When language-impaired eight-year-olds (N=15), non-impaired peers (N=15), and non-impaired seven-year-olds (N=15) listened to a story where the speaker's message was too general, the language-impaired and younger subjects were predominantly listener-blamers, while the same-age controls were speaker-blamers, when attributing responses to examiner…

Describes the development of a Communication Openness Measure (COM) based on an empirically supported model of the communication openness construct and suggests a number of speculative conclusions about the nature of communication openness. (JC)

Children's memory for stories was examined as a function of subjects' understanding of causal reasoning ability in stories. Results supported a developmental view in which recall performance was a complex interaction between characteristics of the learner and characteristics of the story. (Author/PCB)

Describes an experiment investigating the reading comprehension performance of fifth grade readers under three reading conditions: listening, silent reading, and round robin oral reading. Finds that comprehension declined from listening, to silent, to round robin oral reading. (RAE)

Two social factors and their interactive effects were examined as possible influences on children's detection and reporting of inconsistent statements. Factors were the stated intention and the age of the speaker. (PCB)

To evaluate the relative effectiveness of two media for conveying narrative information, young children and adults were presented the same story via television or radio. Media differences were found, with children in the radio condition showing significantly more errors in comprehension and memory than children in the television condition.…

Third and sixth graders read an illustrated story and were presented with either a television or radio version of another story. Across a range of comprehension and memory measures, performance in the radio condition and reading were related, while performance in the television condition and reading were not. (Author/CB)

Investigates the comprehension of nine intonational contrasts in ten-year-olds and adults. Overall performance on the tasks was much lower among the children than among the adults. Results indicate that hypotheses concerning the chronological order of development of meanings dependent on groupings, nucleus placements, and tones are too simplistic.…

Two studies were conducted to determine how well story grammar predicted recall of televised stories. In Experiment 1, prechoolers viewed a nonnarrated televised story from "Sesame Street." In Experiment 2, preschoolers and adults were administered a narrative via television or radio. In both studies, subjects' retention reflected recall…

Some concepts to help teachers adhere to classroom instruction in the target language are presented and discussed. These include ideas related to the teacher's speech (visual cues, speed, and repetition and rephrasing), student speech (teacher-assisted and student-dominated communication), out-of-class assignments, and teacher assessment of…

Describes a classroom game designed to help students use and improve speaking and listening skills in a second language, by having one student describe a picture and another try to reproduce it from the description. (EKN)

Studies of native speakers' linguistic adjustment for communication with nonnative speakers indicate that, although the modifications sometimes result in ungrammatical speech, more often they provide well-formed and appropriate input for the listener. Several reasons for these adjustments are identified. It appears nonnative speakers cannot…

Examines four specific areas of reading readiness--visual discrimination, visual memory, auditory discrimination, and auditory comprehension--and reviews teaching strategies in each of the four areas. (FL)

Reviews the literature on listening comprehension in language classes, especially Heidi Byrnes' article, "The Role of Listening Comprehension: A Theoretical Base," with a view to adding practical elements to Byrnes' linguistic analysis. Lists steps necessary to produce proficient listeners and given examples of programs which follow…