This study attempted to determine: (1) whether lower-order units (agent or agent-action) within the agent-action-recipient relationship exist in any functional way in the 1-word infant's comprehension of speech; and (2) whether the use of repetition and/or reduced length (common modifications in adult-to-infant speech) used to focus on these…

The effect of the semantic organization of spoken prose on its comprehension by children was studied. The semantic structure was analyzed by dividing the prose into linguistic subunits according to grammatical structure and noting the positions of semantically related subunits. (Editor)

Discusses the effects of informative message organization on listener learning and concludes that the specification of organization as a critical variable for communication effectiveness in informative speaking doesn't appear to be justified. (MH)

Listening is a skill, and critical listening can be taught. The earlier, the better, we say! And the authors offer some attractive suggestions. (Editor)

The speech rate of French and American radio broadcasters is compared in order to provide language teachers with an optimum speed. (AM)

Two stages in the vocabulary development of two-year-olds are reported. In the earlier Receptive stage, the child says many fewer nouns than he understands and says no verbs at all although he understands many. The child then enters a Productive stage in which he says virtually all the nouns he understands plus his first verbs. (Author/DEP)

Among the roadblocks to effective listening are lack of training to listen, preestablished mind set of situation, cultural differences, criticism of delivery, listening only for the facts, overstimulation, organization of details, and tolerating or creating distractions. (NQ)

The article, after examining some listening faults, describes a listening program, pointing out some listening techniques that should help a person become a more effective listener. (Author/NQ)

Two experiments test hypothesis that development of children's comprehension monitoring skills in the referential communication paradigm is based in part on ability to differentiate the literal sentence meaning of speaker's direction from the meaning or intention that speaker wished to convey. (Author/RWB)

Aphasic adults (N=16) with severe auditory comprehension impairment were evaluated for comprehension of redundant and nonredundant spoken and/or gestured messages. Results indicated redundancy was not reliably superior to spoken messages alone. (Author/DB)

The chapter defines speech perception, raises such questions as the nature of acoustical correlates of linguistic units, reviews available information on the auditory capabilities of hearing impaired listeners (such as detection of the time/intensity envelope and temporal resolution), and addresses the relationship between auditory skills and…

Summarizes several representative listening texts and current approaches to listening and then suggests a definition of listening that provides educators with a comprehensive framework for organizing listening instruction. (EL)

Illustrates the existence of meanings in conversation that are not based on the listener's interpretations by analyzing the conversations from a family therapy session. Transcripts of the conversations are appended. (HTH)

Discusses selected aspects of understanding spoken foreign language within the parameters of a suggested model of listening comprehension. Suggests some educational strategies in accordance with the proposed model and indicates some of the ways in which computer-assisted learning might help to develop listening comprehension. (EKN)

The Auditory Comprehension Test for Sentences which examines length, vocabulary, and syntax at three levels of difficulty, was administered to 180 normal children aged 7-12 years. Preliminary standardization data indicated that the ACTS is a viable tool for assessing auditory comprehension skills of school-age children. (Author/CL)