Demonstrates that cues play a significant role in second language listening comprehension and provides additional empirical support for their beneficial effect. Found that the absence of cues appeared to contribute significantly to the miscomprehension of information in a lecture. (Author/VWL)

Describes the Six Traits of Writing and how school librarians can use storytime to teach the Six Traits, use picture books that demonstrate them, develop active participation strategies for listening comprehension, and teach group and individual composition highlighting each trait. (LRW)

The role of contextual factors in intelligibility was examined using sentences produced under varying conditions by a speaker with severe flaccid dysarthria. Results indicated that gestures, predictiveness, and context influenced intelligibility. It is argued that when signal fidelity is poor, different combinations of signal-independent…

Contends that providing vocabulary instruction is one of the most significant ways in which teachers can improve students' reading and listening comprehension. Describes a 16-week intervention in which the comprehension of middle and high school students reading below grade level was improved significantly by instruction that developed their…

Comprehension of complement clauses embedded into 4 matrix verbs in Greek, equivalent to English in syntactic and semantic constraints, was studied among 32 mildly retarded and 32 nonretarded Greek elementary-level students. Results indicated equal comprehension, but retarded subjects lacked metalinguistic ability. Digit span and verbal…

Discusses, in the form of a dialogue between parents and teacher, the relationship of listening to speaking, reading, and writing. Describes several classroom techniques to reinforce listening for a purpose. (SR)

Investigates the effects of an expanded Language Experience Approach (LEA) on emergent literacy skills of 44 kindergartners. Results indicate that the expanded LEA is more effective than the traditional LEA for the development of listening comprehension skills in kindergartners. (RJC)

A study examining native Spanish-speaking college students' comprehension of Portuguese, and Portuguese-speaking students' comprehension of Spanish found that the two languages were mutually intelligible at a 50 to 60 percent level. Portuguese speakers tended to understand Spanish better than Spanish speakers understood Portuguese. (CB)

Two experiments comparing 114 good and poor readers in second and fourth grades as well as 26 college students found poor readers did not interpret spoken sentences as accurately as good readers and that their performance was like that of younger children suggesting a developmental lag in phonological processing skills. (Author/DB)

The study assessed the ability to track connected discourse by a congenitally profoundly deaf adult using an electrocutaneous vocoder and/or a vibrotactile aid in conjunction with or without lipreading and aided hearing. Overall, improvement in tracking performance occurred within and across phases of the study. (Author/DB)

Reports on an ethnographic project that investigated an English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) student's listening activities during one academic course at a university in the United States. Research findings suggest content-based listening classes could be helpful in ESL preparatory programs; guiding principles for course design are included. (49…

Four adults and 16 five-year-olds were asked to repeat words that differed in voicing of initial and final stop consonants and then to respond to revision requests. Children and adults decreased vowel duration and increased final closure duration in revised speech, regardless of the source of miscomprehension. (Author/JDD)

Analysis of English-as-a-second-language reading students' (N=68) reading and listening test scores revealed that these two receptive language sub-skills were similar, although listening was the more integrated skill. The sub-skills tended to cumulatively contribute to holistic comprehension of messages. (Author/CB)

Evaluation of 16 college students with dyslexia found no significant differences between listening comprehension and reading comprehension. Comparison of the 16 dyslexic students with 16 nondyslexic students revealed significant differences on reading achievement and reading time but not on untimed reading comprehension. (JDD)

The objective of this activity is to help beginning students learn numbers and practice vocabulary and verbs in an interesting and meaningful way. In addition, the game is used to improve their listening comprehension and speaking ability. (Author/CK)