Examines the relationships between vocal activity and three other variables: attribution of quality contributions; perceived listening, and perceived understanding. Concludes that frequency and duration of speech serve as a major mediating variable in communicative relationships. (MH)

This study examined the comprehension of Wh-questions in English in children between the ages of 5 and 9. The study showed that difficulties with Wh-questions are not overcome by the age of 9. (Author/RM)

Emphasizes the necessity of teaching listening comprehension along with written language skills in English as a second language. (Available from English Inspectorate, Ministry of Education and Culture, P. O. Box 292, Jerusalem, Israel.) (CHK)

Five teaching experiments with French songs, in grades 7, 8 and 9, are described. Aural understanding was practiced first, then use of the text. In the 9th grade, work on the content became most important, with the aim of correcting and expanding the common conception of France. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Indicates that black adult and black peer testers elicit significantly more words from black students than do white testers in tests of oral language usage skills. (RB)

The author outlines and discusses nine suggestions that will aid the teacher in educating students in the "art" of listening. (BP)

A technique for decreasing interference between black dialect features and the hearing and production of standard English is described. (JH)

The development of computer courseware for Danish high school students of intermediate French is described. Five areas are addressed. First, the hardware and capabilities of the computer are noted. Second, the traditional methods of Danish second language instruction are outlined, focusing on the role of oral communication and written text in the…

Many researchers now believe that the representations and processes underlying syntactical development are specific to a "language faculty." If so, reference animacy would not be expected to influence acquisition of linguistic structures such as the passive sentence construction. Specifically, children should be comparably able to…

A study of Korean children's interpretation of the reflexive pronoun "caki" when it precedes a third person noun phrase, that is, in backward anaphora, had as subjects 4- to 11-year-old children living in Korea. Test sentences designed on the basis of two important syntactic aspects in Korean reflexive anaphora--relational hierarchy and…

This report provides suggestions on how a language arts listening skills assessment program could be structured to ensure that school districts meet the Common Curriculum Goals of the public elementary and secondary schools in Oregon. This report includes: (1) a list of common curriculum goals that relate to listening; (2) general implications for…

Reading as a pastime is basic to creativity and intellectual mind expansion as well as to the appropriate development of listening skills. Reasons for the decline of listening and communication skills can be attributed in part to misuse of media, to latch-key children, to decreased support from parents for reading at home, to lack of sufficient…

A study investigated Japanese 3-to-5-year-olds' comprehension of sentences using the temporal terms "before" and "after" and examined whether contextual information helped the children respond correctly. The children were asked to perform a task with a toy either before or after performing another task with a different toy.…

Four classroom exercises for second language instruction are described. In the first exercise, the teacher tells a story from a skeleton outline. Then the teacher pairs the students, provides them with a series of questions about the story, and invites them to cross out the ones they do not like and then to ask their preferred questions of another…

To determine whether story mapping would improve reading comprehension, five intermediate grade students with mild learning handicaps and poor comprehension were prepared to use story mapping procedures as a schema-building technique. As they were reading, students learned to identify the setting, problem, goal, action, and outcome of narrative…