of incorrect linguistic forms into a person's second language competence. The discussion is focused on fossilization of incorrect syntactical rules, based on experiences with learners of English as a second language at…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 21 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: the relationships among psychological differentiation, situational context, and linguistics; the effect of cognitive complexity and audience attitude on persuasive…

This paper discusses the theory and practice of the notional syllabus, three specific problems arising from it, and an experimental course proposed as one way of implementing it. Basically, a notional syllabus aims to organize language teaching in terms of the purposes of communication. Its foundation is a system of notional categories and the…