Results of an experiment to test predictions derived from balance theory about social influence and communication within a psychological treatment situation indicated that subjects changed their meanings of words when such changes were advocated by the counselors, and reported increased confidence when they apparently agreed with the counselors…

Paper read at the Annual Meeting of the Modern Language Association of America (MLA) in Denver, Colorado, December 26-30, 1969. (DS)

Explains elements of helping children communicate: (1) recognize the need for child sending a message, (2) help him to put the message into language, (3) allow transmission of the message, and (4) decode the message. (DR)

Results of this study of 20 elementary school principals indicate a relationship between the language usage of school administrators and the intensity of certain characteristics in their administrative behavior. (MK)

Discusses the current meager state of knowledge of sex differentiation in language variation and concludes that poor theorizing and inadequate methodology are to blame. Describes a study of pronoun usage by male and female Japanese speakers to show that research on sex differentiation in language is possible. (EKN)

Explains three elements of English that are particularly difficult for Chinese students to learn: the use of articles, which has no equivalent in Chinese; expression of tense, for which there is no Chinese equivalent; and the concepts of time, locality, and direction inherent in English usage of prepositions. (MSE)

Analyzes the strategies employed in terminating conversational exchanges, with particular attention to argumentative sequences. Examines the features that distinguish these sequences from those that have a transactional character, and discusses the patterns of verbal interaction attendant to negative responses. Societe Nouvelle Didier Erudition,…

Analyzes samples of American Indian oral narrative forms to demonstrate that patterning in the narrative structure (such as systematic recurrence of lines) may embody an explicit logic of experience and rhetoric of action. Suggests that patterning occurs in the language of any community, a fact that has implications for teaching language to…

Analysis of the communicative skills of a nine-year-old deaf boy with minimal schooling showed pantomiming and gestures to be his major mode of communication. Certain semantic patterns prevailed. Use of left or right hand also had semantic correlates. Formal and idiosynacratic signs were discovered in the boy's vocabulary. (Author/PJM)

Suggests ways of getting students involved in the study of poetry: (1) showing how poetic elements appear in everyday life, (2) using demonstrations and gimmicks to generate enthusiasm, (3) starting with contemporary poetry before examining the "classics" and "masterpieces," and (4) having students practice writing poems. (RL)

Investigates the use of graphic and contextual information by average and below-average readers when reading with equal rates of miscues. (HOD)

Concludes (1) that both learning disabled and "normal" primary school students can learn automatic prime contrast relationships of space, time, and amount and (2) that what they learn remains with them over time. (FL)